The surveys we have conducted also show that a quick response from the lawyer to client inquiries also increases your client`s willingness to refer you and your firm. If you don`t measure your response times, it`s easy to lose standards. Where did you go? Of the 701 law firms we contacted in 2021, only 302 responded this time. And while law firm response rates improved overall in 2022, 33% of the 967 law firms we contacted this year didn`t bother to respond to our request for a lead form. This inspired our annual study on lawyers` response time, which we launched last year. When we started the search again this year, we weren`t sure what to expect. Would law firms react more quickly? We also draw special attention to the following law firms that have improved their response times to less than a minute in 2022! Drip campaigns are focused on marketing and are triggered by certain customer actions, such as sending a contact form on a website. Messages are pre-formulated and scheduled to be sent at specific intervals, for example immediately, three days later and six days later. Templates make it easy to design the entire sequence of emails, and emails can be scheduled for specific dates and times to ensure nothing is overlooked. If you or your employees use an established measurement tool to determine that response times are below targets, you can create processes to manage them. This could include hiring additional support staff or setting up automated notifications when new emails arrive. And as in 2021, we looked at cities with the highest response rate.

For 2022, we had a 7-way draw for first place, with all locations having a 100% response rate! And with a tie of 5 for fourth place, these are the cities with the lowest response rate to our lead form requests. Law firms and lawyers should schedule daily periods that cannot communicate with clients on all available channels. Customers need responsiveness, but half-hour blocks during the day should be enough to keep up with the news and provide the answers customers need. I get a lot of calls from people who want to replace their current lawyer, and the number one complaint seems to be that their lawyer never calls them back. No one likes to be ignored. What exactly should be the response time for your lawyer to respond? What is appropriate? What are your own expectations? What are the lawyer`s ethical obligations? If you are concerned about longer wait times, you can call and request an update. You can also send a letter or contact us by e-mail. In most cases, your lawyer will get back to you as soon as possible, which can range from 24 hours to four or five days. If you don`t hear anything after this time, you should contact us again. Lawyers are human beings and sometimes fall behind at work, but a reminder that you`re waiting for a response can trigger a reminder. If your lawyer doesn`t answer your calls and answer you in a timely manner, you may feel left out.

For this reason, it is normal for lawyers to have rules on response times. Usually, your contract will give an indication of the response times you can expect. Even if it`s not in your contract, you should ask for and find typical response times. As in last year`s study, we waited up to seven days after submitting a request for the main form to get a response. After this period, we considered that the company did not respond. Due to the low volume for the business areas examined in our 2021 study, our 2022 study examined personal injury law firms and law firms dealing with medical malpractice and mass crime cases. In the Legal Trends Report, 64% of respondents never received a response from the lawyers they contacted. A catch-all email address is an easy way to avoid this and make sure you don`t run out of leads due to competing demands within the company. We wanted our customers to feel in control of their communications, but none of today`s messaging ecosystems have response time data. This led us to look for an email analysis tool like timetoreply. If your business is located in these geographies, you`ll have fierce competition when it comes to lead form response time.

But there is real potential to carve out a place in the next group, which is the slowest cities, to meet our demands. We have shared our history of car accidents with the vast majority of law firms we have contacted. For the 393 companies surveyed, the median response time was 19 minutes. 16% of companies responded to prospecting forms in 5 minutes or less: When tracking car accident cases, it`s important that you respond promptly to inquiries. The formula is simple. A quick response, a phone, and an organized and repeated effort to reach a prospect can lead to solid revenue and growth for a law firm. However, it takes disciplined effort to stay consistent and make the most of the law firm prospects you`re paying for. In addition to the lead generated by your marketing, you need to respond quickly to inquiries to make sure you`re making a good first impression. The faster you can respond, the more likely you are to convert a prospect into a paying customer, especially in certain areas of the legal industry.

Among the companies surveyed whose response time improved (41.5%), they were on average 53 minutes faster! However, the median response time of all law firms that responded to our 2022 study decreased from 20 minutes to 33 minutes year-over-year. We can now measure the performance of emails in our inboxes and view real-time reports on response time to internal and external emails. The result was a more successful customer relationship. Based on the responses we`ve received from respondent companies, here`s our do`s and don`ts list to create your lead marketing form response strategy. We start with the right things. The first step is to create your intake responses and send them to a single team email address, such as contact@lawfirm.com. We also looked at which cities had the highest response rate: again, we only looked at locations with at least five companies we contacted. These are the top six places for response rate (there was a four-way draw for first place!) In looking at the data, we also wanted to compare response times in case types between last year and this year. Competition is fierce. In highly competitive legal markets, not responding to inquiries on prospecting forms within 30 minutes means you`re giving customers to your competitors. The study included the 701 companies initially contacted in our 2021 study so we could compare response times from year to year. To achieve the best possible results, we replicated the methodology we used for our 2021 study.

We submitted all requests for prospecting forms between 10:00 and 12:00 in the local time zones of all law firms. New legal technologies allow law firms to offer text features without sacrificing their personal phone or wasting time setting up a chat on the website. Law firm management software natively provides SMS as well as other features, allowing you to track all client communications in one place. It`s no secret that the legal industry is very competitive, so we were shocked by the lack of response from many companies.