Intake CRMs for law firms compared: what to check before you choose

An intake CRM is the system where every inquiry is recorded, from the first call or form to the signed agreement. Pick it for what it records, not for its dashboard. Before you choose, check that it keeps the first source of each inquiry, records the day each client signed, and can send those signed cases back to your ad accounts.

What does an intake CRM actually do for a law firm?

It gives every inquiry one record that follows it from the first contact to a signed client or a clear no. Your team sees who called, from where, what was said and what happens next. Done well, it stops leads being forgotten and shows which sources bring clients who sign, not just callers.

Most firms already have pieces of this: a phone system, a web form that emails someone, a spreadsheet, a case management system. The CRM joins them up. The question is whether it joins them up in a way your marketing can learn from.

Which kind of intake software fits your firm?

Start with the kind, then the product. Each kind solves a different problem, and the wrong kind creates double entry.

What do the vendors say their products do?

The table lists only what each vendor states on its own website, as we read it on the date in the sources. It is not a test and not a ranking. Where a page said nothing, we say so; that does not mean the feature is missing, only that you should ask.

Some well-known practice-management vendors block automated reading of their pages, so we left them out rather than guess. Ask any vendor the same questions in the next section.

Which features decide whether your ads can learn from signed cases?

Ad platforms improve on what they are told. Google says importing offline conversions lets you measure what happens in the offline world after your ad results in a click. That only works if the CRM keeps the click ID from the form or call and records when the client signed. Without both, your ads chase inquiries, and inquiries are not clients.

Ask every vendor to show you, live, with a test inquiry:

1. First source kept. The record shows where the inquiry first came from, and a later call does not overwrite it.
2. Click ID kept. The Google or Microsoft click ID from your form or call tracking lands on the record.
3. Signed date recorded. A field for the day the agreement was signed, separate from the day the matter opened.
4. Export. You can download every record, with source and dates, as a spreadsheet.
5. Upload back to ads. Signed cases can be sent to your ad accounts, by a built-in link or a scheduled file.

Our signal-health check turns these into a short list you can tick, and our guide to tracking signed cases in Google Ads explains the upload.

What should intake staff be able to do from the CRM?

The people answering the phone need speed more than reports. During the trial, have your own intake person run a real script and check that they can:

• Text back a missed call from the record, and see the reply in the same place.
• Send the engagement agreement for e-signature while the caller is still interested.
• Book the consultation and send reminders without leaving the screen.
• Run a conflict check against past and current names before details are discussed.
• Serve Spanish-speaking callers: none of the vendor pages we read mention Spanish, so ask whether forms, texts and signing screens can be sent in Spanish, and try it.

Our intake guide sets out the full first-call process, and the secret-shop worksheet shows how to test it from the outside.

Who should own the CRM account and the data?

Your firm, always. Open the account in the firm’s name, keep an administrator login inside the firm, and get the export tested before you sign a contract. If an agency or answering service sets it up, the firm should still be the owner. When you change agencies, the history of every inquiry stays with you. Our guide on who owns your law firm marketing covers the same rule for ad and analytics accounts.

What this means for your firm

• Choose the kind first. Decide where the signed date will live, then compare products of that kind.
• Test with your own calls. A trial with a scripted test inquiry shows more than any demo.
• Insist on source, click ID and signed date. Those three let your marketing learn from clients who actually sign.

One next step: call your own intake line as a stranger would, then check what your current system recorded about that call. The secret-shop worksheet has the script. When you write the ads and pages that feed the CRM, start from our ad and landing page templates, and see every free template on the templates page.

Get my free review

Marketing information, not legal advice. Probative has no paid relationship with any vendor named here. Last reviewed by our editor.