iOne of the most frustrating things for a consumer law firm to deal with effectively is no-shows. You’ve gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to get prospects to call and set an appointment. And then they don’t show. It feels like money down the drain. But it doesn’t have to be.
There are three proven lead management strategies lawyers can implement tomorrow that will reduce your no-show rates significantly:
-
Call to confirm the day before and the day of the appointment
-
Email to confirm with specific directions to your office
-
Incentivize your staff with a performance bonus (NOT a fee split!)
ALL of your appointments should be confirmed. You should call them the day before, and if you have a really bad no-show rate – meaning at least 40% or higher – you should also call them the day of the appointment.
Make sure that you get a cell phone number during the initial call, because if you’re calling the home phone number and they’ve already left work, you’re not going to be able to remind them.
As soon as you get off the phone after confirming the appointment, you then want to send them an email confirming all the details. Include driving directions and a photo of your building. If you’re in any kind of a metro area where parking is difficult, you want to make sure that people can visibly identify how to get to you. Make it stupid-simple for people to get to your office.
If they still miss the appointment, make sure that you call them 10 minutes after the no-show. Someone from your staff should be on the phone with them leaving a voicemail and saying, “Just want to let you know we’re still here, we’ve got an appointment, we’re waiting for you, please call me back as soon as you get this message.”
Never be rude if they no-show. Assume that something happened in their life and that they want to come back in for an appointment. My rule is that every single no-show gets four to five calls before you give up – four to five calls after the no-show with the purpose of getting them to reset the appointment and get them in.
You must use both phone calls and email to increase your conversion rate. It’s not enough to just use one or the other, you have to do both.
