Blame it on our fast-paced digital world: most of us have become focused on instantaneous results and waiting is not an option. Your website visitors are no different; if they reach out and do not receive immediate answers, they may go elsewhere. Many law firms have turned to live chat to prevent losing traffic to competitors and to ensure that someone will be available to help potential clients beyond office hours. Live chat has advantages and disadvantages, but it is worth examining as a profitable addition to your law firm website.
What is Live Chat?
Live chat is a helpful tool that emerges during a visitor’s website visit. It may take the format of a corner pop-out that asks “How can I help?” or it may be a subtle speech bubble lodged in the corner of a web page. Live chat enables website users to contact a business without having to locate a website contact form, or (heaven forbid) make a phone call. Staffed by a third-party vendor, a live chat service can answer questions, engage website users, and direct potential clients to contact you later for more assistance. The live chat service uses support agents and pre-programmed answers to give your prospective clients a seamless introduction to your law firm, a quick response to their commonplace questions, and support through a friendly chat mood.
Why Use Live Chat for Your Law Firm?
Live chat provides one more convenient channel for visitors to contact you — even after office hours. Live chat can assist law firms by offering:
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- Live support personnel, who provide friendly, real-time help and can give more complex answers than conversations with a chatbot.
- Higher conversions. Companies who use live chat on their websites often gain more leads and harvest more email addresses than those without. Live chat services use various tools to measure these conversion rates.
- More happy clients. People who interact with live chat typically rank higher in client satisfaction.
- Immediate service. Many individuals prefer live chat over other contact methods because they receive an instant, complete response to their queries.
- Help beyond office hours. Employing a live chat service means fewer staff hours are needed to attend to clients on the phone, answering routine questions. With live chat, potential clients have the option to contact your law firm after the office closes, and your staff can follow-up later.
Some Disadvantages of Live Chat
Although some visitors enjoy using live chat, others may find it unhelpful or even annoying. It is reported that millennials are 20% more likely to engage with live chat than baby boomers, and millennials are 75% more likely to choose messaging over phone calls. Here are some common complaints regarding live chat, although chat services and options do vary:
- Sense of intrusion. Some live chat services employ a pop-up image, which interrupts a user’s visit and can cause irritation. Some users even report leaving a website because of annoying pop-ups, despite their goal of being helpful.
- Doubtful value to users. Live chat services typically staff people who are not connected with the law firm, and do not offer specific answers regarding an individual’s particular situation. Although live chat does model a personal interaction, the only answers the service can provide are the ones that the law firm has already anticipated and designated. However, some live chat services do employ agents who have been trained in the legal profession.
- Older populations are less likely to use live chat. As mentioned, baby boomers are less likely to take advantage of live chat, and some younger users avoid them as well. Any live chat technology should offer an easy way out, so users can dismiss the live chat pop-up if desired.
Live Chat or Chatbot?
Live chat is becoming a favored way to engage prospective clients and give instant answers, but some websites use chatbots. These computer programs interface with website visitors and can be useful for a website, depending on the unique needs of your business.
Live Chat
- A live chat session is operated by a real human being, who carries out the visitor interaction.
- A live chat session can be more helpful than an automated chat session when the visitor asks a relatively complex question.
- A live chat agent can go beyond the meaning of a query, even if the question was misspelled or phrased irregularly.
- A live chat agent can only interact with a certain amount of visitors at one time.
- A live chat is not necessary for routine questions such as a request for office hours or an inquiry about law firm practice areas.
- A live chat session does not always include immediate access to visitor information, which may temporarily prevent customized service.
Chatbot
- Chatbots are machines that are able to answer pre-programmed questions.
- Chatbots can integrate personal data with visitor questions, delivering an instant, customized response.
- Chatbots can interface with a number of interactions at the same time.
- Chatbots are especially useful for simple user queries that are commonly repeated by website visitors.
Some Live Chat Choices For Law Firms
Since prospective clients expect your law firm to be available at all hours, live chat is becoming more of a business necessity. Live chat can create instant impact, provide a personal connection and gain more leads. There are live chat applications that were designed by and for lawyers, and others that simply cooperate well with the needs of a law firm. Here are some top picks out of an abundance of choices; be sure to consider the particular needs of your law firm with its unique brand, size and audience before making your decision.
- Includes features that are law-firm specific
- Pay only for results (pay per lead)
- Demo available: 14-day trial
- Easy installation
- English / Spanish
- Includes features that are law-firm specific
- Flat price quotes by request
- Demo available: 14-day trial
- Monthly reports and chat transcripts
- English / Spanish
- Includes features that are law-firm specific
- Various price packages
- Demo available: 14-day trial
- Easy installation and use
- Multi-language capability
- Includes features which are law-firm specific
- Pay only for results (pay per lead)
- Demo available: 14-day trial
- Easy installation and startup
- Operators are trained in legal topics
- English / Spanish
- Used by many types of businesses worldwide
- Variety of chat tools
- Demo available: 30-day trial
- Easy to use
- Multi-language capability
- 42% of users are lawyers
- Demo available: 21-day trial
- 100% one minute or less response time
- Easy use and implementation
- English / Spanish
- Popular with a wide variety of businesses
- Various price packages available
- 30 chat free trial
- Easy setup
- 90 language capability
- Popular with a wide variety of businesses
- Demo available: 14-day trial
- Yearly pricing plans
- One of the most popular chat providers
- Multi-language support
THIS WEEK’S DIGITAL MARKETING ACTION STEP:
The internet never slumbers or sleeps, and people who are online expecting your law firm to be ever-available as well. Live chat allows busy lawyers assistance in reaching potential clients by providing a personal introduction and helpful experience to their website visitors. Using live chat as an addition to your other messaging options can offer prospective clients answers to their questions, generate fruitful leads, and bring new business into your law firm.
- Research different chat providers and decide how they could assist your law firm meet its marketing goals.
Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is now the CEO & Owner of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that provides unique, SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content, and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at annette@lawquill.com
