Take a look at this recent Google infographic on legal market trends:

If there is one thing that stands out about this research, it’s this: 72% of prospects contact attorneys via phone.  This is why the most important person in your law firm is the person who answers your phone!

That’s because people who have a problem large enough to require legal help want answers right away. They want to speak with someone who cares about their problem. They want a solution to make the problem go away.

Before making my presentation during a National Trial Lawyers Summit a couple of years ago, I had my staff call each of the 126 of the firms that would be attending the Summit.  We created a fictitious legal problem and then recorded what the person answering the phone said to our callers. I shared these results during my talk:

• Only 40 of the 126 firms identified the name of the firm when we called.  The rest answered, ”Law Office” or “Law Firm”.

• 70% did not ask our staff for any contact information

• 90 firms left our staff on hold for at least two minutes

• When our staff left their contact information for a call back, 52% of the firms never called back

• When our staff asked for the firm’s website address, 33% misspelled it

• When our staff asked why they should hire the firm, the responses were:

  • 23%  “We have a lot of experience”

  • 21%  “We care about our clients”

  • 17%   “I’m not sure”

Other interesting responses ranged from “I’m not at liberty to say” (intake person) to a partner who remarked, “I’m not going to say why we are different!”

 Most of you do not have a proper lead conversion process in place that begins when someone calls and your staff is poorly trained to boot!