If someone is considering using your services as an attorney, chances are good that they’ll end up on your website. A 2019 Martindale-Avvo survey found that 36% of potential clients reported using firm websites to choose an attorney. Another 45% said that when a friend or family member refers them to a lawyer, they’ll go to that lawyer’s website to learn more.
Your job is to make sure that when potential clients get to your website, they’ll get answers to their questions as easily as possible. That’s where live chat comes in.
What Is Live Chat for Law Firms?
Live chat is a tool you can add to your existing website. When someone visits, they can choose to chat with a live operator who will ask them more about the legal assistance they may need, and get the basic facts of their potential case. This operator can then gather the visitor’s contact information to put them in touch with your practice.
You can also use live chat to proactively reach out to site visitors, asking if they have any questions and learning more about their potential legal issue; preventing them from leaving your site to go somewhere else.
The benefits of live chat for law firms are clear. You can proactively connect with more website visitors sooner, thus capturing more leads and potentially turning those leads into cases. But what do customers think?
Establishing Trust
When someone looks for an attorney, what they really want is an ally—someone who will listen to their concerns and work to resolve their problems. Live chat lets customers establish that kind of supportive, one-on-one conversation right away.
Many visitors have never hired an attorney before and may find it to be an intimidating process. Live chat can make that first step an easy one. The visitor can remain anonymous as long as they would like and can chat on their own terms. That is when the live chat operator can ask questions to engage the visitor, get the conversation going, and help determine if the law firm can assist them.
A live chat operator will ask a visitor what they need in a lawyer and whether they have any specific concerns. Chat operators don’t offer legal advice, but they do know enough about your practice to answer important logistical questions about fees or whether you accept cases in a particular practice area. Most importantly, they will ask some open ended questions and engage the visitor in a conversation. This helps the visitor feel more comfortable and ready to take the next step, which is talking with your team on the phone.
The customer can provide their contact details to the operator for a follow-up. This helps the customer feel heard and helped during their very first interaction with your practice.
The Appeal of Instant Responses
When someone contacts an attorney, they want to know right away if that attorney can help them. Their emotions are likely running high when they contact you. They may not feel like they can take the time to fill out a contact form and wait for a call.
They definitely don’t want to wade through an interactive voice response (IVR) menu, pressing 1 for personal injury or 3 for divorce law. In fact, according to the 2018 State of IVR report, 83% of customers abandon a company as soon as they hear an IVR menu.
Live chat can be a more appealing option for many types of visitors. Customers can talk to a real person right away, with almost no effort and no worries about whether someone will call them back.
Personalized Help
If you’ve ever tried to find the answer to a question on a service provider’s website, you know how hard it can be. What page is the information on and how do you find it? If there’s a chatbot, how do you phrase your questions so you get the answer you need?
With live chat for law firms, all a customer has to do is ask a question and the operator will assist them. The person on the other end is a human, not a machine, and can quickly understand and help them get what they need.
Many of today’s live chat services also provide chat operators with information about the customer’s browsing activity, such as what practice area pages they’ve viewed and whether they’ve visited the site before. Operators can use that information to personalize their outreach.
One-Stop Services
According to new research from iLawyer Marketing, 84% of customers want to talk with at least three law firms before they choose an attorney to handle their case. Live chat helps them get as much information as possible in a single conversation, streamlining the process considerably.
With live chat, they might even be able to get so many of their questions and concerns addressed with a single contact that they don’t feel the need to go elsewhere.
After-Hours Availability
People don’t always have time to contact a law firm during normal business hours. Many of your potential clients are busy during the workday. Others may have a legal concern after hours and want to speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
Live chat for law firms makes it possible for potential clients to reach out to your firm and get an immediate response, no matter the time of day.
Start Chatting Today
With Ngage Live Chat for law firms, you can engage every website visitor with one-on-one service, no matter when they come to you. Ngage’s chat operators screen out unqualified leads, including those who need services you don’t offer, so you receive and pay for qualified leads only.
Ready to see the difference live chat can make for your practice? Request a free demo today.
