At the end of the day, client intake is one of the most challenging aspects of nurturing case leads and securing retainers for personal injury firms. Amazingly enough, this is where much of the marketing process can fall apart.
Imaging this: You put years of money, time and effort in your digital marketing strategies. From search optimization, to paid search, to new websites, to tracking each and every lead, to only have it all fall apart at the finish line.
It’s a scenario that plays out all too often. If the intake process takes too long or is too complicated, it wastes time for the firm and it can discourage potential clients. If your team provides too much detail the client may become overwhelmed and do nothing at all.
Designing a smooth intake process is a must for any personal injury firm. It’s a crucial part of closing the client while also reassuring them that your firm can meet their needs during a difficult time.
It all starts at the top. To help your team master the intake process, you need to recognize potential issues to be addressed, deliver the right training to your intake team, and stay vigilant when it comes to tracking and reporting leads so you stay in-the-know.
The Importance of a Smooth Intake Process
Let’s start with the importance of a smooth process. An intake process that runs smoothly is paramount to the success of your signed retainers and overall client satisfaction. Don’t think that the client satisfaction starts after they have become a client, it actually starts the moment the client visits your website.
We can easily go on a tangent here about the importance of a high-converting website, but we’ll save that for another article. For our purposes, let’s say the clock starts the moment the client decides to take action.
Create a Simple, Direct Line of Communication
We typically recommend starting with a maximum of 3 avenues of a client to get in touch with your practice. There are many more avenues, but the goal of your marketing efforts is to simply drive signed retainers, and to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Ideally, you would implement every communication channel possible (more on that later), but lets talk about the top three we recommend to start with:
- Direct Calls
- Form Submissions
- Online Chats
There are many other ways such as social media messengers, email completions through online profiles, etc.
Direct Calls
Most people in need of quick help will physically call the firm. This is the most direct channel for client intake, and provides your firm with the biggest opportunity to close the client. The potential client is in the moment, wants to speak to someone and knows they need to do something immediately.
Sure, you will get any number of requests, and potential clients can come up with all kinds of questions while on the phone. It’s important to have an experienced member of your team take these calls. They need to be quick on their feet, they need to have experience, and they must be ready to close for the retainer.
Form Submissions
Instead of calling, many people will opt to submit an online form. Remember, this can be an overlooked group but you never know what their situation may be.
If they are a victim of abuse, they may be in a situation where they may not be able to speak immediately but do need help. They may be more nervous or reserved, and they may prefer to start the process by scheduling time to speak.
It’s important for your firm to have a simple scheduling system for creating appointments. Your intake specialists should all have this on hand at all times. Depending on your firm’s policies, it’s recommended that your intake team works to bring the potential client into the office. We recommend in-person meetings.
Use electronic methods to get retainers signed. Once the client signs the retainer they are more likely to show up to the next step of the process. Also, once they sign a retainer they’ve committed to your firm.
Online Chat
Always have a way for someone to chat immediately with the firm. Even if your firm is small, or if you’re a solo practitioner, it’s important to have a way to engage with a client when they attempt to chat with the firm. We provide each of our web package clients with an online chat bot to ensure that the firm engages with every visitor, but for firms who want to take it to the next level we recommend and staffed chat platform.
This is a prime opportunity to engage clients that are ready to speak to someone now. If using a staffed chat platform, the same rules apply as above: it should be a highly-qualified team member with the ability to move the client forward in the process.
Essential Questions to Ask During Intake
When you’re designing your intake process, it’s smart to make sure your intake team has a list of defined questions to ask each client. Having a set list of questions helps you gather all of the essential information you need during each intake.
Your intake team shouldn’t robotically read these questions out, but should use them as prompts to remind them of what you need to know. The best bet is to use an intake form, with a short questionnaire that makes it easy for your intake team to make sure they’ve covered all of the information necessary.
Some of the questions you should ask and information you should collect during the intake process should include:
- Basic information, such as name, contact information, and their reason for requiring your services
- Briefly explain when and how they were injured.
- What’s the client’s preferred method of communication.
- Has the client worked with an attorney (or contacted one) before contacting the firm.
- Have they been to the doctor for treatment of injuries related to the accident.
Using Intake to Close the “Sale”
It’s important to remember that intake is a key step to signed retainers. Keeping up an “always-be-closing” mentality during this time can be sound strange, as that’s typically a sale term. But in essence, your intake team is “selling” the firm to potential clients.
It’s important to strike a balance between gathering information, starting to form a good relationship with the client, while also trying to nudge them toward choosing the firm as their lawyer.
Fortunately, by being as helpful as possible, you can improve your chance of making the sale. Provide the client with the information they need and be prepared to answer questions so they have all they need to know to make an informed decision.
Remember, it’s important to be helpful, provide useful information and work to obtain a signed retainer.
Tracking and Reporting
Call, form submissions, and chat tracking are all-important when it comes to client intake. It’s vital to stay on top of your leads and to understand where potential clients are in your firm’s sales funnel. At Joseph & York we provide tracking and reporting for all of our clients to make this process easier and ensure you have the data you need to grow your practice.
Potential Problems to Address
There are always pitfalls you need to think about when designing any process for your firm. For client intake, your team must be careful of saying too much or too little. It can be easy for your season paralegals, associates, or in some cases, your firm’s partners, to give too much information.
All intake specialists should avoid giving free advice over the phone. We have one client whose associate was taking calls for the firm, and some were lasting well over 45 minutes. After investigation the managing partner uncovered that the senior paralegal was being so helpful the client actually felt empowered to file certain parts of the legal process on their own. Yes, it can happen.
You also don’t want to keep the client on the phone too long. People are busy and want quick answers to their concerns. It doesn’t benefit you or them to talk for too long, so creating a short intake process that’s informative for everyone involved is always best. Use your intake to set expectations, while working toward closing for the retainer.
Training Opportunities for Intake Staff
As partner, it’s your role to make sure staff receive the right training so they’re able to handle intake on their own. These measures include teaching them which questions they should be asking and what kind of language they should be using, as well as perhaps creating CRM entries or other software skills. Give your staff the skills and tools they need to successfully manage client intake.
Nail the intake process and your personal injury firm could start closing more retains, saving time, and increasing overall client satisfaction.
