[Webinar transcript from September 2022]

Thanks for jumping on the webinar today. Today we're going to talk about specific ways to streamline your intake process. We're going to take probably about 20 minutes and walk through specific methodologies to improve your intake. Just so you know the background of this topic, we did a survey that we sent to about 600 law firms about the biggest problems they face at their law firm. And the number one challenge that law firms said they face from an internal law firm standpoint was intake process. They said it was the biggest annoyance, frustration, thing that caused the most internal turmoil and most internal fights, and then they actually listed out the things that they struggle with the most. So, we're going to go through those and talk about how you can improve those specific methodologies.

Who is Kenect?

First of all, We're based outside of Salt Lake City, and we're a text messaging platform built for law firms throughout North America. We help you communicate more efficiently, generate new leads, conduct video consultations, and drive online reviews, all with texting. So, we turn your business number into a textable line, which is really powerful and really important. The biggest thing is the ability to send text messages from your business number like you would a cell number. Now, that is important because everybody knows the benefits of texting. But the biggest challenge people have is that instead of getting those benefits from giving out your personal cell number, you can do it from your business phone number. Every attorney I've ever talked to has a horror story about giving out their personal cell number. Kenect is also integrated with the leading case management systems and many that are not even on this list.

So Practice Panther, Clio, Clio Grow, Rocket Matter, Case Pacer, Filevine, Salesforce, HubSpot, Litify, Smart Advocate, Action Step, My Case, and Law Pay, as well. Now, you don't have to use one of these integrations to use Kenect, but you can. So, how do we do it? Two way text messaging for your law firm so you don't need to give out your personal cell number, getting web leads straight from your website, video chat for virtual consultations, and then online reviews and gathering reputation management, as well. Your clients really do prefer text messaging. So, 89% of consumers would prefer to text with a business rather than make a phone call. 98% of all text messages are open. Most of those are open within three minutes. 96% of client phone calls are found to be disruptive. So, bottom line is this. Your clients would prefer you to text them.

Clients want you to text them

They want you to text them. They don't want to play phone tag all day anymore. You have to make sure that you're texting. If you're not, you're going to be annoying your clients, and they would prefer to work with a firm who sent them text messages. It's that simple. Now, this is what the texting inbox looks like. You can send and receive text messages to and from this inbox. It looks and functions a lot like an email inbox, but it's for texting. But you can send and receive text messages from your business number to their text message. Now, one of the questions we get a lot is, "What does the text message look like when someone receives it?" It looks like any other text message they would receive. It just comes in as a normal text message except it's from your business number. That's the distinction.

You can also use the Kenect Mobile app to send and receive messages, send and receive business hours, directions, review requests, videos, automate things. Our firms using Kenect, intake is actually the most common one. You can also schedule consultations, send case updates, collect fees, video chat with clients, and send and receive photos, videos, PDFs, and attachments with Kenect.

Streamlining the intake process

All right, let's talk about this. So again, this comes from our survey, a survey that we did with about 600 law firms. And the six things we'll talk about today are in reaction to the survey results. So, the number one thing that law firms said relative to areas in which their intake process struggled was that they didn't know their process. They had not taken the time to actually sit down and write down their process. Now, this does not need to be a 12 page document. This can be a one page bullet pointed, or half page bullet pointed, document that actually lays out exactly how they specifically intake.

Now, the reason this is important, and the reason that law firms express that this was a frustration, is because they have situations where, let's say, one person will intake in a different way than another. They will gather different information. They will put that information into a different format or in a different location. That means the process is broken, and that is a huge challenge when you're trying to run a law firm is broken process. So, the first thing you have to do is sit down and write down your actual intake process. Attracting new potential clients is also dramatically important. The second biggest thing that law firms said they struggled with with intake was attracting new potential clients. So, it's difficult to have a good intake process when getting new clients is few and far between. So, if you do not have a process to attract new potential clients, get one.

Number three was capturing contact information. So, you have to make sure that you're capturing effective and consistent contact information. One of the things we hear all the time is that attorneys will go into the matter in Clio or in My Case or in Filevine or Practice Panther, and they will see different contact information or different fields being gathered. In some cases, they'll get an email, but no cell number. In other cases, they'll get a cell number, but no email or first name. Get consistent with what you're gathering. Now, the way Kenect can help with this specifically is you can actually directly intake via a text message. So, you can put this "Text Us" inbox on the Kenect mobile app, or on your website, rather, and then you can respond to it via the inbox or the Kenect mobile app. And when you do that, two things are going to happen.

Number one is you're going to get more leads, which is really important and helps you get more clients, of course. And it also allows a simple and easy intake methodology. So, they click on whichever type of law that they're trying to get help with. They put in their information here. You can ask for any information you want. And here's the beautiful part. That information flows automatically into your case management system. So, you're able to easily and quickly gather leads and intake information into the system.

Then pre-screening was another problem. It's difficult to figure out should you do an in-person interview? Should you do something via Zoom? How do you do it? When do you do it? Who sends the calendar invite? How far out should that be? Let me suggest to do just a live video chat. While you're texting them, do an immediate live video chat using Kenect. So, you're texting them. You're getting that information. Do a video chat right then. Don't worry about a Zoom call in a week or an in-person appointment in a month. Just do it then. It's going to cut down on people who are not missing their appointments. Collecting key case information. Make sure you know exactly what every person needs together on that call. And then, sign a fee agreement. So many firms don't have their clients sign something. Just text over a DocuSign. It's super easy via Kenect. It's simple. It's fast. Just do that. It's really important.

And then, set proper expectations. This is an extremely big problem, I think, with firms is not setting proper expectations. Make sure they know precisely when you will communicate with them, when you won't respond, when you actually will respond. Now, if you're interested in learning more, you can text us. You can call us at this number. We'd love to work with you. Or just go to kenect.com. If you're interested in learning more, we're going to be doing a long webinar about these survey results in a few weeks. So, watch for that. We'd love to walk through them with you. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.

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