3 new products to help with client intake
Illustration by J. Manzo/Intake123, Rocket Matter, Lexicata
Given how routinely lawyers perform client intake, the dearth of products that exist to help with it is surprising. That changed earlier this year when, within a few months, three products debuted for enabling client intake online: Lexicata, Intake123 and Rocket Matter Intake.
Each allows creation of custom electronic forms that prospective clients can fill out. Prospects can complete the forms online in advance of an initial consultation or in the office using a tablet.
The goal is to save staff from entering and re-entering information on new clients. Information can be exported directly to a practice-management system. Lexicata and Intake123 export to Clio, while Rocket Matter Intake works with Rocket Matter.
Although similar in purpose, these products differ in functionality.
BROADEST APPROACH
Lexicata manages the entire client-intake process from initial contact through retention. It also tracks client leads and conversions, and automates follow-up so that no lead falls through the cracks.
Creating an intake form is easy. Select from a menu to insert text boxes, multiple-choice questions, check boxes, drop-down menus and yes-or-no fields. Add your own questions and labels. Create as many forms as you need.
Prospects receive an email with a link to a unique URL where the form resides. When you send it, Lexicata prompts you to set an auto reminder to nudge the prospect if the form remains incomplete after a certain time. In fact, Lexicata lets you set a variety of automatic reminders and follow-up emails.
When the prospect is ready to sign an engagement letter, you can send it via Lexicata for electronic signature. The prospect can sign via any device without having to print anything. Both you and your new client receive copies of the signed letter.
Manage all your prospects and activity through Lexicata’s dashboard, which also gives you an overview of the status of your leads showing your conversion rate, your total pipeline value, your top lead sources and your top matter types.
As of this writing, Lexicata was still in beta and had just released its version 2.0. The company expected to launch a full commercial version by September.
ROBUST TOOL
Intake123 lacks the analytics and automated reminders of Lexicata, but it has a more robust tool for creating intake forms. It comes with hundreds of ready-made, drag-and-drop form templates. Law firms can create forms from scratch or use any combination of the templates.
Its templates provide forms for common practice areas such as family law, bankruptcy, immigration, and trusts and estates. The form designer also includes templates for common form sections such as contact information, employment history, financial statements and parties. It even has individual questions ready to use.
Forms created using Intake123 can be embedded on your website to capture leads or sent to prospects via a private URL. If a firm prefers to have new clients fill out the form in the office, a staff member can queue it up on a tablet.
All of the information entered through Intake123 can be synchronized with Clio. The company plans to enable integrations with other practice-management platforms as well.
BUILT FOR FIRMS
Rocket Matter Intake is the least configurable of these products. It works only with Rocket Matter and must be set up for a firm by staff from the company. Rocket Matter custom-builds the forms and maps their fields to its practice-management platform.
Firms post these forms directly on their websites. All of the information goes into the firm’s contacts on Rocket Matter. The information can then be used to automate the creation of engagement letters, pleadings, wills or other legal documents.
The product was released in April in a beta version. It is sold as an add-on to the Rocket Matter platform and requires a pre-existing subscription.
At press time, Lexicata had not set final pricing but estimated it would be $40 a month for the first user plus $30 monthly for additional users. Intake123 charges a monthly subscription of $9 to $79, depending on usage. Rocket Matter Intake has four different pricing plans, ranging from $52 to $65 per month.
This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “Welcoming In: Three new products help with client intake.”
Robert J. Ambrogi is a Rockport, Massachusetts, lawyer and writer. He covers technology at his blog LawSites and co-hosts the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer.
