How do you handle phone calls from potential clients?
The ABA Law Practice Division’s Social Media, Legal Blogs, and Websites Interest Group recently shared “shocking” results from a law firm client intake study. The group made hundreds of telephone calls to law firms and analyzed 17,000 inbound calls to law firms. It found that less than 10 percent of callers got to talk to a lawyer and that almost a third only reached voice mail.
“Most of the firms were appalled at their performance and couldn’t believe some of the recordings when we played them back,” group vice-chair Conrad Saam wrote at Law Technology Today. “Our worst result was a voice mail message that, instead of transitioning to the prospective client leaving a voice mail, simply looped back and repeated the voice mail message ad nauseam.”
The Law Technology Today post also notes that according to the survey, a return call or a response from the firm to an online intake form came three or more days after the initial contact over 40 percent of the time.
So this week, we’d like to ask you: How do you handle phone calls from potential clients? What have you found over time to be the best client intake practices? Do you use technology to help make a connection? Do prospective clients get to talk to you on the phone? Do you respond to inquiries within 24 hours?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Is cursing common in your workplace?
Featured answer:
Posted by Redneck Lawyer: “If you do criminal defense or family law, you curse. In your office, on the phone, in the courthouse, occasionally in the courtroom. I do both criminal defense and family law.”
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
