As building a small law firm continues to increase in competitiveness, you want to capture any advantage you possibly can.
One of the strongest dial-movers determining success or failure for law firms today is client experience. Specifically, it’s important to look at responsiveness and the client experience right at the first engagement with your law firm.
The reason it’s important to bring up responsiveness is simply that lack of responsiveness costs law firms money.
Research by the ABA says that 42% of the time, law firms take 3 days or more to respond to voicemails or forms filled out in their firm. Additional research adds that responsiveness is often the deciding factor for which law firm a prospective client chooses.
Put this data together and the implications are obvious. Your responsiveness is directly correlated to your bottom line. Failure to respond quickly and effectively causes clients to look elsewhere.
Potential Clients Have Higher Expectations
A major reason why initial responsiveness is so important is because consumers are empowered by online buying experiences and are carrying the same expectations in evaluating professional services.
Think of how this works when you buy something for yourself. You are looking for a TV or a simple appliance. You will research and compare solutions before you are ready to make a decision.
Buyers are now empowered. You have an unlimited amount of options and information at your disposal, so you’ll lay everything out before making much of a commitment.
On top of having an excess of information at their fingertips, today’s buyer is now looking for immediate answers. Typically they can find them on their own. If they can’t, they want someone to point them to the answer right away.
“Today, the information that buyers need to make a purchase decision is just a click away. The power in the buying and selling process has shifted from the seller to the buyer. The buying process is transformed.
And that means to keep up with today’s empowered buyer, the sales process needs to transform too. Whether your sales process relies on inbound leads or targeted outreach, whether you’re a big company or small, whether your sale is complex or simple; inbound sales is relevant. That’s because inbound sales transforms selling to match today’s empowered buyer — so sales reps can sell the way people buy.” – Mark Roberge, Hubspot
The same thing is happening with potential clients approaching law firms. Rather than jumping straight into a free consultation, clients are doing their homework first.
Before a buyer is ready to speak with someone, they have already done research and read reviews to develop some knowledge about what they want.
Higher Expectations = Your Opportunity
The high expectations of your empowered potential buyer is an opportunity for your law firm. The key is to provide the type of experience they are looking for.
A big part of that expectation is responsiveness and even on-demand answers.
A Facebook-Nielsen study shared some thought-provoking data sharing that 53% of consumers are more likely to buy from a business they can message.
Your potential clients want immediate answers. If they are considering working with you and the last thing they have to do to work with you is fill out a form then wait for follow ups to set an appointment, the experience is not optimal.
Now they are waiting and have lost some of the momentum they had while actively seeking a solution. To stall momentum for a form and waiting could cause you to lose the opportunity. In fact, maybe instead of filling out the form, they even go seek out a competitor.
So why not have a live chat option where they can ask a few questions and get their appointment scheduled all without leaving their device or browser?
Where Live Chat Comes In
Live chat is a tool you can put on your website to engage, and start a conversation with, potential clients. Rather than sending them to a static form, you can engage in real-time.
This is helpful for the client, because they can determine if a consultation is the best next step, or have a simple question answered. Live chat enables you to proactively ask and answer questions.
With a web form, it’s a one-direction communication, not interactive, and there is a lot of waiting, meaning a potential client will often just move on.
While live chat is helpful for your site visitors, data also shows there are other great benefits for you to implement chat. When you add live chat to your website, studies are showing companies seeing conversion rates increase by around 45%.
You’re not only providing a better experience for potential clients, but you are also gaining more opportunities because you’re providing an easy way for them to get in touch with you.
“There’s a lot of power in being able to interact directly with customers in real-time on a homepage or landing page.
Live Chat helps you build personal connections with your customers. If customers can reach you directly for a personalized response, they’ll automatically be biased toward you.” Neil Patel
Improving Lead Quality with Live Chat
Live chat will not only increase conversions, but also help with quality. For one, the immediate responsiveness is going to provide a boost in how many show up for appointments.
Studies show prospective buyers are valuing responsiveness over almost anything when they are seeking a solution. A good live chat intake process is about as responsive as you can be which means you’ll start the relationship on a great note.
Additionally, live chat is a great opportunity to quickly qualify leads. Rather than a lengthy email chain or using 15 minutes of an appointment to qualify, you can ask a few discerning questions via chat and filter out your leads properly.
A live chat option is going to help you have better leads faster through the sales process and minimize time wasted on prospects who would not qualify.
Getting Started with Live Chat
Live chat is a great opportunity for improving your lead qualification efforts while providing a great experience for your potential clients.
But where do you start? The important thing to remember is that live chat is not replacing your intake process, but complementing it.
The key to success with live chat is to know your ideal clients well. This will allow you to use chat to speak in their language and move them through the client journey as needed.
When you put it on your site, you don’t have to use live chat to solve everything. A simple start is using chat to qualify and direct. Direct the client to the best next step, whether that’s an answer to a question or setting up an appointment.
Maddy Martin is the head of growth and education at Smith.ai, which provides integrated phone and web chat services for solo and small-firm attorneys, including their virtual receptionist & intake service, live website chat, and Keypad cloud phone system. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, SEO, and event marketing. Maddy can be reached at maddy@smith.ai, and you can also connect with her on LinkedIn.
