Solutions · The Crisis Client
Someone's parent is heading into a nursing home and the family has 60 days to protect what is left. Someone died and the estate is in limbo. A lead just found your firm at 9pm needing Medicaid planning, probate help, or emergency asset protection. What these cases share is this: the decision to hire happens fast, and it goes to whoever showed up first. TAC configures your intake system to make sure that firm is yours.
In crisis intake, speed is the differentiator.
Crisis cases represent some of the highest-value and fastest-converting engagements in elder law. Medicaid planning cases average $4,000 to $8,000 or more. Probate and estate administration runs $3,000 to $10,000 depending on complexity. Crisis asset protection matters often exceed that. Firms that respond within 60 seconds book consultations at a measurably higher rate than those responding after 15 minutes. The gap compounds after an hour.
The System
Every lead moves through five stages: inquiry, contact, consultation, decision, and retention. Crisis clients move through these stages faster than any other case type in elder law. The configuration below focuses on how speed, tone, and follow-up cadence need to be calibrated specifically for someone operating under a real deadline.
The Gap
Most firms are not losing crisis clients to better attorneys. They are losing them to slower systems. The pattern is consistent across every firm TAC has audited.
The Response
Next-day callback on a 30-day problem.
A family dealing with a Medicaid deadline or a probate estate does not wait until morning. They submitted the form, got silence, and called the next firm on the list. By the time your receptionist returns the call, the case is gone.
The Process
A long intake form before a single conversation.
Many firms ask for asset inventories, financial details, and sensitive information before a consultation is even scheduled. For a crisis lead, every extra field is a reason to close the tab. Detailed fact-gathering belongs on the call, not before it.
The Follow-Up
One callback attempt. Then nothing.
If the first call goes unanswered, most firms make one more attempt and move on. There is no sequence, no structured re-engagement, and no record of where the lead went. The case was real. It simply went to a firm with a better process.
The Pipeline
No prioritisation. No visibility.
Crisis leads sit in the same undifferentiated queue as every other inquiry. Nobody flags them as urgent. Nobody tracks where they go. The firm cannot tell you how many crisis cases it lost last month because it never knew they existed.
The Calibration
Response Speed
30 seconds. Every time.
The auto-responder fires within 30 seconds of a form submission, any time of day. Medicaid, probate, and crisis asset protection leads are flagged for priority treatment in the pipeline so staff know immediately which inquiries cannot wait until morning.
Response Tone
Reassuring without minimising the urgency.
The messaging acknowledges the situation directly without adding to the anxiety. It is written for a family member who is overwhelmed and needs to feel that a capable firm has received their inquiry and knows exactly what to do next.
Intake Friction
Minimum information. Maximum speed.
For crisis leads, the intake form is stripped to what is necessary to assess the case. Detailed fact-gathering belongs on the consultation call, not before it. Every extra field is a reason for a distressed person to close the tab and call the next firm on the list.
Follow-Up Cadence
Present, empathetic, and never pushy.
If a crisis lead does not book immediately, they hear from the firm every 48 hours. The tone never pressures. It simply says the firm is here, it understands the weight of the situation, and it is ready whenever they are. After 4 touches, the sequence slows: one message two weeks later, then a final well-wish at 90 days with an open door if they still need anything.
After the Consultation
Tone
The firm remembers. The firm is still ready.
The messaging does not restart from zero. It acknowledges that a conversation happened, that the situation was understood, and that nothing has changed on the firm's end. The lead does not feel like a prospect being re-marketed to. They feel like someone the firm is still holding a door open for.
Cadence
Every 48 hours, then gradually further apart.
The sequence mirrors the pre-consultation cadence. A message every 48 hours for 4 touches, then one message two weeks later, then a final well-wishing message at 90 days. The tone throughout acknowledges the pressure they are under without adding to it.
Messaging Specificity
Detailed enough to feel personal. Broad enough to feel safe.
The messaging references the emotional weight of their situation, not the details of their case. It speaks to the reality of someone navigating a deadline, a loss, or a family under stress. It never repeats private information. The person feels heard because the language understands their circumstances, not because it recites them.
The Open Door
The offer stays on the table.
Every message in this sequence makes clear that the firm is ready to move the moment they are. No pressure. No expiry. Just consistent, quiet availability from a firm that understood their situation and has not forgotten it.
Other Solutions