High-quality intake is an important part of the client conversion process that can boost your law firm’s bottom line while reducing lead loss. Partnering with a legal call center is a viable option for improving your firm’s intake process and can offer several unexpected benefits. You can also try to find talents to fuel your company’s operation.
1. Positive ROI
The cost of losing a legal lead is always high. Low-quality intake lets potential clients slip through the cracks, each lost lead affecting your firm’s return on investment (ROI).
With all the money your legal practice likely invests in marketing, losing a ripe prospect during the intake process is costly. A legal answering service can minimize the number of lost leads by:
- Answering calls 24/7/365
- Providing multi-language support
- Converting leads during the first call
- Responding to leads through multiple channels
Additionally, intake specialists at legal call centers know the legal industry and its nuances, including terminology, practice areas and how to navigate sensitive situations. All of these factors contribute to a positive ROI.
2. Contact to Contract in One Call
Many firms believe lead conversion is a long process that involves multiple calls and interactions. However, with the right approach, it can take only a single call.
With a law firm answering service, by the end of the initial call, leads can receive an electronic version of the contract via text or email for e-signing. After that, the intake specialist connects the lead with your firm for further collaboration.
The contact to contract approach can save your firm hours of work while reducing intake and marketing costs.
3. Resurrected Leads
Legal firms rarely have the time to deal with old leads that failed to convert in the past. However, these prospects may have untapped potential.
By working with a legal answering service, you are delegating this task to intake experts who do have the time. Intake specialists can take your old or dead lead lists and give prospects another chance.
In many cases, by making timely outbound calls, legal call center experts manage to achieve unexpected conversions.
4. Increased Capacity
Low-quality intake doesn’t just result in lost leads; it generates prospects with low conversion potential. In this case, lawyers have to deal with bad leads, which should be eliminated during the first phone call.
A lot of attorneys multitask by handling existing clients and dealing with intake (including low-potential leads) simultaneously. This takes up a substantial amount of time, pulling them away from focusing on their primary work.
A law firm answering service can separate bad leads from potential clients during the first interaction, on your behalf. They ask callers a series of questions to pinpoint the problem and figure out whether your firm can solve their legal situation.
5. Multi-Channel Intake
Today law firms attract leads through multiple channels, including by phone, email, and web forms. The key to successful intake is an immediate response. It’s imperative to answer calls within three rings and reply to web requests within 3 to 5 minutes.
Working with an answering service ensures that all of your intake channels are covered and handled in a timely manner. Additionally, when transferring a new client to your law firm, intake specialists can alert your lawyers through email, chat or phone. This helps prevent long wait times and eliminates scheduling conflicts.
6. Marketing Partner
Intake is an essential part of every legal marketing campaign. It’s important for a firm’s intake team to collaborate with their marketing department or agency to ensure a smooth conversion process.
A legal answering service knows how to coordinate its actions with marketing efforts to streamline the lead nurturing process. Law firms that reinforce such collaboration achieve greater results than firms that fail to coordinate these two teams.
Reaping the Benefits of a Law Firm Answering Service
Partnering with a legal answering service can improve your firm’s ROI, streamline your marketing efforts, create extra time for your lawyers, revive old leads, and much more.
Achieving these results at an affordable cost is only possible when working with a dedicated, legal-only answering service. General call centers lack the capability and knowledge to avoid lead loss and improve your firm’s bottom line, and building an in-house intake team can be costly.
To reap all the benefits, you need to find a best-in-class law firm answering service. During the selection process, you have to know which questions to ask. To learn what they are, download our free eBook, “Top 10 Questions Law Firms Ask When Hiring a Call Center.”