Each OHO location (formerly known as ODAR) has a distinct percentage of cases that are ruled favorably. We know this because the SSA makes all of this data public online. You can even look at the record of each judge’s decisions divided into fully favorable, partially favorable, and denials.

You can use these variances to your advantage. Here is a step-by-step guide for small firms on using eLuminate to increase your conversion rate based on data you collect from the offices where your hearings are held.

There are three steps that you need to take:

1. Define what a successful case looks like to you.
2. Set up eLuminate with a couple of custom fields.
3. Compare your successful clients to all of your cases and see if there is a pattern that suggests you have more success at a specific OHO location.

Defining a Successful Client:

The first step that you have to take is defining a good client. This definition is entirely up to your firm. In general, a good client can be defined in terms of a return on your investment, marketing return on your investment, as well as the time spent on the case. Here is one way to set up an equation that factors in all three.

It is up to you to define the ration that you consider successful. Once you set that level, anything above X is a successful case. On its own, X might not tell you much, however when compared to other cases you can see what is generating the best ratio of returns on your time and money investments. The reason that we include time is because of the opportunity cost. For example, if two cases generate the same fees and had the same cost to acquire, your return on your marketing investment would look the same. Now, if case A took 20 hours of work and case B took 60 hours of work the return on your time investment would be 3 times as much for case A.

Setting Up Fields in eLuminate:

Now that you have set a definition of a successful case, you can differentiate all of your cases by setting up custom fields in eLuminate. You can always break this into tiers of success if you want to dive deeper. However to start, create a drop down menu that allows you to mark the case as successful or unsuccessful. Successful cases are those that are the ones that fit your definition, the unsuccessful cases are those that were lost or were not worth the investment. For the purpose of this example, this will be the “Outcome” field.

You will also need to keep track of where the hearing was. Again, create a dropdown menu of the OHO locations that your cases are heard at. This is the “OHO Location” Field.

Analyzing The Data

Now that you have created those fields, you will have to run a report that gives you a baseline. Without any filters, run a report by “OHO Location”. This will tell you the percentage of your cases that are tried at each location.

Next, you can filter out all of the cases that are unsuccessful, which will leave you with a list of just successful cases. Then run the same report by “OHO Location”. This will tell you where your successful cases come from.

Now, using the percentages from the last two reports, you can see what your most successful OHO locations are.

For example, if your hearings are split 50-50 between two locations and your successful cases are also split 50-50, that would suggest that there is not a major difference between locations.

However, if your cases are split 50-50 and 70% of your successful cases come from one location, you might want to target cases that you can try at that specific OHO.

Targeting Cases

It can be difficult to choose where your cases come from; however, eGen can help. Our leads can be selected from specific regions using zip code prefixes. For large firms with the ability to travel, this might not make sense. However, if you operate a small firm, our exclusive, no minimum contract leads let you choose exactly where your cases are coming from.