Why Live Chat is Now More Important for Law Firm Websites

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, law firms all over the world are facing more and more changes to their day-to-day work. The current transition from a traditional to a virtual law firm has been tough for many. With mandated social distancing orders in place, lawyers are limited in the ways they can obtain new leads and convert them into paying clients. Moreover, the pressure to provide fast and efficient legal support during this pandemic has become quite a challenge. Thus, live chat services available on law firm websites are now more important than ever. You can use a live chat service to answer legal queries and collect potential client information, 24/7. Moreover, live chat is inexpensive when compared to phone chat services, which can cost law firms, on average, $35 per lead.

Live chat is still an untapped potential for many firms that can not only boost your lead generation but also help you understand your visitor’s behavior on your website. Below, we dive into some of the benefits of having live chat functionality on your law firm website.

Immediate response with no waiting period: 

In a traditional phone-based support system, potential clients most often get caught up in long waiting queues. The process of going through interactive voice response (IVR) menus to speak with a professional about a legal query is frustrating for callers. You can ultimately lose a potential client in this process. Having a live chat functionality on your law firm website, where someone is there to respond immediately and provide legal assistance to potential clients is a more efficient alternative. If a visitor is simply looking for advice, and not necessarily ready to speak with an attorney, you can send them content like articles, blog posts, or informational videos through a live chat.

Helps converts visitors into prospective leads: 

Imagine a visitor comes to the office reception and interacts with a dedicated legal assistant or a paralegal, who listens to his requirement before directing him to the requisite lawyer. Now, with law firm offices closed under ‘lockdown’, the visitor reaches out to you digitally. Live chat services provide parallel legal assistance online, greeting the visitor, understanding their legal requirement, and directing them to the proper lawyer in your firm.

Proactive outreach through AI-powered conversation:  

When embedded into your law firm’s website, live chat services can help you better understand your website visitors. These services can track behaviors, including geographic information, web-browsing patterns, identification information, and historical information like visit time, chats durations, etc. Based on all this information, you can have an AI-powered, personalized conversation, proactively with your visitor before even the visitor clicks the ‘chat option’.

Helps you establish your niche: 

In a traditional law firm, it is a common issue to encounter calls from people seeking legal assistance that you do not provide. Your legal assistant then has to take the time to explain over the phone that your firm does not handle these matters. Whereas, with live chats, the visitor gets instant and clear information about what your firm does. A live chat service will assist the visitor by directing him or her to the right links to meet their legal requirements. Thereby, you can establish your niche as well as save your employee’s time from doing repetitive administrative work.

Cover every language with just one live chat: 

One of the major benefits of having a live chat service on your law firm website is, you no longer need a multilingual team of staff to cater to a geographically spread client base. Live chat uses online tools like Google Translate to effectively answer inquiries in all languages.

Secure and reliable:

As all law firms are governed by an attorney-client confidentiality clause, you need secure and reliable legal assistance between all correspondence.  Fortunately, live chat software follows state-of-the-art security protocol with HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS compliance, and a data encryption facility with 24/7 uptime. 

Supports growing business:

Live chat services help in monitoring visitor behavior on your website when integrated with Google Analytics. Thus, you can use live chat software on your law firm’s website to interact with prospects as well as to gather web analytics, including the percentage of visitors that convert into leads. This valuable data should be used to inform your marketing and business plans.

Takeaway

According to a report published by TELUS International, a lot of businesses are yet to adopt live chat for their client interactions; out of 1000 companies, only 9% are using live chat. However, these businesses have already benefited as they have seen a 20% increase in leads. In this digital age, and now particularly, it is the right time for your law firm to start using live chat services to communicate with prospects in real-time. Simply stated, live chat services are convenient, and cost effective lead generators.

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