How Lexidesk handles enquiries for your firm
Lexidesk is an AI intake and reception system made only for consumer-facing firms of solicitors. It answers your calls and your website chat at any hour, runs a proper intake conversation, qualifies and rates each enquiry, and either books an initial consultation or transfers a qualified enquiry to your fee-earners. Below is what it captures, how it decides who is a fit, how it stacks up against a call answering service, and how it handles data under UK GDPR. For workflow specifics, see AI phone intake and the AI receptionist.
How an enquiry is handled, start to finish
Every inbound call and chat is answered the instant it comes in, out of hours included, by an AI agent we call Emma. She is not a switchboard or a voicemail. She has a conversation, works through your intake questions, and finishes on the right next step for your firm: a booked consultation, a booking or payment link, or a warm transfer to your team.
- Answers in seconds on phone or web chat, 24/7, so no enquirer reaches a voicemail
- Works through your intake questions and qualifies the matter against your firm’s criteria
- Rates each enquiry from 1 to 10 on suitability and urgency1
- Takes the next step you set: books a consultation, sends a booking or payment link, or transfers a qualified caller live to a fee-earner
- Sends the booking link by text and email, then follows up if the enquirer does not book
- Records a summary, recording, and full transcript to your dashboard and case management system
What it will not do
Emma handles intake and reception, not fee-earning work. She does not give legal advice, and she discloses that she is an AI assistant, either at the outset or when asked, depending on how you set it up for your obligations.2 Her role is to capture the matter accurately and get suitable enquirers in front of your solicitors sooner, not to advise or to judge the merits of a matter.7
A call answering service vs Lexidesk
Most firms weigh Lexidesk against the call answering service or out-of-hours service they already pay for, not against other software. That is the comparison that matters, because it is where the gap is obvious.
The trouble with a human out-of-hours or overflow service is rarely that the phone goes unanswered. It is what lands in your inbox afterwards. Cover varies from shift to shift, and what you get is a short note: someone rang, here is a number, ring them back. It says nothing about whether the enquiry was worth chasing. And the enquirer has usually had to repeat their story, once to the service and again to your team, which is precisely the friction that costs you trust before a solicitor has spoken.
AI intake changes that completely. Emma qualifies in detail and keeps the reasoning, rates the enquiry from 1 to 10, and saves a full transcript and recording you can read or listen back to straight away. Your team can see which enquiries are eights, nines, and tens and ring those first, rather than working through a pile of identical message slips. Because Emma knows which fee-earner takes which kind of matter, she can point the enquirer to the right person and send that fee-earner’s booking link instead of a single shared diary.3
Enquirers are told they are speaking to an AI and can ask for a person whenever they like, so nothing is concealed, and the manner stays just as patient late on a Sunday as it does first thing Monday. The cost works differently too. A flat monthly fee usually comes in below a staffed out-of-hours desk, and because the work is qualification and booking rather than message-taking, one consultation that converts can cover a year of the service. Put your figures into the revenue calculator to see where it falls for your firm.
Call answering service compared with Lexidesk AI intake | Call answering service | Lexidesk AI intake |
|---|
| Availability | Working hours, or premium 24/7 | 24/7, every call and chat |
|---|
| Detail captured per enquiry | Name and callback number | Full matter, qualification, and reasoning |
|---|
| Enquiry rating | None | Every enquiry rated 1 to 10 |
|---|
| Books consultations | Rarely | Books and sends the link |
|---|
| Routes to the right fee-earner | No | Matches matter type to fee-earner and diary |
|---|
| Record of the call | Short written note | Summary, recording, and full transcript |
|---|
| Follow-up if no booking | None | Personalised text and email sequences |
|---|
| Cost as volume grows | Per-minute or per-call | Flat monthly, no extra agents |
|---|
A different approach, not another tool
Lexidesk can run as your complete intake, answering every call and chat 24/7 on its own, or work alongside an in-house team. Plenty of firms keep their people and use Emma for first response, out of hours, and overflow, so enquirers always reach a real conversation and fee-earners spend their time on matters that are already qualified. For those firms, the detail Emma captures tends to lift the standard of the live team as well, since it sets the benchmark everyone works to.
For a like-for-like on a specific provider, read Lexidesk vs Moneypenny, or browse every comparison in the knowledge hub.
Data, GDPR, and where information is held
Lexidesk runs on Microsoft Azure infrastructure aligned with ISO 27001, SOC 1, SOC 2 Type II, and UK GDPR requirements, with client data encrypted in transit and at rest and strict role-based access internally.4 Your firm controls call recording, consent, and how Emma discloses herself, so the setup meets UK GDPR, ICO guidance, and your SRA duties. The specifics are in our privacy policy and data and service commitments.
Integrations and where the detail goes
Every conversation feeds into the systems you already use. Lexidesk creates the contact and attaches the call summary, qualification status, enquiry rating, and a link to the recording and transcript, and you decide which enquiry types route where.5
Native Lexidesk integrations and what each one receives| Integration | What Lexidesk sends to it |
|---|
| Clio | A contact (matched by email or phone, no duplicates), plus a detailed note with the summary, qualification, rating, and transcript link |
|---|
| Lawmatics | A contact and note that fire your existing Lawmatics workflows |
|---|
| HubSpot | A contact, plus a timeline note with the summary, qualification, rating, and transcript link |
|---|
| HighLevel | A contact and note that trigger your HighLevel automations |
|---|
| Actionstep | A contact and intake note with the summary, qualification, rating, and transcript link |
|---|
| Custom / webhook | The full conversation payload, including contact, case data, qualification, rating, and the audio recording URL, sent as JSON to Zapier, Make, n8n, or your own system |
|---|
Onboarding and pricing
Most firms are live within 3 to 5 working days. You complete an onboarding form, our team builds and configures the agent, and you test it on real calls before launch. For the first fortnight afterwards we make unlimited adjustments and review calls with you, and then you keep a dedicated contact after that during your working hours.
Pricing is a flat monthly fee that scales with your call and chat volume, and spam and duplicate contacts are excluded, so you are not charged for noise.6
Results and where to go next
Firms across family, personal injury, immigration, conveyancing, and more run Lexidesk on their enquiries. See what changed for IMD Solicitors or read the client voices from people who spoke with the AI.
Notes
- 1.Qualifying criteria and the 1 to 10 rating are defined by your firm during onboarding. Lexidesk applies them but does not make legal judgments about a matter’s merits.
- 2.Emma discloses that she is an AI assistant and does not provide legal advice. Firms configure how and when this disclosure is made to suit their obligations.
- 3.Per-fee-earner routing and booking depend on the diaries and matter-type rules your firm sets up. Live transfer applies during the hours your firm chooses; outside them, Emma books a consultation instead.
- 4.Hosting is on Microsoft Azure infrastructure aligned with the listed standards. Your firm remains responsible for configuring recording, consent, and disclosure to meet UK GDPR, ICO guidance, and SRA duties. See the privacy policy and data commitments for details.
- 5.Native integrations include Clio, Lawmatics, HubSpot, HighLevel, and Actionstep. Other systems connect through Zapier, Make, n8n, or custom webhooks and may require setup on your side.
- 6.Pricing is a flat monthly fee that scales with call and chat volume and excludes spam and duplicate contacts. Final pricing is quoted per firm.
- 7.Lexidesk provides intake and reception for consumer-facing firms of solicitors. It is not a substitute for a solicitor and does not provide legal advice to enquirers.