My 17-year-old got a speeding ticket last week. He was driving from Cary, where we live, to a cycling race in Greenville, South Carolina. He was written up for going 70 in a 60. I have no idea how fast he was really going.

Anyway, I promptly e-mailed an attorney I know in Greensboro and asked for a referral so we could get some advice. She got right back to me with the name of a lawyer she loves.

I Googled him and found his website. There’s a contact form on his site, so I filled it out and explained who I am, how I was referred, and what I needed. I asked the lawyer’s office to e-mail me back so I could send in the ticket for review.

Nothing happened that day.

Nothing happened the next day.

Nothing happened the day after.

I called, left a voicemail, and got a call back from the lawyer.

All is well, and he’s handling the matter for us. In fact, I just mailed him a check (I’ll save my credit card/PayPal/online payment rant for another day). He has it under control, and I’m figuring out how to make the 17-year-old pay all of the fees involved.

But, but, but…it’s a good thing I’m persistent. It’s a good thing I didn’t take the rejection of my initial contact personally. It’s a good thing we didn’t respond to the four letters from other lawyers we’ve already received offering to take the case for 1/4 of the fee I’m paying.

Seriously, why bother with the website if you’re not going to respond to the leads? Was it the lawyer? Is the contact form defective? I know something happened when I clicked “send” on the form because I got a confirmation email from Martindale-Hubbell (the provider).

So why do you care about my experience? Because it could be happening in your office. Are you following up on every lead? Is your website working? Is someone returning every potential client call? Are you sure?

We spend all sorts of energy generating leads. Letting them go to waste is just a shame.