Key takeaways
- Most missed leads come from gaps, not from bad intentions: nights, weekends, busy hours and unowned follow-up.
- One 2024 study found 28% of 1,377 firms replied to a lead form within five minutes. The median reply took 13 minutes.
- Measure your own gap before you buy anything: call and submit your own forms at different times.
- Name an owner and a time limit for every new lead.
Why do leads get missed?
- Hours: the office closes, but accidents and searches do not.
- Busy periods: the intake team is already on calls or in meetings.
- Inbox forms: a form sent to a shared email can sit unread.
- No owner: everyone assumes someone else called.
- One attempt: a single call at the wrong time, then nothing.
- Unclear priority: hot leads are not told apart from the rest.
What does the research show?
Hennessey Digital’s Q1 2024 study of 1,377 law firms found that 28% responded to an online lead form within five minutes and that the median response took 13 minutes. It is a vendor-published study with its own method, so use it as a reference point, not as a benchmark for your firm. The speed-to-lead guide covers it in more detail.
We looked for reliable figures on how many firms miss calls after hours or never follow up, and did not find one we could verify, so we do not quote one.
How do you find your own gaps?
- Call your main number at 8 pm, on a Sunday and at lunch. Note what happens.
- Submit your own ad form at different times and record how long the first reply takes.
- Pull the last 30 days of leads and count those with no logged first contact.
- Ask your team what happens to a lead that arrives while everyone is busy.
What fixes it?
| Gap | Possible fix |
|---|---|
| Nights and weekends | A staffed service, an on-call rota, or an AI voice assistant that calls leads within minutes |
| Busy intake team | Overflow routing and automated first contact |
| Forms in an inbox | Instant alerts to a phone, with an owner and a time limit |
| No follow-up | A written sequence of attempts across call, text and email, within your consent rules |
| No visibility | A log of enquiry time and first-contact time for each lead |
Calling a lead back by AI or text brings consent rules. See AI calls: consent and disclosure. To see what slow replies could be costing you, try the missed-lead calculator.
Want this worked out for your firm? The free 20-minute growth audit looks at your ads and how new leads are handled today, and you keep the written plan. Book my free growth audit.