By Jared Correia, Red Cave Legal and IndyBar Law Practice Management Consultant
The stats on law firm intake are pretty damning. Sixty-four percent of voicemails left for law firms by leads are never returned. Only one in three phone calls for law firms are picked up live. It takes an average of eight emails to schedule an appointment with a law firm. Those aren’t the sort of numbers you want to see in an economy driven by consumer convenience.
And, while lawyers often worry about revenue (it’s the number one concern for law firm managers), they often view revenue through the lens of work in progress and don’t put an emphasis on lead management to convert more clients. But, the more leads a law firm converts, the more money it makes.
So, the first step is putting additional emphasis on intake processes. For many law firms, that often means building out an intake process for the first time. That may seem like a daunting process for attorneys, because they often get wound up around which technologies to use. But, in the first instance, most law firms should avoid the technology question altogether and instead build an intake roadmap out on paper. Mapping out preferred lead interactions in a very granular way is the first step to reducing the time leads need to spend navigating your process and increasing the number of clients you actually get.
Then, instead of falling victim to statistics, you can start to use them to your advantage by aggregating and analyzing data about your law firm leads so you can do a better job bringing them in and taking on more of the clients you want.
Want to review your intake process? We can help!
The IndyBar offers FREE unlimited, ongoing law practice management consulting services for Practice Builder subscribers and IndyBar members through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting. To request a consult, visit the IndyBar law practice management consulting landing page, and start running your law firm like a business.
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