Human Intake Over AI for Law Firms

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I was like, talking to them and I was like, oh, man, I can't tell if this person is AI or not. And I was like, am I going to get duped? And so I was like, because I'm in Idaho. I'm like, is Idaho an at fault state? And she responded. She was like, you know, I'm not sure. I've actually never been to Idaho. I was like, she's not AI. [00:00:15] Speaker B: At some point they're going to be AI smart enough to just do that on its own. But [00:00:22] Speaker A: we're humans too, and we could sniff that out. We can tell. And that immediately loses trust and loyalty 100%. Like, the moment I'm like, oh, I don't matter enough for you to spend the money to. For me to talk to a human, like, how much is my case going to matter to you? [00:00:54] Speaker B: Most firms survive the best ones scale. Welcome to the Managing Partners podcast, where law firm leaders learn to think bigger. I'm Ken. Kevin. Daisy. Let's jump in. Hey. Hey, everyone. What's up? Welcome to another episode of the Managed Partners podcast. I am here today with someone who slipped into my DMs on LinkedIn. It's not all spam, sometimes it's real. But Amber, Amber Wanner's here on the show and she's got a really interesting company, startup, if you will, in the legal space. And I'm excited to kind of talk about it, learn more about it. I have got to speak with her a little bit to kind of understand what she's doing. And it's something I've never heard of before. And so hopefully anyone listening, this will be a new resource, a new option for you for your law firms. But it's also just cool to listen and learn about. So, Amber, welcome to the show. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I definitely did slide into your DMs and I've messaged some people on LinkedIn and people often think that I'm AI, and I'm like, I promise I'm not AI, but you just never know these days. You know, what's real and what's not real. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah, Amber's not AI, I don't think. But yeah, I was actually just at lunch with Luke, who's on my sales team here, and we were just talking about LinkedIn and how much junk is in my inbox and his. And but check it because, you know, real people are on there and they send real messages. And I'm glad I came across Ambers and we connected and again, Excited for her to share more about her business and what she's doing, her background, things like that. So yeah, Amber, tell us a little bit about your background, which is kind of similar to my wife's actually in staffing, recruiting and placing high end technology people. But yeah, tell us a little bit about your background. And, and then of course, your, your, your business, your company now, and we're just going to dive into what that is and how it works. [00:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So I started my career in the tech recruiting space. So I started my first company when I was 23 and I ran that for about five and a half years. And we basically would place software engineers in tech jobs and I ran a lot of tech events and everything. And I saw people building companies and I was like, this is really cool, this is really fascinating. And then right as Covid was starting, I had an idea that we could basically utilize the gig economy to interview applicants on behalf of businesses. And so I had created this company that worked as like an Uber for phone interviews essentially. And it was just people in their free time interviewing applicants on behalf of these businesses. And it really started to take off. I started developing this like gig economy platform where when people want to work, they go online. When they don't want to work, they go offline and they get paid for every call that they take. And so as I was building that company more and more, you know, people were like, well, can your gig workers like actually like take calls and intake calls and all that stuff for my business? And law firms would pop up part of that. So, so people calling into law firms, you know, want to talk to a human. And so I was like, huh, I think that there's something here. And I started asking around and reaching out to people on LinkedIn, asking if I could kind of pick their brain on like what the current process is and if this is something that could work. And I saw that there's a huge need. And so the company that I'm building, it's called Israel, because in a world full of artificial, we really value what Israel, which is human connection. And, and so we are tapping into the gig economy to disrupt the call center industry. So these call centers are set up, you know, people are working these hourly jobs and you know, all, you know, different days, nights, weekends. And so with our platform, we really pour into the people that are speaking to the customers that are calling into businesses, into businesses and into law firms and they're loving on those people. [00:05:09] Speaker B: And yeah, yeah, AI is everywhere. So having real people to, you know, for Intake for law firms, I think that's massive. Call centers, I know quite a few, but I don't ever hear great things. And, you know, people don't seem to prefer those. They're always looking for other ways and AI so it's more like you're disrupting call centers and AI because some firms are going straight to AI all the way for their intake. And I hear some attorneys that, or weigh against that. And so they'll never do that where other ones are just like, we already switched, you know, don't care. So, but there's, there's a lot of firms in the middle that are like, I just want a real person to take care of talking to my potential client. We're, you know, and I hear a lot of people say, well, our practice area is different. We have to handle it different. So there's a lot of back and forth debate on can AI do it? You know, do you have to have an internal person do it? Use a call center if you can, if, you know, don't have the people and the capacity. But yours really kind of almost is like in the middle. It solves for both. It's like, well, what if you could have a real person that even. Might even live in the city or state that you're in so they sound like everyone else, you know, they, they. Whatever their draw is or their accent or whatever. So what if you'd have someone kind of local, a real person at any time, just like AI is always going to be working. Right? So I think it's a amazing model. Again, I never heard of before. And I guess for anyone listening to that might not know what the gig economy is or maybe, you know, maybe explain that a little bit more too. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Be helpful, definitely. So basically, you know, it's regular people who just have so much excess time, you know, on their hands. Like, there's so many people like stay at home, moms, retirees, people who could just do this from home, any hour of the day, night, weekend. And it's all across the country. So it's people in maybe areas where jobs are scarce and people, you know, go online, like I said, when they want to work offline when they don't. So we have some people who can go online, you know, after they put their kids to bed at, you know, 8pm and they can work until like midnight or whatever. And then we have other people who are getting off their shift and they could work from, you know, of their regular job and they could work from like 12, you know, PM to or 12am to, you know, 6am or whatever it may be. People aren't being like, you know, stuck in a specific schedule. They literally are choosing their own schedule. So it's kind of like Uber or any kind of like doordash or anything like that. But these are qualified people who are taking these calls. We really are training them and pouring into them. We don't call it training because it's, you know, but we're giving them best practices of what makes, you know, a good, you know, intake specialist. And the other thing is, yes, like you said, it's local. So you guys, you know, law firms can prioritize if they want the person to be local. So they could be like, oh, you grew up in this area? You know, I grew up in this. And the whole point of it is to show this person that they matter. Like, the whole purpose of this company, Israel, is to show as many people in the world that they matter as possible. And we happen to do it through people who are already calling into these firms. It's less about the intake, however we're gathering so much information from that call, but it's more about when this person just got into an accident or, you know, whatever it may be, they feel like, you know, that they're cared for and that the firm is going to represent them. When my mom fell off or she fell at a restaurant, I called into so many different law firms and I just felt like a number. And it was the one that made me feel like I mattered, that I wasn't alone, which is the one that we ended up going with. And that literally was just the empathy that that person had to listen. And that's what these intake people, these gig workers are really being trained to do, is to. To listen and to, like I said, love on these people. And I think that a lot of call centers, because it is such a churn and burn, you know, that gets lost, unfortunately, just because, you know, they're paying hourly no matter what. With this, we're only paying the gig worker if we're getting paid in. So it's not like it's, you know, that drenched cost. Like, we're able to really just, you know, kind of. You pay as you go. So law firms are actually saving a lot of money, too, which is pretty exciting. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's really cool. And then, of course, there's a custom script or whatever for the firm that they're. That they're responding for, correct? [00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah, Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. And then after the call, so the call is recorded, transcribed, and then it's put back into the law firm's case management software system. So we're able to just update it, you know, and we do use AI in that regard to gather information from the call, pull out any specific things that are important that, you know, to the person that the lawyer may want to see. But they can totally customize that however they want. So like you said, it's the best of kind of both worlds of like a call center and AI, because we're utilizing the human connection, but then we, we're also utilizing technology to be able to facilitate the conversation. [00:10:14] Speaker B: And why would you not use AI for, for stuff like that? Right. So, yeah, there's a place where it should be used and it can be helpful and streamline things and give you more information than a person maybe could. [00:10:25] Speaker A: And law firms can also create their own little gig economy within their own network. So if, if a lawyer is like, oh, my sister in law, you know, is looking to make some extra money, you can favorite that person to take the calls when they're online as the priority. So. So they can favorite. Yeah, definitely. [00:10:42] Speaker B: So it's like you almost make your own little local. Over time, you could maybe go, hey, we listen to some calls, like, we like this person and just start to build out your local network, your own call center, if you will. [00:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:10:57] Speaker B: And the way we localize people that, you know, you've, you've seen that, you know them in action, that's really, that's really freaking cool. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah. And the way we're able to do this is I'm constantly studying the gig worker behavior. So when certain gig workers are online, you know, I, I track it over time. So it's like, okay, we can, you know, anticipate this person is generally online these hours of the day. So we can anticipate that and then we have backup just in case. But we're always making sure that people are online. So people are speaking to someone instantly as soon as they express interest. So whether they're calling into the law firm directly or they're on their website, there's a little button that we would put on the website that just says talk now. And they're able to. It searches who's online, matches them up with the person, and then their phone rings and they're speaking to that person. [00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's super cool. Yeah. So it's like, you know, why uber so successful, right? It's. It's a network of people, right. And so I say, hey, I need a ride. It goes out to everyone local. Someone accepts it, bam, I got a car. And obviously that model's works very well and it's expanded into other industries and other other things. Right. So whether it's babysitters or cleaning people or whatever, so why not with your intake? Yeah, it makes a ton of sense to me. I think it's pretty cool. And I know there's a lot of firms that are either feel stuck or they're looking for other options. They're wary of AI. And I always tell people, even though on this podcast and people I hang out with and talk to are pretty far ahead and on the cutting edge of most things. But the vast majority of firms that I know are out there that we almost interact with more on like a sales side or on the marketing side, they're not that advanced or that, you know, cutting edge. And so why they should be, it's just not the reality. And I think they want real people answering the phones, you know, and I think this is a really good option to test this out. And you know, thing is, you can, I'm assuming you can test it out, right? Like versus, hey, we got to cut over, kill our whole system. And you know, do you offer any kind of, you know, test or trial? [00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So like I said, the purpose of this company is to show as many people in the world that they matter. So for me, it's not about like, you know, making, you know, the most money in the world. Like, I really want this to work. I want to put this in the world and, and show that it does work. When you show people that they matter, like, that leads to retention. So we definitely can do free trials. We also are having some law firms testing it out with after hours just to start before they cut, they cut out their current call center, kind of comparing and contrasting and letting the results speak for itself. But we're, you know, run off of a very honest, you know, way of doing business. And I want to make sure that it works. You don't have to be locked in or anything. It's. You can prepay for X amount of calls that you want and then there's a little platform fee that, you know, for depending on what you guys get or what the company gets. But it's definitely. We're seeing it's cutting costs from existing current law firms. We're also even able to cut out some other additional costs that are coming in through other, other avenues, not just the call center. So yeah, it's definitely, you know, because we're utilizing it in a Gig capacity. It's not that, like I said, hourly cost. So we could really, really save law firms. [00:14:29] Speaker B: It's really your. The law firm pays for when someone takes the call. The person taking the call gets paid when they. They complete a call. Right. So it's. It's literally only when the call has been made and recorded and completed. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So we. And right now we're doing some beta customers. We have a wait list of some law firms for when we roll out, which is going to be in September. But right now we're looking for 5 beta customers where we're basically building on their use case. So if a law firm is like, it would be really cool if it did this. We make a business case about it, I bring it back to our engineers, and we could incorporate it into the product. [00:15:07] Speaker B: Love that. Well, we'll have to talk after the show. I got some law firm clients that I can see if they're interested in and doing this if you're still looking for some, so. Because again, I know that's a pain point for most firms. And obviously we do marketing for law firms, so intake is very important to us. If we send someone leads, I get them exposure, they get calls. We want to make sure that those are answered. And not just answered, but in the right way. Because if I send a law firm 100 calls today and there's no one real on the other side or has empathy or cares, the law firm signs up less cases, and guess who they come back to at some point? Me. Because they're not successful as they. They want to be. So. [00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And we found that on the job side, when I was running this business on the job side, people were paying for recruitment marketing software, and they found that when someone talks to someone, instantly they were getting, you know, more returns on their investment because they were yielding to, you know, positive results. It's just when you get some. That. My whole thing is when you get someone on the phone with someone and you show them that they matter, that truly leads to retention. That's when you retain that client. They're not calling the next law firm. They're. They're sticking with you. You really show them that they matter. And that's. Yeah, I can't say that enough. [00:16:28] Speaker B: Again, people are using AI exclusively for stuff. And I just. For one, you know, it's AI even. I mean, AI has gotten really good, but it's just not that good, in my opinion, to be like, this is a real person. Like, real, like 100. So if you have any inclination that it's not real. Like, I don't see how, depending on your situation, if I'm calling AT&T because they're. I'm bitching about something, AI might be faster, get me past the bull crap and get. But I don't care. Yeah, but if I am hurt or my family's hurt or something like that, you know, I think that's, I think it'd be quite a while before you can tell or not tell. That is. [00:17:06] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting because someone asked me once, like, how can, you know, AI can have express empathy and whatever else, like, what's the difference? You know? And I, I really believe that it's lived experiences, you know, it's people being able to relate to like a lived experience. And some of these calls that we've heard, it's like I said, it's like, oh, you grew up in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Like I went there with my grandpa growing up, you know, and it's those lived experiences that allow people to really connect to another person. The other day I. So I got in a little fender bender. It wasn't my fault, but I was on the phone. Yeah, I was on the phone with Progressive and I was, I was like talking to them and I was like, oh man, I can't tell if this person is AI or not. And I was like, am I gonna get duped? And so I was like, because I'm in Idaho, I'm like, is Idaho an at fault state? And she like, she responded, she was like, you know, I'm not sure. I've actually never been to Idaho. I was like, she's not AI. [00:18:01] Speaker B: At one point, some, at some point I'm gonna make smart enough to just do that on its own. But yeah, [00:18:09] Speaker A: we're humans too, and we could sniff that out. We can tell, you know, and, and that immediately loses trust. And like the moment I'm like, oh, you. I don't matter enough for you to spend the money for me to talk to a human. Like, how much is my case gonna matter to you? You know, and that's, that's really, I think, I think in this world where the world is kind of going AI to replace humans, we're building this network of humans who, you know, care. And I think that's really gonna be the differentiator and that's what people really want. [00:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, you're going to see a pullback in a lot of areas where like, okay, we're not interested in AI Everything, like just. We've seen this throughout history with different things but, you know, it's just not going to replace everything, and people are not going to accept it at some point. So. And, you know, running a good law firm business, it's all about getting a lot of. A lot of things right over time, continuously working on it. And so checking a checkbox, going, someone, something answers the phone. It's just not. Not good enough. Right. Like, now that might be for some people, like, okay, well, at least something's answering the phone. Somebody's answering the phone. Yes, sure. But it's not ultimately where you should be, you know, just ultimately have the best person you can answering the phone, a real person. All the improvements within your business processes, client experience, this is a big. This is the first touch point they have. Literally. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Totally. Yeah. [00:19:36] Speaker B: And you can do all the marketing videos. Oh, this firm looks great. The partners, I really think I should call them. And then you call and you get a bad experience or AI and then all that brand and marketing and effort is just thrown down the tubes. [00:19:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're really excited to roll this out and to just, you know, and it's good for large law firms, but also midsize. And because the large and the midsize ones are filling, you know, like, the leads come, the calls coming in, we're able to also support smaller firms, too. So these small, smaller firms who are like, I don't, you know, need as big of a solution, we're able to do that too, because the larger ones are. Ones are feeding into the smaller ones, which is. [00:20:24] Speaker B: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that makes sense. Firm that gets a handful of calls a day or 10 a day or less. Like, you got some bigger firms, maybe different types of practices, whatever, it doesn't matter. Are helping build out that. That gig economy in your local area that you can kind of piggyback off of, if you will. [00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And the best part, or one of the best parts, what I love about this business is that it really is creating jobs for people in our communities, for our neighbors, and for people who just need some extra money. You know, life is expensive. Groceries, gas, all that stuff. And, you know, this allows them to have a flexible schedule, to be able to be home with their, you know, their families and still be able to, you know, provide for themselves. [00:21:08] Speaker B: No, I think it's great. I mean, sometimes, a lot of times I go to Uber, I'll talk to the drivers or whatever, and sometimes I'll just say, you know, this is all you do, or you do something else. I'm like, oh, no, no, I'm A teacher or I'm a firefighter or I'm, you know, whatever, all kinds of stuff. And yeah, so I can just make an extra 30, 40 grand a year or whatever it is. Even 10 grand a year. You know, they have a reason for it and it makes extra money for them. So it's the same, same concept. I love it. It's. You can do it full time or you could, you know, just supplement your income or maybe your home's. Injured, sick, you know, whatever. Disability, Retired. [00:21:44] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:44] Speaker B: Yeah, there's. There's a ton of application for it. So. [00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah, with my last company, we had a lot of military, like retired military people who maybe around disability, but they, you know, it gives them purpose also to talk to people and encourage people and just like, again, love on people. And that's. I feel like the differentiator from, like one of the differentiators for what we're doing is that is love. It really is like we are pouring love into the people that are calling in. And I think, like, if someone's like, how do you differentiate yourself? Or if someone comes along and tries to build it? Love, that's. That's really. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Hey, man, ain't. Ain't no other call center can say that. Yeah, sorry. My call center. People that I know out there, um, now, I. Again, I think it's awesome. I think everybody should check it out. I can see this growing and being very popular. And I'm sure we'll. We'll hear more about it, see you out and about. I'll be at tons of conferences all the time. You should definitely come out at some conferences and, and just talk about it and expose people to it. Because I don't, you know, I. I know because I. When I met you, I was like, I never heard of this before. And I talk about intake all the time on this show. I've had intake specialists and consultants and all the peoples. What's the best way, again, people to connect with you? They want to, like, you know, personally connect with you and ask any questions. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah, they can slide into my DM, into my DMs. That's one way. Amber Wanner W A N N E R on LinkedIn. And then the website is getisreal.com getisreal.com. [00:23:19] Speaker B: all right, so get is real. And that's real. E or R E A L. So, yeah, is real. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Because everything we do is real. So, yeah, so if they want to connect with me there, like I said, we're doing this beta, exclusive beta where we'll be able to build it on their use case. So if they're like, it would be great if it texted after the call or if it did booking right on the call. Like, we, we could literally right now we're taking five more law firms and we could build it on their use case. So if anyone is interested, contact me as soon as you can so we can get you in on that. And then after that, the wait list is going to be, we're going to be rolling little by little off the waitlist in September. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Excellent. Well, if you're seeing this, we probably recorded this a month ago or so. So, yeah, leave a comment if you see this on LinkedIn or YouTube or Facebook. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:24:16] Speaker B: Cool. Well, I love it. I'm again, I'm excited to see how it goes and I think it's a great in between option for the, the solutions that are out there right now. [00:24:25] Speaker A: So I really appreciate. Thank you for having me on. [00:24:28] Speaker B: And yeah, I was thinking too. I was like, well, say you already work at a law firm and you answer a lot of phones during the day, but that's not your real. Maybe you're a paralegal, maybe you're. Because people throw everyone on the phone these days, they could also do this in the evenings for extra money. Like they're already doing it. They're good at it. So, yep, all kinds of opportunity there. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we're getting a lot of law firms where they're paralegals and their folks at the law firms are like, I can do this in my free time. [00:24:59] Speaker B: And yeah, it's like, yeah, leave work, go make an actually help, you know, make some more money in the evenings because again, it's something you already know. That's pretty cool. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Yep. And the gig worker doesn't have to type anything out or anything. It's literally they're getting paid to ask the questions and just listen. Like it's all recorded, transcribed, so they don't have to do anything. Just listen. [00:25:21] Speaker B: I might do this. I'm going to be one of the gig workers. [00:25:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I love it. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. Yeah. So. Well, cool. Thanks so much for just coming on to share this new innovation, new idea and hopefully we'll, we'll watch you grow and help a lot of law firms and help a lot of people. Again, leave a comment, ask any questions and I'll, I'll get you in touch with her if you're not sure where to go. [00:25:45] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. [00:25:46] Speaker B: All right, Amber, thanks so much. Stay on with me. Everyone else, thank you so much for tuning in. Always out there trying to find new stuff to bring you like it is real. So we'll see you soon. On the next episode.