Your office may close for the holidays, but accidents don’t stop. A caller who reaches someone at another firm may book there before you return their message. Plan your personal injury intake after hours before the holiday schedule starts.
Why holiday intake is different
Plan for calls around Thanksgiving travel and New Year’s Eve, plus winter slip-and-fall inquiries. Your caller may be at the scene, waiting in the ER, or home the next morning. They may need a calm explanation of what happens next before they can answer detailed questions.
Review how your team handles those situations now. A rushed caller needs a different pace from someone ready to discuss an appointment.
- Let callers explain what happened without interrupting their first answer.
- Ask whether they can continue the conversation safely.
- Offer a clear next step if they need to end the call.
Reduced holiday hours make your response plan more important. Check the hours shown on your website against the coverage your team can provide. Don’t invite people to call for immediate help unless someone can handle that call.
Decide your holiday coverage now
Put your closure dates beside your staffing schedule. Start with Nov 26-27, Dec 24-25, and Dec 31-Jan 1. Mark partial days as well as full closures.
For each date, name the person responsible for new inquiries. Confirm that person’s availability before sharing the schedule with intake staff.
- Record the on-call attorney’s contact details.
- Name a backup if the first person cannot answer.
- List the consultation times you can offer during the closure.
- Set a callback plan for requests that cannot be resolved during the call.
Have an attorney define which situations require an immediate transfer and which can wait for a consultation. Give staff those instructions in writing. They shouldn’t have to decide the legal urgency themselves.
Use the October holiday marketing checklist to coordinate your website updates with that schedule. For your firm, accurate hours matter more than a seasonal promotion.
Give every after-hours caller a next step
A voicemail greeting leaves the caller waiting for you to act. Design the call around an outcome you can confirm: a consultation time or a transfer to the on-call attorney.
Collect the information your attorney needs without making the caller repeat their story. Your intake notes should cover these details:
- Record the caller’s name and callback number.
- Ask for the incident date and what happened.
- Note the injuries the caller describes.
- Ask whether a police report exists.
- Record the insurance contact, if the caller has one.
If someone doesn’t know an answer, mark it for follow-up. Don’t delay the next step because they cannot find a report while speaking with you.
An 800.com AI agent answers 24/7 and asks your intake questions. It can book consultations or transfer urgent calls to your on-call attorney.
Before the holidays, test the full process with your team. Confirm that the offered appointment exists and that the transfer reaches the correct person.
Write your intake script once
Start with empathy before asking for details. Acknowledge what the caller has told you, then explain that you’ll ask some questions to help arrange the next step.
Build your script around these plain-language questions. Let staff skip questions the caller has already answered.
- What is your name?
- What number should we use if we get disconnected?
- When did the incident happen?
- Can you tell me what happened?
- What injuries are you calling about?
- Was a police report made?
- Do you have an insurance contact for this incident?
- When are you available for a consultation?
Have an attorney review the wording before anyone uses it. Keep legal advice out of intake, including opinions about fault or case value. Route those questions to an attorney instead of asking staff to improvise an answer.
Read the script aloud with your intake coordinator. Remove questions that repeat the same information, and leave room for callers to pause. End by confirming the appointment or explaining the transfer.
Use a number people remember after an accident
Review the phone number on your TV and radio ads. Then check your billboards and bus benches. Make sure someone can understand the number without studying the ad.
A vanity number from 800.com uses a memorable word or phrase that can be easier to recall than 10 random digits.
Say your chosen number aloud before approving new creative. Ask a colleague to repeat it without looking at the artwork. If the phrase needs an explanation, reconsider it before paying to place the ad.
For presentation ideas, review these holiday phone campaign examples. Keep your firm’s message focused on getting help after an injury, rather than adapting a retail giveaway.
Find out which ads are worth renewing
Assign a separate tracking number to each ad or channel you want to compare. Keep a record of where each number appears before the holiday ads run.
800.com call tracking shows which ads drove calls and which calls went unanswered.
Review those results in January before renewing Q1 media. Compare the call results with your intake records so you can see what happened after someone contacted you.
- Identify the sources that led to consultations.
- Check whether missed calls occurred during uncovered hours.
- Separate advertising problems from gaps in your response process.
If an ad brought relevant callers but nobody answered, fix the coverage before judging the ad. Give the person reviewing media renewals access to the intake outcomes, not only the call totals.
Start this week
- Confirm your holiday closures and assign an on-call attorney for each date.
- Have an attorney approve your intake questions and transfer rules.
- Test an after-hours call from the first answer through the final next step.
- Check the phone numbers in your ads before holiday placements begin.
- Schedule your January review before renewing Q1 media.
