Guide

Intake training for law firm intake managers

You are expected to hit the numbers and develop the team, usually without a scorecard, a review habit or time set aside. This is a short way to set them up.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026 · By Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH

Your job in one line

Make the first call the same standard for every person, then find and fix the moments where it slips. The numbers follow from that and not the other way around.

A weekly rhythm that fits a busy desk

Monday. Look at last week's log: contacts, speed to first attempt, booked, follow-ups done.
Midweek. Score a fixed sample of calls from each person on the scorecard.
Thursday. Review one call with each person: play the moment, agree one change.
Friday. Note what you will check next week.

See call monitoring and QA and the scorecard guide.

Spot the pattern, not only the score

When a person has the same low score week after week, a new instruction is not the fix. Ask which moment they avoid and look for the pattern. See the 13 intake-desk patterns and the method.

Report upward

Contacts, speed to first attempt, share reached and share booked, from your own log.
Scorecard trend by stage, not only a desk average.
The one change you are working on and the date you will recheck it.
What you need from the partners: a decision on the fee wording, a hand-off rule, time or a second reviewer.

See the intake metrics worth tracking.

When to bring in an outside reviewer

When you manage people you also work beside, when you have no time to score, or when the desk is stuck on a plateau and you need a fresh read, a scored outside review gives you a standard and an example to coach from. See the call audit.

Keep reading

Scope, plainly: everything on this site concerns the conversation that turns an inquiry into an engagement. Nothing here is legal advice, nothing touches the legal work or the attorney's judgment, and any wording a firm adopts is reviewed by the firm against its jurisdiction's rules on attorney advertising, solicitation and fee communication before it is used.

About the Author

Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH is a behavioral strategist and the founder and Chief Learning Officer of R2R Diagnostic Group. He is the former EVP of Learning & Development at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, where he trained sales professionals on the conversations that turn an inquiry into a commitment. He applies the same method, the R2R Assessment and a 14-item call-review scorecard, to law firm intake teams. The work is the conversation only; legal questions and judgment stay with the attorney.

The method, the scripts and the scorecard are on how it works, the script template and the scorecard guide.

Start With the Calls

Want this scored on your own calls?

Send a handful of recordings or transcripts. You get a scored review by person, and the one moment to fix first.

Start With the Audit or book a conversation