Get Back: Lawyers are Really Bad at Following Up with Leads

Perhaps the most damning of a series of damning facts about law firms released via the 2019 Clio Legal Trends Report (link here), is this: 89% of lawyers surveyed believed that their law firms followed up with potential clients within 24 hours; 62% of law firms actually never follow up with leads at all. 

 

I’ll let that sink in. 

 

The Report also goes on to indicate that of the law firm clients surveyed, 89% want to hear back from the law firm within 24 hours, while 24% want to hear back within a few hours and 10% want to hear back within the hour.  Guess what?  Those demands are only going to increase over time. 


 

This whole dialogue is, of course, representative of the massive disconnect not only between lawyers and consumers, but also between lawyers and their own marketing efforts.  Many times, in law firms, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing — except that the right hand is always focused on substantive legal tasks, not business management tactics. 

 

There are, though, fixes available for this malady.  Law firms can create intake systems, including client journeys.  Law firms can automate marketing processes, and reduce reliance on humans: who eat lunch, and take breaks.  Law firms can increase engagement across the board, where they tend to ignore client and lead followup in the regular course of business.  The fact of the matter is that clients want you; but, you don’t need to be the first point of contact . . .and neither does any other human. 

 

Your law firm can utilize technology and automation to help you to actually respond to clients the way you think you do. 

 

. . . 

 

Feel like you’re letting leads slip through the cracks?  We can help. 

Through a unique partnership between the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar and Jared Correia’s Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, Maine attorneys have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discounted rate. 

To get started, visit Red Cave’s landing page for Maine attorneys, and start running your law practice like a business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pay It Forward: How to Incentivize Attorneys and Staff Beyond Salary

Image
Many law firm owners are comfortable just paying out a salary .  And, that can work, for sure .  But, if you want to drive revenue within your law firm, it makes sense to look at bonusing attorneys and staff in ways that will incentivize your employees to generate or close more cases for the firm, which will lead to additional revenue. Obviously, this is a bit easier for attorney staff, since lawyers can share fees with each other, which makes it easier to create a direct incentive plan .  But, for staff , you can bonus them without sharing fees, including for converting clients from leads, for example, by doing things like offering a $50 bonus for each lead closed, potentially in a certain time frame .   This is the same method that lead generation services use to get paid by law firms, without sharing fees.     But, the place that law firm owners can really make money here is by using origination fees to bonus their attorney staff .  Law firms ...
Read more

Perfect Timing: New Calendaring Tools Make It Easy to Connect with Leads and Clients

Image
Lawyers tend to be inefficient, and have difficulty engaging both leads and clients.  These hurdles are apparent when it comes to the scheduling process.  Attorneys and staff onboard leads for meetings, and schedule appointments with existing clients, via strings of emails -- and, delayed response s only extend the conversation, and the time frame.  And, while this is detrimental for client s (who demand speed and convenience), it’s even worse for leads, who may never convert, if they’re not onboarded simply, and easily.   The good news is that modern technology tools allow for scheduling without the intervention of humans, including you and your staff.  That means that you can say goodbye to all those extra emails, and wasted time.  Programs like Calendly and Acuity allow clients to book appointments directly onto a law firm or lawyer’s calendar, and include buffers and controls, so users aren’t overwhelmed.  LawTap offers a similar tool focu...
Read more

Close Sesame: Three Things You Can Do To Improve Your System Security Right Know

Image
It’s 202 4 , and everybody is still kind of bad with passwords.  Many passwords, in fact, still contain the word . . . password .  That can’t be good.     However, there are three simple moves that you can make to ensure that your passwords are more impressive, and difficult to hack .  That will, in turn, better secure the systems that you are using passwords to protect – which, at this juncture , are pretty much all your systems.   Step one, is to generate stronger passwords .  You can try passphrases .  You can use a password management tool, that will generate more secure passwords for you, so you don’t have to .  And, you can ensure that you’re not using the same password across multiple programs, which is dangerous, because if one gets hacked – they all get hacked.     Step two, is to lean into password managers .  Not only can those systems generate strong passwords for you, you can also use these tools to mana...
Read more