The Today’s Conveyancer podcast welcomes Group Chief Commercial Officer at First4Lawyers, Nick Delaney, to discuss their first foray in conveyancing services.
The Group, best known for its FCA-regulated claims management company and SRA-regulated volume Road Traffic Accident work, has been going for 16 years and has launched F4LPlus; a comparison and lead generation service for consumers seeking conveyancing services.
Throughout the discussion Nick explains how the project has developed over the past 18 months in an effort to diversify the business; and why conveyancing, rather than other consumer legal services such as wills, probate, employment and family services, has been the testing ground.
Nick says the service is about helping consumers make a choice about who they want to use; but recognises the challenge services like F4LPlus and other comparison tools have in differentiating their panel firms.
Geography, consumer reviews and carefully curated profiles are among the selection criteria presented to enquirers in an effort to try and give the consumer more than the price to look at.
If there are lessons to be learnt from the extensive experience in high volume personal injury and clinical negligence matters First4Lawyers are best known for, it is recognising the importance of a sales process for the leads generated. Successful firms are the ones who have people at the front end helping clients, says Nick. The speed at which consumers get a response plays a key role in their decision-making process.
And above all “firms who are good at picking up the phone and speaking to the consumer get more work” – Nick is unequivocal about this. You can automate much of the enquiry management process but at some point you need to pick up the phone and speak to people, he adds.
Tackling criticism often leveled at comparison sites around the quality of leads, F4LPlus say they have firms converting 20%+ of their leads such are the verification stages the software requires, including creating an account, going through an initial fact fine, including timescales and budget, and working with firms to create an efficient follow up process.
Conveyancing is the testing ground for the new service, with Nick hopeful of expanding into other areas of law in the future.
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Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.
