When TopDog Law discovered they were overstaffed but still missing calls, they knew something had to change. In this episode, James Helm reveals how they transformed their intake from a traditional answering service into a data-driven powerhouse that's converting at elite levels.

Dominate your market today. Grab a copy of Chris’ latest book, Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: From Good to GOAT. 

Your firm can live and die by intake. In this episode of Personal Injury Mastermind, James Helm returns to share how TopDog Law scaled their in-house intake team while improving conversion rates. From AI-powered quality control to precision scheduling, this is the blueprint for building a modern intake operation. If you're ready to move beyond basic CRM and transform your intake into a revenue engine, this episode is your roadmap.

We discuss:

• The real reason most law firms miss calls (hint: it's not understaffing)
• How Top Dog improved web form conversions from 25% to 29% with one change
• When to choose out-of-box solutions vs. enterprise platforms like Salesforce
• Using AI to flag high-value calls and monitor quality
• Data-driven scheduling that eliminated overflow calls
• The exact metrics that matter for measuring intake performance

Guest Details

James Helm is the founder of TopDog Law, handling thousands of calls monthly across multiple states. Under his leadership, TopDog has built one of the most sophisticated intake operations in the legal industry, combining cutting-edge technology with precision operations management.

• James Helm: LinkedIn
• TopDog Law: Instagram, Website, TikTok, Facebook 

Chris Dreyer and Rankings Details

Chris Dreyer is the CEO and founder of Rankings.io, the elite legal digital marketing agency. 

• Rankings: Website, Instagram, Twitter
• Chris Dreyer: Website, Instagram
• Newsletters: The Dreyer Sheet 
• Books: Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: From Good to GOAT; Niching Up: The Narrower the Market, the Bigger the Prize
• Work with Rankings: Connect

Time Stamps

00:00 Intro

04:01 Evolution from Call Center to In-House Operations

08:24 Agent Performance & Turnover Management

13:19 Converting Web Forms vs Inbound Calls

16:42 Quality Assurance & AI Integration

22:00 Staffing & Scheduling Challenges

28:27 Tech Stack & Salesforce Implementation

30:21 CRM Solutions for Different Firm Sizes

33:43 Future of AI in Legal Intake

35:30 Outro

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