Once a referral request has been manually reviewed by our team, it goes into our matching engine that uses four primary filters to match the request with professionals: directory, license, specialty, and distance from office address. If all filters return a positive match we notify matched professionals about the request.
Filter 1 – Directory
Our system first filters the professionals by the directory where the lead has completed the intake from. For example Polishlawyers.com.
At the bottom of each referral request forms we ask whether the requester is open to qualified professionals from other directories in our network. That question is set to No by default. If the requester answers Yes to that question we check for professionals in the original directory as well as professionals in the "Global" directory in that profession. For example Legalglobal.com, Doctorsglobal.com, or Accountantsglobal.com. For example when someone is submitting a referral request through Frenchdoctors.com we ask them the following question:
If we are not able to find a French doctor are you interested in speaking with an experienced doctor or medical professional who is not French?
If we are not able to find a French doctor are you interested in speaking with an experienced doctor or medical professional who is not French?
To maximize the exposure of a business, we recommend professionals add their listing to all relevant directories including the global version of each profession.
Filter 2 – Required License
If a specific profession requires a government issued license, our system matches the request against the licenses added to each listing's in the user's account.
Some licenses are required by country and some by state. For example "Family Law" requires a state-specific license in the United States. However to practice "Immigration Law" in the United States an attorney can be licensed in any state. Our system has that information built in for the different specialties across different professions.
Filter 3 – Specialty or Practice Area Match
Our system then searches for professionals (listings) in our network who match the specialty that the referral requester has asked for.
To narrow down or expand the types of referrals, a professional can choose to add parent practice areas or child practice areas or both. For example if a professional lists "Family Law" as a practice area, they will receive all requests for family law attorneys that meet all the other required filters. However if the professional wants to only receive "Child Custody" requests, she she remove the "Family Law" practice from her listings and instead only keep "Child Custody" practice areas.
Filter 4 – Distance from Office Address
Professionals can customize the value of a field called "Miles Radius" in their listings. They can set a different Miles Radius for each practice area or specialty. Our system calculates the distance between the zip codes of the lead and all the addresses listed in the professional's listing. If at least one of the calculated distance values is less than the "Mile Radius" number set by the professional, our system will consider that a match.
If a mile radius value for a practice area is set to zero, our system doesn’t use this filter. All the other filters will still be used in the matching. For example if a professional has selected 0 miles for “Personal Injury” cases they will receive all Personal Injury leads in their state (valid state license required) who also match the directory.
