Pretty soon every law firm will have a chatbot as part of their team and we’ll look back and wonder just how business was ever done without them.
With the inevitable march towards automation, an over-capacity in the legal market place, a change in the way consumers are communicating and increased attention to cost reduction and efficiency, law firms are left with no choice but to embrace change and bring in the newest employee: the legal chatbot.
Chat is the Primary Channel of Communication
If only all legal decisions were made between 9am and 5pm while most people are at work or in front of a desk with the luxury to browse your website, reading and researching the beautifully-crafted articles that have been prepared to help and guide them through an often complex environment of legal choice propped up with jargon.
Alas, the reality is more that many of us now make legal decisions while watching Netflix on a Wednesday evening over a phone. And here’s a phrase you’re unlikely to hear: ‘I wish I could speak to a lawyer right now.’
It doesn’t happen – in fact, if you’re under 35, your primary channel of communication is now online chat, and within three years this will be the primary channel for all of us. Speaking to lawyers on the telephone or emailing them at the start of your legal journey will be done through chat and with a chatbot – and here’s why!
1. Law Firms are Open 24/7
It’s possibly one of the most ironic jokes that the advent of the computer age brought us, that our working day would be reduced while we enjoyed a more contemplative life. An ever-increasing pace of life is the real legacy, and the legal profession is far from immune from this. Gartner’s Chatbot Report (2019) explains that getting an instantaneous response from a consultancy is a key driver to how a potential buyer continues to proceed through the sales journey.
Gabba’s legal chatbots offer this service. The ability to be live, ready and waiting for potential and existing clients queries is now a must for law firms that strive for excellence and build their business around their clients.
2. Lead Generation
Lead generation is all-round great ‘calls to action’ (CTAs), and when it comes to law firms, we can cut to the chase and say ‘show me the contact.’
But here’s the thing – nobody enjoys completing those ‘name-address-legal issue’ forms on a mobile phone, no matter how optimized your website – it’s messy and it’s a pain!
If you do find yourself on the sofa during another season of Suits, chatting to a friend about how Ava Hessington is also Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones (disclaimer: I recognise this is annoying if you’ve seen neither), you won’t call someone with this info, or worse still email them, would you? No – this would be communicated through chat, so why change the channel for lead generation?
We’re comfortable with ‘chat’ and when it comes to lead generation, being comfortable and form completion are pretty important. They can be the difference between having a law firm that smashes its budgets, or one that’s trying to figure out how to get people to speak to them.
Another great feature of lead generation for law firms using chatbots is the chatbot’s ability to understand just where the potential client is in the buying journey and to adjust and respond accordingly. Not everyone is ready to buy, equally not everyone wants your latest pdf download of doing business in Hungary!
A well-designed chatbot flow for a law firm helps the user navigate the often complex world of legal practice and solutions offered. Establishing the exact nature of the potential client’s enquiry from the outset and managing expectations around just what the chatbot can do and achieve are vital almost from the very first engagement.
3. Schedule Meeting & Consultations
It makes no sense whatsoever that your lawyers aren’t available 24/7 to take meeting requests. Chatbots are fantastic in terms of allowing you to schedule meetings and appointments directly into lawyers’ diaries, and all though chat. This can be followed up and integrated with qualification emails or video, or even video chat, through the chatbot.
Law firms are adapting to the ‘now’ demands clients are placing on them and chatbots help them to stay ahead. There will come a time when we marvel at just how long-winded and cumbersome it was to get a meeting with a lawyer– it will fall into exactly the same category as how we used to drive out to business parks to buy toasters!
4. Content Provider
The last decade (2010-2020) has been a fertile time for law firms and content. There are now blogs on each and every aspect of the law. White papers, special editions, videos, podcasts – no platform has been ignored in the quest to get information into the potential client’s hands.
Chatbots, though, are made for delivering content. They do it better than letting the potential client choose their own content! What I mean by that is that a well-designed chatbot flow can understand and anticipate, with the help of artificial intelligence, not only what someone wants but also what someone actually needs! This is a huge step forward in terms of helping not only educate and communicate just what your law firm can help people with, but also in terms of improving customer satisfaction.
Some things never really change – give the customer what they want and make them smile! Chatbots are great at doing both.
5. Answers Now! Frequently Asked Questions
If nothing else, if you decide that you don’t want your chatbot to do lead generation, get it to answer FAQs.
A recent McKinsey Global Report outlined the potential areas a lawyer’s role can be automated – up to 25% of all business! Don’t use up all this free time giving repetitive tasks back to lawyers, such as answering the same questions many times over, week after week, year after year.
A chatbot provides great data to a firm to help understand just what people are asking for. It helps us understand just what the issues are – is parking really the only thing people need information about? And how do people speak about divorce? A chatbot allows us to identify patterns, using the AI to offer back better and more refined responses. And here, we’re right back to giving clients and potential clients exactly what they want.
6. Case Tracking
Where’s’ my delivery? Where’s my shipping? Where are you up to on my case? … Process efficiency has played such a vital part of many law firms’ success. Those that have been able to deal with greater case numbers in more efficient ways give themselves a huge competitive advantage in the market place, whether that’s through talking larger profits or a higher market share or being able to offer up more competitive rates.
Giving access and transparency to these processes is now the next step to complete this virtuous circle – and chatbots can play a vital role here. Clients can now communicate through chat and ask quite simply, where are we up to? What are the costs incurred to date? And so on.
7. Legal Calculator
From helping people understand compensation to fines, chat-powered calculators are great tools that law firms can utilize to encourage real engagement with an audience. Chatbots create platforms to display these tools – what better way to encourage potential clients than inviting them into a chat to find out where they stand on a particular issue that’s of concern to them?
