Legal Intake Call Audit: Score Your Intake Calls

A Sample Review

What comes back

Here is the shape of the review. This is an invented example, a made-up family law firm and five made-up calls for one intake person, shown only so you can see the format. It is not a client result.

Example only · Intake person A · 5 recorded calls

Stage	Scorecard item	Result
1. Rapport	Caller's name asked for and used	Met on 5 of 5 calls
2. Questions	Why now asked	Skipped on 4 of 5 calls
2. Questions	Who else is involved asked	Skipped on 3 of 5 calls
3. Value	Fee stated once, without softening	Softened on 4 of 5 calls
4. Next step	Next step recommended with a specific time	Met on 2 of 5 calls
5. Concerns	Held slot and same-day follow-up for callers who did not book	Missing on 3 of 3 unbooked calls

Where the desk is leaking

The fee is stated, then softened before the caller reacts: "It is a hundred, but the attorney can sometimes work with you." That one line appears on four of five calls and is the first thing to change.

The pattern behind it

This is the Price Softener pattern from the R2R Assessment: kind, careful, and uncomfortable being the person who names a fee.

What to do this week

State the fee once, in the context of what the consultation accomplishes, then stop and ask for the time. Role-play it twice in the weekly conversation. Count it on next week's calls.

The fee amount in the quote above is invented. Every real review uses your own calls, your own words and your own fee policy.

What you send

Three to five recorded calls or transcripts per intake person, including at least one that did not book.
Your current intake script, objection notes and follow-up templates, if you have them.
Your consultation fee policy, so the fee conversation is judged against what the firm actually does.

Recordings stay confidential and are used only for the review. Firms remain responsible for their own recording and consent obligations in their jurisdiction.

What you get back

Every call scored on the 14-item yes-or-no scorecard, by person.
The stage where consultations are lost most often, with the lines from your own calls that show it.
The behavioral pattern behind it for each intake person, using the R2R Assessment.
A short list of what to fix first, written so the attorney can review it before anything is adopted.

The scorecard itself is on the call-review scorecard page so you can see exactly what is measured before you send a single call.

What the audit does not do

It does not judge legal work, evaluate cases or recommend what an attorney should advise. It reviews the conversation that happens before the attorney is involved. Scope, plainly: everything on this site concerns the conversation that turns an inquiry into an engagement. Nothing here is legal advice, nothing touches the legal work or the attorney's judgment, and any wording a firm adopts is reviewed by the firm against its jurisdiction's rules on attorney advertising, solicitation and fee communication before it is used.

After the audit

Some firms stop here and fix the top item themselves. Others move on to the full program or to ongoing scored review.

The Call AuditFor a firm that wants the diagnosis first.Your calls scored on the 14-item scorecard by person, the stage where consultations are lost, the pattern behind it for each intake person, and a short list of what to fix first. Many firms fix the top item themselves from this alone.

The Full ProgramFor a firm that wants the desk rebuilt.The twelve-part engagement: value statements, scripts, objection handling, follow-up, a playbook, coaching on the moment each person avoids, and a measured reassessment on the same scorecard. Reviewed by the attorney at every step.

Ongoing Scored ReviewFor a firm that wants it to hold.New calls scored on the same card each month, a written summary by person, and a coaching conversation on the one behavior that moved least. Scope and cadence agreed in advance.

The full sequence is on how it works. Scope is agreed in writing before any work starts.

About the Author

Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH is a behavioral strategist and the founder and Chief Learning Officer of R2R Diagnostic Group. He is the former EVP of Learning & Development at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, where he trained sales professionals on the conversations that turn an inquiry into a commitment. He applies the same method, the R2R Assessment and a 14-item call-review scorecard, to law firm intake teams. The work is the conversation only; legal questions and judgment stay with the attorney.

More on the method, the scripts, the dialogues and the scorecard is on the legal intake pages at jeffreyscottstanton.com.

The Legal Intake Call Audit

What comes back

What you send

What you get back

What the audit does not do

After the audit

Send the calls. Get the scores.