Automate law firm intake processes to drive new revenue – sounds simple but is it? Your firm may be living within two scenarios right now.
Your law firm intake processes may be the culprit holding your firm back from realizing new revenues. Or your intake department may be doing a fantastic job yet you’re not sure if they could save time (and money) by reexamining their work processes and the tools they use to get the job done.
Until your law firm organizes the Intake department, automates the intake process, collects vital contact data, and analyzes the data in a meaningful method your firm will continue to lose new prospective clients.
Why Should You Automate Law Firm Intake Processes?
Why is your law firm not generating enough profits? Many law firms, from small to global sized multi-office giants, spend a small fortune in human capital and money on their marketing programs. They have lead generation funnels set up to increase sales utilizing digital advertising, pay-per-click advertising, print advertising, television advertising, search engine optimization programs, free information books, and countless other pieces of collateral aimed at attracting new clients. But in many cases, the law firm intake department is not being given the same careful consideration as the marketing program. Invest in your firm’s intake infrastructure.
Where Do We Start?
Begin building a historical record of your sales efforts by collecting intake data that drives intelligence on which marketing channels your firm should and should not be investing. Until this becomes a reality, your marketing dollars will generate leads but your sales effectiveness and efficiency will remain unclear.
8 Ways to Automate Law Firm Intake Processes that Boost Your Bottom Line
Creating an intake process that is automated should be the number one priority. Paper records of your precious client contacts are outdated and a costly method of attempting to convert leads to paying clients.
The next step in automation is to choose the right intake management software that suits your firm. Law firms should perform a careful due diligence on multiple software applications before making a buying decision. Some of the features and advantages you may wish to research would include:
- Web-based Software: the advantage is the ability for employees, both in office and remote, to access the system
- Compatibility and Integration: look for software that allows your current applications to integrate with the new intake processing software. Also consider the compatibility of your intake software with any new applications you wish to download in the future. Compatibility with your new software should allow information to be shared between departments so that the intake process is a transparent system
- Ease of Use and Customization: if the new intake software is not intuitive, if it is difficult to learn, and/or time consuming beyond reason, do not purchase that particular package. Training your Intake personnel is a major consideration before making your final purchase. Just as important is customization. Customization allows your firm to create vetting criteria that fits the type of client you are looking for, the questions that need to be asked by intake, and the method intake will input those answers.
- Automated Notifications: one of the most vital issues that can result in a multitude of problems in intake departments is the lack of communication or transparency between Intake and the rest of the firm. Trying to keep pace and track of all of the steps the intake team must perform becomes simpler with the proper automated notifications. This feature also allows management the opportunity to monitor and evaluate the process and their Intake personnel on an ongoing basis
- Store Contacts: an individual page for each contact where all the details of your intake department call, email, or live chat can be recorded
- Notes: a feature which allows your intake team to record notes from the original contact throughout the intake sales process. This provides a historical, transparent, record for authorized personnel within the firm to evaluate
- Scheduling: a feature that allows intake team members to assign tasks as well as future reminders which keep each prospective client’s record organized and moving through the intake (sales) process smoothly
- Lead Origination: a benefit of automated intake processing is being able to identify where (marketing channel) each prospective contact came from and if the prospect made their decision based on their experience with your firm within one or multiple marketing channels. Being able to identify the channel(s) where a lead originated from is the intelligence your marketing team can use to allocate your marketing budget for the best possible outcomes
Still stumped on where to begin? Here is a short list of law practice management software.
The Goal and Its Benefits
The goal is to automate law firm intake processes so that you can drive more revenue to your firm. The benefits of automation are worth the investment of time and money:
- Digitally recorded data that provides a historical record of your marketing efforts
- Data that drives more effective and accurate marketing and sales campaigns
- Save countless hours in employee input time
- Prevent losing irreplaceable data that can more easily be lost in paper or hard copy format
- Organize data so it is accessible to entire firm
- Secure irreplaceable data
- Central hub where lawyers, intake team, principles, and partners can share, collaborate, and measure the results of their marketing and sales campaigns
For detailed information on these strategies and other law firm marketing strategies, contact Inner Architect for a free consultation. Or contact our Managing Principal Susan Hanshaw and Principal Dean Guadagni to schedule a Zoom meeting or call to share a conversation about your needs and our marketing solutions.
