Law firms are failing to make the most of converting callers into clients, with only 1.5% of those firms surveyed following up on the initial call from the prospective client.
The Legal Services Communication Report 2018 by Concert is a mystery shopper survey of 30 law firms, with 90 telephone enquiries in total. The purpose was to secure a quotation for work, focusing on three areas – Will writing, residential conveyancing, and debt recovery.
Overall, law firms are failing to optimise opportunities. Just 51% of calls were connected with someone who could assist, meaning almost half of all enquiries were not; and in most cases the onus was firmly placed on the caller to call back.
The callers found that their contact details were taken on only a quarter of the calls made overall, but residential conveyancing departments requested email details in 80% of the calls. Disappointingly, Will-writing departments only asked for contact details in just 10% of calls.
Out of the 68 callers who were eligible for a follow-up call after the initial enquiry, only one received a follow-up call, which was from a debt recovery department. None of the Will writing or conveyancing departments followed up with any prospective client after the initial call.
While there were a number of positive outcomes for the mystery shoppers, the report concludes that it “seems to be a case of one foot forward, and two feet back”.
