The importance of staying in touch and striving to provide ongoing value to potential clients/clients is often overlooked by law firms.
Lawyers spend thousands of dollars to pursue clients and make them aware of their legal services. Once you have their attention, it shouldn’t stop there.
Failing to follow up is missing a critical stage in the marketing process.
Why is follow up so important? It may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a step that is constantly discounted, so we feel like we need to address it. It is the reason for this blog, after all.
Drum roll, please…
Follow up is where you find your hidden payday!
It’s not found in the initial contact. It’s found after you start to build a relationship with the client.
Remembering to always follow up shows you care about a client’s needs, are truly invested and are ready to solve their pressing legal issues.
Here are some ways you can follow up with your clients to help build lasting connections and boost your client base.
Follow Up When Someone Reaches Out Via Web
Between meetings with clients, handling various cases and spending hours in court, following up on incoming web form submission leads can often fall off to the wayside.
Unfortunately, a delayed response to web traffic can cost you valuable business.
Make sure to call clients who have reached out to you through your website. If you follow up that same day, or even better, within the hour or so, it will show the potential client that you care.
They will most likely decide to use your services, as opposed to the competition, because you are attentive.
Note: Web form submissions are also a great way to determine if the lead is a fit for your law firm. If based on their submission, you feel like your services aren’t a good fit for them, you should still follow up letting them know and refer them else ware.
The fact that you even responded will leave a good impression. Who knows— they might refer you to friends and family in the future.
Follow Up after the Contract Is Signed
Once that contract is signed, it’s important to follow up.
This can be done through email. Just a simple “Thank you” and/or “Welcome to the firm” will do.
This provides your new client with a clear acknowledgment of contract completion. It also gives a preview of your firm’s professionalism with a note of your appreciation and acknowledgment.
Overall, you will seem engaged.
Clients want to know you are on their team. They want to know you are ready to take on their legal challenges with complete, undivided attention.
Follow up—it’s the perfect way to show them!
Follow Up After Not Hearing from Them
A follow up email after months of not hearing from a client will keep a “top-of-mind awareness.”
In fact, clients and referral sources are most likely to refer business to people they’ve heard from or seen in the prior three months.
Remind your clients of who you are. Show them why you are different from other firms. And most of all provide value to them.
Continue building a relationship with the client while showing them what you can do for them and how you can make their life easier.
A simple follow up email can remind them to choose you (again) the next time they, or their friends and family, need a lawyer.
Alert Follows Up
Alert has all the tools and technology to help you follow up.
First, Alert’s Smart Lead Tracking feature automatically recognizes what stage your lead is in and interfaces with the next available Intake Specialist. Our task routing feature directs our Intake Specialists to reach out to potential clients through a SMS verification service via call, SMS/Text or email. It’s based on your preferred schedule, making contact with leads timely and consistent, however you see fit.
Our Intake Specialists can also handle your web inquiry traffic by making outbound calls to your incoming web form submission leads. It’s a simple process. Your firm copies us on web leads so we can make a follow up call to the prospective client. We can do this within 3-5 minutes of receiving a new contact alert.
We can also follow up calls instantly with a welcome email. Once the client is signed up with your firm via our contract services, our system can send an email and SMS/Text automatically to welcome them and show your appreciation.
Lastly, Alert has the ability to resurrect your dead leads for you. If you give us your dead leads list, we will import them into our system. Our skilled and trained Intake Specialists will go to work making outbound calls and engage potential clients you’ve maybe not heard from in a while.
Following up is easy with Alert Communications. For more information, visit https://www.alertcommunications.com or call 844-694-6825.
