How to fix client intake in 10 days.

If your firm takes enquiries by phone, email, website, and the odd walk-in, there's a good chance you're losing a quarter to a third of them between first contact and engagement. Not because of price. Because nobody owns the pipeline.

Ten working days is enough to fix it using tools you already have. Here's the sequence.

Day 1–2: Audit the last 60 days of enquiries

Pull every enquiry from every channel — phone log, info@ inbox, web form, referrer lists, partners' sent items. Put them in a sheet. For each, capture: source, first contact date, first response date, outcome (retained / quoted / declined / ghosted).

You'll see two patterns almost immediately. First, 60–80% of enquiries cluster into a handful of matter types. Second, the biggest drop-off isn't price — it's response time. Enquiries that got a real response within an hour converted 2–3× better than those left overnight.

Day 3: Design the intake form

Seven fields. Eight at the absolute max. More than that and website enquirers abandon, or — worse — your receptionist stops using it on calls. Cover:

• Name and contact details
• Matter type (from your top 4–6, plus “other”)
• Counterparty (if applicable)
• Urgency (today / this week / this month / no rush)
• Brief description (one paragraph)
• How they heard about you
• Previous client? (yes / no / not sure)

Everything else — risk, practice area owner, fee assumptions — derive from those seven.

Day 4: Agree the routing matrix

A one-page decision table. For each matter type: who qualifies the enquiry (receptionist, paralegal, fee earner), who takes the consultation, and who ultimately signs the engagement. Print it. Stick it on the wall near reception.

If you can't explain the routing in five lines, simplify it. Everyone involved — reception, fee earners, the partners — should be able to hold it in their head.

Day 5: Pick one owner

This is the move most firms skip, and it's the one that actually makes the rest work. Name one person who owns the intake pipeline. Receptionist, paralegal, or a part-time practice manager — not a partner. Their job: every enquiry, every day, gets logged, qualified, and routed by end of the next working hour.

Day 6: Write the qualification script

Two pages. Opening line, four qualification questions, three possible routes (book consult / send follow-up / decline politely). Test it on five enquiries with the person who'll actually run it. Edit based on what made them freeze.

Day 7–8: Run it live on one matter type

Don't roll out everything at once. Pick the highest-volume matter type and route every new enquiry in that type through the new process for two weeks. Keep a running log of what broke. Most things will — fields missing, routing getting stuck, fee earners not checking the intake sheet. Fix as you go, don't start over.

Day 9: Tighten response time

Put a response-time SLA on the pilot matter type: 60 minutes during working hours. Track it daily for a week. If you can't hit 60 minutes with a human, set up a templated acknowledgement email that fires on form submission — then a human response within four hours. The acknowledgement alone bumps conversion noticeably.

Day 10: Roll the rest of the matter types on

Once the pilot is stable, add the other matter types in waves — one or two at a time, with a week between each. Don't let reception go back to taking unstructured enquiries. Print the form URL on a card; if someone calls, the first question is “let me open the intake form so I can get you to the right person.”

What good looks like at day 30

By the end of the first month you should see: a 50–80% drop in enquiries that ghost (because someone's actually responding); a shorter time-to-quote (because qualification is happening up front); and — for the first time — a live list of open enquiries partners can see without asking.

Now, and only now, is it worth looking at a dedicated intake or CRM tool. You know the shape of your pipeline, you have a working process, and you know exactly which bits are worth automating.