Gideon Legal

Automated Intake for Law Firms

attorney-client relationship

Messaging

Talk It Out: Communicating with Potential Clients About Communicating with You

Lawyers generally like to avoid upfront conversations about money and communications, as they try to cross the finish line to signing on new clients.  The reason, probably, is that they feel that that will slow up the process of conversion.  And, that’s possibly true – the less time you spend talking about those things, the more likely it is to speed up the conversion process, because you’re removing a couple of hurdles.  Of course, that can lead to problems later on.  In terms of pricing, no one likes to be surprised by terms; and, while you might get lucky, with a client willing to pay a heretofore unseen rate, chances are there is likely to be some pushback.

And, you’ll probably regret your decision to not be forthright about addressing client communications, when you get your first 3 am text.  Yeah, it happens.

But, the fact of the matter is that lawyers have more power over their representation models than they think; they just need to speak it into existence – literally.

That’s why it’s so important to talk about communication preferences at the outset of the representation, so everyone is on the same page.  And, ideally, that is done via direct communication, and backed up by a clause in, or an addendum to, the engagement agreement.

You can also solicit client feedback on communication preferences, if you prefer to offer a more dynamic solution.

But, the point is that, if you want your clients to use certain communication parameters in the course of the attorney-client relationship . . . you just have to ask.

Marketing, Messaging, Technology

What Everybody’s Chatting About – How Chatbots Are Revolutionizing Law Firm Intake | Part 6: Chatbots and Legal Ethics

This is the last part of our 6-part series, in which we’ve addressed how chatbots are changing the game for law firm intake.  This is part 6, where we’ll discuss legal ethics concerns related to chatbots. In part 1, we defined what a chatbot is. In part 2, we covered common chatbot features. In part 3, we addressed why chatbots are so essential for modern law firm intake. In part 4, we taught you how to build the perfect law firm chatbot. In part 5, we offered some suggestions on how chatbots can help you make better decisions about client intake.

Any new legal technology comes replete with questions about legal ethics.  That’s totally fair.  Lawyers are uniquely situated professionals, whose entire businesses can be wiped away due to an ethical snafu, and each state has its own specific jurisdictional rules, which makes it especially difficult for multistate practices to derive an effective formula for staying out of trouble.  Even longstanding law office technology concepts,  like use of the cloud and epayments (which have largely received stamps of approval from ethics boards), still cause many attorneys to break out in hives.

The law firm chatbot implies questions about legal ethics (as do most marketing tools, especially those focused on engagement), because the technology is meant to engage non-clients.  In that construct, lawyers are concerned over ethics rules banning improper solicitation and the inadvertent creation of an attorney-client relationship.  Each of these concerns, however, can be dispensed with.

Chatbots don’t prompt the impermissible solicitation of clients any more than traditionally-accepted website contact forms do.  Chatbots merely invite a user (law firm lead) to input information.  And, in any event, once a user lands on a law firm website (another traditionally-accepted form of law firm marketing engagement), the question of improper solicitation largely goes away, because the website visitor has affirmatively sought out information about a law firm, and landed on an informational page.  This is not like the virtual equivalent of handing a business card to an injured party at the scene of a motor vehicle accident.  A chatbot is just another information-gathering tool seated at a law firm website.

The difference between chatbots and most law website applications is that a chatbot is an engagement tool that allows for a conversational interface, such that the more relevant concern is: will the law firm lead believe that an attorney-client relationship is formed, even if the law firm does not intend for one to be formed.  This is an old problem, with a modern twist, because a chatbot allows for a conversation, rather than just being a one-way information collection medium.  However, the solution is not dissimilar from what lawyers do in other contexts that implicate the gulf between clients and non-clients, because it’s still all about transparency and providing concrete status updates to non-clients.  And, in the context of a chatbot, that still looks very much like it does everywhere else.  The addition of a disclaimer into the chatbot dialog and/or mention of the use of a chatbot in the general website disclaimer puts the user on notice that mere use of the tool, including to book an initial consultation, does not create an attorney-client relationship.  Then, this is about finalizing the nature of the relationship.  Just as a lawyer would normally do, in this context: if a lead becomes a client, she signs a fee agreement; if a lead does not become a client, she receives a non-engagement letter or email from the law firm, in order to finally confirm the point.  Via chatbot technology, that can all be delivered through the software itself.

Chatbots may also have the ability to notify law firms of potential conflicts of interest, via integration with contact or client management software or reference to internal datasets, which potential conflicts lawyers can then clear or not.  The technology is not currently sufficiently advanced as to ‘automate’ conflict checks.  Currently, at least, the only safe route to clear conflicts via a chatbot is through the creation of an alert or flag that a law firm can process in the course of business.

Now you know how to implement a chatbot in an ethically-compliant fashion.  Thanks for following along with our 6-part series on how chatbots are revolutionizing modern law firm intake.  For more on law marketing in the modern age, keep reading our weekly blog posts here.

Marketing, Messaging

Singularity: The Importance of Selling One Thing

One of the reasons that general law practices, while satisfying the intellectual curiosity of attorneys, are nonetheless difficult to market is because it’s difficult to sell everything . . . unless you’re literally selling Swiss Army Knives.

I mean, think about it: If you need to hire a plumber (and, that’s a need, not a want), are you going to go find somebody who’s a jack of all trades, who can fix your clogged toilet right after he molds a scented candle?  Hell, no.  You want an expert.  The best businesses do one thing really well; and, that’s true of law firms, also.

Put yourself into the shoes of a legal consumer for a second.  Suppose you wanted a recommendation for or were looking for a divorce attorney.  Don’t you want somebody to tell you, or don’t you want to view marketing materials tending to the conclusion that, the person you would hire is an expert in that particular field, and does only that kind of work.  If someone tells you, ‘You should go see my friend, Jane. She practices all kinds of different types of law; but, I’m sure she would do a great job with your divorce!’, that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it?  It would be like telling someone, ‘Oh, your toilet’s overflowing?  My Uncle Ray is an HVAC technician, but he unclogged the toilet in his house the other day, so you should really give him a call!’  You ain’t never gonna call Uncle Ray. 

Clearly, it’s important for modern law firms to decide on a practice niche, stick with it, and consistently market it.  You need to be able to sell one concept, one major idea, to be able to succeed widely.  It’s partly a viable business strategy, and partly a recognition that people have neither long patience nor lengthy attention spans in a world that is saturated with information.

This notion of selling a single idea should also extend to any kind of marketing you will do within your law firm.  Don’t try to throw multiple concepts out at one time.  If you’re an outside counsel firm, and you’re productizing your law firm offerings by selling a business management audit, just sell that — don’t also try to offer employment law services and contract drafting services in the same advertisement, or pitch.  Less is more.  And, if you can get in at one level, you know you’ve gained your clients’ trust, and you can then upsell, or sell more services, down the line.  Remember that the attorney-client engagement is often a long road; and, understand that you win broadly in the long run, by winning small victories along the way.

This notion of single concept marketing is not new; but, it’s not often actualized effectively by lawyers.  So, every time your law firm runs a new marketing campaign, ask yourself how many different things you’re selling, or trying to sell.  And, if you find that it’s multiple things, try to whittle it down to one, and get focused, because your potential clients won’t have then ability, or the interest, to multitask on a sales proposition that is not unique.

Everything you do for your law firm marketing should have a singular focus.  If it doesn’t, it’s your job to create a true marketing funnel by narrowing down your approach.

Your clients do want a piece of you . . . you just have to decide which piece.

Marketing, Analytics, Messaging

Feels Like the First Time: Why Your Law Firm Needs to Develop a Client Journey

Law firms work vigorously to convert leads: to get those leads to pay retainers and sign engagement agreements.  That all makes sense: winning business is essential for any organization.  However, once law firms convert clients, there is often a dry spell before the new clients hear from their new law firms again; and, because many cases start with potentially significant periods before anything of note actually happens, new clients may go for months, or even a year, before they hear from their lawyer again.

This paucity of response is one of the reasons that law firms have a bad reputation for customer service.  Keep in mind that, while you deal with the legal field every working day of your life, for many of your clients, it will be the first (and potentially only) time they ever have an interaction with the legal system.  So, it’s essential to keep them informed of what’s going on, even if you know exactly what’s up.

And, that’s why your law firm should adopt and utilize a client journey.

A client journey is a series of interactions that are scheduled for onboarding new clients.  Even if these are automated, as part of a drip campaign for every new client, that’s a site better than just letting your new clients twist in the wind, wondering what happens now.  And, while you should maintain regular, personal contact with your clients (a good rule is to check in with each of your active clients via phone or email every six weeks), it helps to automate an initial rollout of information, in order to keep your clients engaged, and to make them feel cared for, while you can tend to more pressing substantive legal matters.

What you construct is entirely up to you; but, whatever it is, it should be a consistent demonstration of your investment in the attorney-client relationship.  By way of example, the client journey you build out might look like this: (1) a short video welcoming the client to the law firm, sent by email; (2) a follow-up email listing the various ways that the client can contact the law firm; (3) a text message to see whether or not the client has any questions; (4) an email notifying the client that you’ve signed her up for your enewsletter, which will follow on a schedule; (5) your first check-in call, six weeks into the representation.  In all likelihood that’s five more additional touches than most law firms get on new clients.  This listing assumes that your law firm is like most law firms in that it collects only the most basic client contact information: email and phone number; but, if you’ve got more than that, feel free to communicate with your client via other or alternate media.  No matter how you contact your new clients, set up a schedule, and follow through; that’s the only way to instill an effective system.

If you can install a client journey within your law firm’s client communications structure, you’ll end up with happier clients, which ultimately means more referrals and less malpractice risk.