How Our Virtual Receptionists Take Lead Capturing to New Heights

A lot of ink has been spilled on lead generation for lawyers, and with good reason. There aren’t nearly as many words written about lead capturing, unfortunately. Despite the fact that it’s just as important as generating leads, it’s usually relegated to a subsection in a blog post about lead generation.

Here at Answering Legal, we specialize in capturing leads for lawyers. Our receptionist team handles thousands of calls a day, boosting lead capture rates as high as they can go. Thanks to our team, our client firms are able to grow their client base while focusing on the legal work that only they can do.

Want to know more? Below, we’ll go into detail on how our virtual receptionists handle lead capturing for our law firm clients.

Capture Leads Your Way With Custom Legal Intake

Legal intake is the most powerful tool in a law firm’s lead capturing arsenal. It’s an essential part of determining which leads are viable, of gathering information on a future client, and of ensuring a client sticks with a firm, all at the same time. Callers who undergo a legal intake process are less likely to call another firm once they’re done speaking with a receptionist. That’s because giving the information involved in a legal intake makes the caller feel like they’ve already taken a step toward hiring that firm.

That’s why we focus a majority of our 90 day training process on making sure our virtual receptionists are legal intake experts. We want our legal intake to work for all the attorneys using our service, which is why we’re most interested in making sure that our virtual receptionists are flexible.

We focus on how the legal intake process works, and less on the specifics, so that there’s plenty of room for improvisation. If you’d like to learn more about our training process, click here.

Below, we’ll go into detail on how we handle legal intake, and how we can accommodate firms that already have an intake team.

Our Legal Intake Specialists Can Handle Every Call

When a caller identifies themselves as a new client, our virtual receptionists take them through a custom intake process. Attorneys using our service decide the information that’s most important, and our receptionists gather it.

We work with our clients to develop their legal intake workflow. Clients often come to us with an idea in mind, but just as often, they customize one of our hundreds of sample scripts. Then our virtual receptionists make sure they always have the information they need.

Here’s how it works:

• A call comes in to one of our law firm clients, and after a custom greeting, the caller identifies themselves as a prospective client.
• Our virtual receptionist will take them through that firm’s custom legal intake process, exactly as if the caller had reached that firm when they called.
• The receptionist will then send a message to the attorney via text, email, or CRM with all the information gathered during the legal intake process, as well as a summary of the call.

We’re proud of our team. We think we’re the best answering service in the legal world for that reason. Between training, quality control, and our stellar receptionists, we’re confident that our emphasis on flexibility gives each of our client firms exactly the legal intake they need. If you’d like to learn more about our legal intake process, click here for a deep dive.

We Can Transfer New Clients To Your Intake Team

Of course, if one of our firms has intake specialists on staff, we can help optimize their workflow so that they can make the most of both our receptionists and the specialists.

When a new client calls in, we can immediately schedule an appointment with the firm’s intake specialists. The process is similar to the one described above, but instead of taking the caller through a legal intake, our receptionist will instead schedule an appointment for the firm’s new client.

We integrate with all of our firms’ calendaring software, so everyone is always immediately up to date. Just like with legal intake, our receptionists send a message via text, email, or CRM so that you’re aware of the appointment immediately. From there, we let our clients handle the lead as they see fit.

Live Call Transfers Boost Your Lead Capture Rate Instantly

Legal intake is an essential part of lead capturing, but it’s not the be-all, end-all. At the end of the day, new clients want to speak to an attorney as soon as possible. Why not let them?

If our attorney clients would like to speak to new clients as soon as possible in order to secure their business, our virtual receptionists can attempt a transfer.

Here’s how it works:

1. When a call comes in to one of our client firms, our virtual receptionists handle it according to that firm’s call protocols.
2. If that firm wants a transfer on every new client, our virtual receptionist puts the caller on hold while they try to reach the attorney.
3. If that attorney is available, we can patch the caller through to their personal number immediately. Their personal information stays completely confidential throughout the call.
4. In case the attorney is not available, our virtual receptionists are always ready to take the callers through that firm’s legal intake process.

As we stated above, new clients want to speak to an attorney as soon as possible. According to Clio’s 2019 Legal Trends Report, 79 percent of clients expect a response within 24 hours of their call. The sooner an attorney can speak to a prospective client, the better their chances of securing that lead.

Imagine the mindstate of someone calling a law firm. They may have done their research and decided that the attorney they’re calling might be a good fit. Or they may be calling during a sleepless night, looking for the reassurance that hiring an attorney can bring.

Either way, if they’re not satisfied at the end of a phone call, they are likely to call another attorney. And if that attorney is available to speak to the caller immediately, they may be able to secure the lead, and keep that first firm from hiring the client.

That’s why we at Answering Legal always recommend speaking with a new client as soon as possible. They’re less likely to call another firm while they wait on a follow up if they’ve already spoken to an attorney, and already feel like they’re on their way to hiring someone to solve their legal problem.

Make Sure Your Marketing Pays Off

If you’re looking to grow your firm, you have to grow your client base. Marketing and lead generation are the way to do it. Answering Legal is the way to make sure your investment pays off. We can help you learn more about your lead generation; if you have a tracking number for marketing purposes, we can redirect callers to that number. In addition, our receptionists can always ask how a caller heard of your firm and include that information in the message they send immediately after a call.

And, of course, we’ll help you secure the leads you generate. Our receptionists are available 24/7 and can answer calls in both English and Spanish, so new leads will never slip through your fingers again. If you’d like to learn more about our features, you can check out our blog here.

Get your lead capture rate as close to 100 percent as it can go. Click here or call 631-686-9700 to register for our free trial. For a limited time, we’re offering firms that sign up for our service their first 400 minutes free.