Improve Response Time with Law Firm Marketing Technology

A recent Clio study found that 42% of firms take three or more days on average to respond to leads. That isn’t good, considering 79% of prospective clients expect a response within 24 hours.

While this is unfortunate, it’s great news if you’re looking for a way to stand out and capture more leads. You can differentiate your law firm by being prompt to reply, showing how much you care about prospective clients and their needs.

How to optimize your reply time

• Use Desk as an all-in-one virtual inbox
• Leverage automation to reply instantly
• Use Intaker to capture lead information right away
• Work as a team with business texting

Intaker Desk to never miss a lead

With Intaker Desk, you can easily keep track of everything going on at your law firm. Every new email, text, call back, and all other notifications will appear in your inbox.

You can set reminders for your future self and send Desk items to co-workers. Anytime a new message comes through, you'll hear the notification chime.

Desk makes it nearly impossible to let a reply fall through the cracks and keeps everything organized for you.

Examples of Desk items:

• Emails
• Meetings
• Calls
• Notes
• Texts
• Chats
• Tasks
• Call back requests

By taking advantage of this law firm task management software, you’ll be able to communicate with leads in the most efficient way possible. As we know, the faster you reply, the more likely you are to secure leads and the happier your existing clients will be.

Auto-replies and self-scheduling to direct potential clients

A great benefit of law firm automation technology is the ability to reply instantly to new leads without ever picking up the phone. Intaker's legal chatbot sends a follow-up message as soon as someone finishes filling out the prompts. Not only is this excellent for showing potential clients that you're interested in them, it also provides clear next steps in communicating with your firm.

In another Clio study, it was determined that only 28% of law firms provided clear next steps to interested leads. 65% of people claimed they had no idea what to do next after their initial chat with a lawyer.

Most lawyers do not clearly articulate the next steps for prospective clients. Some provide no clue whatsoever, and others offer muddled and unclear direction. By providing leads with the next steps, they are less likely to continue shopping for an attorney.

Intaker's law firm chat also comes with an optional self-scheduling feature. If enabled, at the end of the conversation, users will be asked if they would like to self-schedule an appointment. People like this because it provides them with a clear next step and confidence that they will be making contact with you soon.

To take it a step further, when you meet with them, be intentional about the information you share. Provide space to ask questions and before they get off the line, be sure to ask, "Is there anything I can further clarify regarding the next steps?"

‍Instantly capture lead information

Another fantastic benefit of the Intaker’s law firm chat is capturing lead information immediately. People immediately enter their contact information, such as phone number and email, allowing you to reach out quickly. After the complete chat, they get automatically added as a lead in the Intaker dashboard.

If you integrate with a CRM, their information will be auto-forwarded. The streamlined operation is excellent for tracking where each lead is in the intake process. If you don’t have a CRM, Intaker offers a lead management dashboard where you can track the lead status and sort leads. Examples of lead status include: new lead, customer, demo book, declined, referred, etc. You can even create new statuses based on your firm’s needs.

Lawyers texting clients and leads

Another excellent benefit of legal technology is connecting easily with clients and leads anytime, anywhere. Business texting has a much higher open rate than other forms of communication. It’s a great way to send appointment reminders, follow-ups, and documents quickly.

How often do you check your email each day? Forbes found that the average person checks their email fifteen times per day. You must constantly log in to ensure you haven’t missed an important message.

As mentioned, the Desk notifies you of every new message. It’s also super convenient to receive text messages because you only have to check your phone instead of email throughout the day. Your entire team shares a number and can collaborate on replies, making communication incredibly efficient.

Running your law firm as a business

Additionally, if you are striving to improve response time a great way to measure how noticeable your efforts are is by adding it to your client satisfaction survey. Don’t be afraid to ask if you are being responsive enough and show that you care about getting back to people promptly.

While as a lawyer, your number one focus is practicing law, remember that your law firm is a business. Imagine if you called a restaurant to make a reservation, and they never got back to you. Chances are, you wouldn’t be too eager to try and eat there again. The same is true with people looking for a compassionate lawyer.

Response time will set you apart

We hope these tips will help you to improve your response time and cultivate an outstanding reputation for your law firm. If you have any questions about law firm marketing technology or Intaker please contact us, and we are eager to assist you.