Law firm client intake poses myriad challenges to hard-working attorneys in every practice area. How many of these law firm client intake difficulties sound familiar?
Lack of time to onboard clients…
Poor lead tracking…
Inefficient, disorganized pre-screening processes…
Missed opportunities to follow up with potential clients…
If you identify with these struggles, never fear. High-quality client relationship management (CRM) software designed specifically for the legal industry transforms these common challenges into opportunities by streamlining the law firm client intake process.
In this article, we’ll discuss the five simple but powerful ways law firm CRM software can get your firm to sign more clients efficiently and easily.
Five ways using law firm CRM software upgrades your intake process
1. A more profitable pre-screening process
Over the last 23 years of experience providing industry-leading time and billing software to attorneys, we’ve learned a thing or two about how attorneys spend their time.
Not that it’s any surprise, but attorneys are extraordinarily busy. Most lawyers work well over a 40-hour work week to meet their productivity goals and billable hour requirements.
With those hours in mind, it’s no real wonder that law firm client intake ends up neglected at so many legal practices. In particular, the information gathered by cursory pre-screenings is often subpar due to rushed or inconsistent processes.
But a thorough pre-screening process ultimately saves time by ruling out leads that do not fit your firm’s ideal clientele. With law firm CRM software that guides you through the process of creating customized intake forms, spending hours to qualify leads is a thing of the past.
In fact, intelligent intake forms don’t require much time or staff oversight to qualify leads at all (after the initial set-up). These “smart” intake forms adjust to clients’ answers to each question and only require clients to answer the questions most relevant to their legal matter. Once the form has collected enough information to determine that a lead isn’t qualified, your law firm CRM software should generate a personalized message explaining that your legal staff will not be available to take on the case.
To soften the news and support a strong referral network, you can also refer them to another attorney.
Once an intelligent intake form qualifies leads successfully, your law firm CRM software should generate an automated text, email, or phone call explaining that an attorney will reach out directly soon. This message should include when to anticipate a response and whether the attorney will use phone, email, or text for your lead’s convenience.
Because clients often expect instant responsiveness, this approach plugs a significant hole in your intake pipeline.
2. Faster law firm client intake
The more you can expedite your law firm client intake process, the better.
That said, signing more clients should never come at the cost of sacrificing the quality of the information exchanged. To get to the heart of each new client’s matter quickly, your law firm’s client intake process should collect as much information as possible without sacrificing speed. Ask the right questions at the right time with intelligent intake forms that qualify leads automatically.
Once collected, client information should be safely stored within your client relationship management software so that attorneys can find it easily. Asking clients to provide information a second time because it has been misplaced may cause them to view your firm negatively.
3. Great first impressions and smoother workflows with optimum organization
You’ll need to be organized to make the most of each point of contact with a potential client. An organized, straightforward law firm client intake process demonstrates respect for your client’s time. Clients will be more likely to trust you as their legal representative when they believe you have good attention to detail.
Law firm client relationship management software simplifies the onboarding process, so even junior law firm staff can confidently navigate client intake tasks. When the process is clearly outlined and organized into sequential steps within your law firm CRM software, keeping up with intake demands is simple, even with a high contact volume.
Your law firm CRM software should provide an easy overview of each lead’s journey and provide clear cues to legal staff when direct follow-up is necessary. Another great organization hack? Use automation to add court dates and meeting dates to your calendar during the law firm client intake process to reduce the likelihood that your staff will forget about or double book a new client’s appointments.
4. Efficient document creation and integrations
Choosing law firm CRM software that integrates with your time tracking and billing software, as well as your practice management software improves the efficiency of client onboarding. Your law firm CRM software should automatically import information collected during law firm client intake into other legal tools.
Manually transcribing client information between software increases the likelihood of errors or that client information will be lost. Opt for law firm CRM software that also populates data collected during law firm client intake into common legal documents. When attorneys can generate a great first draft in minutes at the click of a button, more time is freed for other billable tasks.
5. Law firm client intake that begins with better relationships
Ultimately, marketing your law firm is all about the quality of the relationships you develop. After all, the attorney-client relationship is based heavily on trust, which is one reason signing more clients usually requires more than a few follow-ups.
Law firm CRM software creates more touch points to communicate with clients about your values, your services, and the care with which you’ll address their unique legal matters. You can leverage your client relationship management software to demonstrate that you understand leads’ needs with automated drip campaigns that deliver text messages, emails, and pre-recorded voice calls curated to meet potential clients where they are in the buyer’s journey.
When it comes to law firm client intake, this can be a game changer for the number of leads you qualify and the speed at which you do so.
TimeSolv integrates with Law Ruler’s law firm CRM software
Do you want to successfully establish and sustain positive client relationships by executing a well-rounded law firm client intake strategy without jumping from tab to tab? TimeSolv’s powerful, flexible web-based time and billing solutions integrate seamlessly with the number one law firm CRM software on the market.
With industry-leading legal CRM Law Ruler in your corner, it’s easy to get up and running with a polished, professional law firm client intake process that offers true value to your leads and your legal staff. See for yourself the difference that fully integrated legal technology makes—from signing more clients to tracking time on the go!
Schedule your demo of TimeSolv today.
