Stephen R Covey, American educator and author of the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” You probably chose the legal profession because you wanted to help people and practice law. While tracking leads and converting contacts into clients is an integral part of doing business, it can seem far removed from your primary role in your firm.
Integrating legal intake technology addresses the administrative details of your practice, so you can focus on practicing law. Your law firm should choose a legal intake partner that utilizes technology and provides tools to help you save money and increase lead conversion. Here are a few types of technology to look for when choosing a legal intake partner.
CRM/CMS Integration
A CRM/CMS system is a valuable tool for getting the most from your marketing campaigns and supporting your intake staff. The legal intake specialist captures details about every lead, so you know who they are, why they called, and what source the lead came from. Since intake data is imported directly into your CRM/CMS from the call center, accuracy improves, which means your legal team has the information they need to engage with leads and sign contracts.
The system stores, tracks, and analyzes lead information, so when it’s time to follow up with potential clients, the information you need is all in one place. The CRM/CMS simplifies the marketing process, allowing you to maintain consistent communication tailored to the lead, their needs, and where they are in the process.
Lead Tracking
Lead tracking allows your firm to track a lead from the first point of contact through the conversion stage. You’ll be able to track your lead sources, the peak times calls come in, the average number of contacts a lead has with your firm before they become a client, as well as how long it takes your average lead to move through the process of becoming a client. To effectively manage all the information, organizations need to have the best access management software that make identity management and user lifecycle management easy.
Some leads take multiple points of communication to convert into clients. When you use lead tracking, your firm can effectively pick up the conversation at the appropriate point with each potential new client. A legal call center that incorporates lead tracking technology can help you develop a strategy for tracking, following up with and converting leads.
Technology to Enhance Responsiveness
The moment a potential client contacts you, your firm must be prepared to respond as quickly as possible to phone calls, web forms, emails, chat messages, etc. An inadequate intake experience, which includes being slow to respond to the lead, can lead to lost revenue for your firm. The solution is to incorporate automation tools that increase responsiveness.
Some automation tools that can increase responsiveness include: using live chat, fine-tuning legal intake forms, using call routing systems, automating email marketing, scheduling appointments, and using automatic email responders. All of these are automation tools that your legal intake partner should be able to work with.
Call Routing Systems
Call routing systems transfer incoming calls to the right person in your law firm based on predetermined factors, such as the time of day the call comes in, the type of call, or the stage the lead is in the process. This is a system the legal call center should use. By getting the lead to the right contact, you stop the shopping process and increase the likelihood of turning the lead into a client.
An effective legal intake partner should use technology to make the process efficient for both the potential client and the law firm. It reduces the need to duplicate efforts, provides an efficient and positive client experience, and captures essential details from the start of the process.
