Lawyer
Incorporating the best lawyers in the industry in your law firm is not enough. You must further take time to build or optimize a robust legal client intake process to get cases that fit your firm, convert leads into paying clients, and boost employee satisfaction. In this article, we explore five tips for optimizing your legal client intake process to grow your practice.
Create a solid lead qualification strategy
The first step to optimizing your legal client intake is building a reliable qualification process. The primary goal of a lead qualification process is to increase conversion. For this reason, always establish whether there is a chance of converting the lead into a paying customer before further engagement. Below are tips for establishing an effective lead qualification strategy:
- Create questionnaires that help determine whether a specific lead is seeking legal assistance. If they are, are they willing to pay for it? Consider leveraging legal client intake software like Gavel to create a customized logic-based questionnaire that helps you make informed decisions.
- Set well-thought-out rules for establishing whether a specific lead is the right fit for your practice based on their responses.
- Establish the steps for accepting and rejecting leads
Ask all relevant questions
Asking potential clients the right questions is critical to the qualification process. It does not only help you determine the chances of converting a lead into a paying client. Asking correct questions also enables you to understand your potential client’s legal problem better. Some questions you could ask during the initial screening include:
- How can we help you?
- Could you tell us more about your legal issue?
- Do you require immediate legal help?
- What is your expected outcome?
Provide around-the-clock customer support services
Potential clients could experience legal problems at any time. This means they could try seeking your legal assistance at any given time. If you are unavailable when they call, they will likely seek help from your competitors. Consider investing in an around-the-clock support system to ensure you are always available. You could even enlist a third-party legal intake service to ensure your leads can reach you anytime.
Follow up with leads
Failing to follow up with a potential client after the first meeting can strain your future relationship. For this reason, follow up with a client as soon as possible. Following up helps to show prospects that you value them. It is also an excellent opportunity to gather more information about the case, enabling you to decide whether the client is a good match. Consider investing in cloud-based client intake tools to remind you when to automatically follow up with specific leads, assign intake duties, take notes, and share calendar events.
Partner with a bilingual legal intake specialist
The last thing you want for your law firm is to lose a potential client due to a language barrier. For this reason, enlist the help of a bilingual legal intake specialist to attend to non-English speaking prospects. A bilingual specialist will help your firm onboard as many customers as possible.
Endnote
Optimizing your legal client intake process is the secret to building a solid relationship with your clients, streamlining your firm’s operations, and staying ahead of the competition. Establish a reliable lead qualification process, ask all relevant questions, provide around-the-clock services, and follow up with leads to optimize your legal client intake process.