How much does speed matter when following up with leads for new personal injury clients? You’d be surprised at how quick you need to be in responding to new leads if you want to turn those leads into clients. A report from the Harvard Business Review shows that if you follow up with new leads within one hour you will experience a seven fold increase in having a conversation with said lead. An even more impressive statistic from the survey is that if you reach out to the lead within five minutes, your chances of contact/closing increase by 900 percent. Once you pass the first hour, the rate of contact will drop immensely. The survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that just 37 percent of businesses respond to new leads within the first hour.
Injury Leads Have Pressing Needs
A new personal injury lead means that the potential client has pressing needs. These leads come through via phone calls, emails, or online contact forms looking for help. This person may have been seriously injured in a car accident or possibly even lost a loved one and is looking for closure in a wrongful death settlement. The urgency in the person’s life will force them to find a resolution to their problem as quickly as possible. That’s why it’s important for you, or someone at your firm, to make a connection with the new lead immediately.
Many firms think that they need to handle the cases already on their docket before even considering new leads. Don’t fall into this thought process. You need to be connecting with new leads to gauge their needs for a personal injury attorney as you handle the current cases on your docket.
Tips for Increasing Contact Speed When Following Up With Personal Injury Leads
There are a few things you can do to increase the contact speed your firm utilizes when it comes to new personal injury leads. You can choose to implement one or more of these, but make sure your firm is taking a good look at how it can increase the response time to new leads or risk losing out on new clients.
Use Text Messages
This can’t be said enough. So many people (particularly people under 40), won’t answer a call from an unknown number anymore. Also, lots of people don’t listen to voicemails anymore. Also, it’s kinda rude to call someone at 11pm. If you call and get a voicemail, or get a lead after 8 or so at night, a simple text (trick: write a few commonly used templates and keep them saved on the notepad app of your phone, then you can just copy/paste) saying that you tried calling, or will first thing in the morning, goes a long way in getting your call returned, or your next call answered.
Respond to Every Single Lead Within an Hour
Do your best to respond to every single lead within an hour. If a potential client makes contact the firm and doesn’t hear something, anything, even if it’s a quick text saying that you received their message and are planning to call them as soon as possibly, goes a really long way in making sure that prospect doesn’t call another law firm, or fill out another lead gen form.
Utilize a Call Service For After Hours Leads
A call answering service can help the conversion rate of your law firm when it comes to new personal injury or auto accident leads. When a live person answers calls placed to your firm any time of the day or night, especially at night, it can help convert leads to clients. The person answering the phone can send a notification to someone at the firm who handles leads so they can communicate with the lead and schedule a consultation.
Dedicate an Employee for Intake
Your personal injury firm should have a dedicated employee who handles nothing but new lead intake. They should be available during normal business hours to answer calls, respond to emails, and reach out to people who complete the contact form on the firm’s website. The employee you choose to handle new lead intake should be trained to answer questions in all practice areas of your firm, not just personal injury.
Utilize Auto Responders for Emails
Receiving a notification from the contact form on your website requires immediate attention. These notifications shouldn’t be ignored. If you don’t have a dedicated employee on staff to answer these notifications you should set up autoresponders. The autoresponder sent to the person who completed the contact form can be very simple.
Similarly to the text message, all it needs to say is that the firm received their message and that someone will be in touch shortly. The simple email response to the new lead will make all the difference compared to not reaching out at all within the first hour or even within the first 24 hours. You can take it one step further by including a link to your firm or your personal injury practice area in the autoresponder email sent to the new lead. This provides the person with information about the firm and answers some of their questions before you even speak on the phone.