Gideon Legal Chatbot Software

Chatbot Software for Law Firms

automation

Technology, Marketing

If You Build It, They Will Convert – Part 3: Managing Workflows

Law firm workflows should be automated, to the extent possible.

Softwares for managing workflows are prevalent – so, options abound.  But, lawyers often equate the notion of ‘high-touch’ service (which they also highly value) to in-person communications.  However, the fact of the matter is that you can be ‘high-touch’ without personally engaging a legal consumer – including via the use of followup messages, and by providing quick turnaround on action items.

I mean, think about it: What’s the better customer experience?  Your client waiting for your phone call or a series of email messages to schedule an appointment – or, scheduling via an automated calendar application.  It’s pretty clearly the latter.  Speedy and efficient reactions may not be ‘high-touch’ interactions, as law firms often designate them – but, those interactions are ‘high-value’ transactions.

So, when you’re implementing workflows, determine which interactions actually require a person; but, don’t add people when you don’t have to – because people cost more than software.

In an intake workflow, for example, you may only need an in-person interaction to determine whether a potential conflict exists, or for an initial consultation.  Everything else (initial intake, qualification, signing, payment – as well as followups for same) can (and should) be automated.

The less you (personally) have to do in any given workflow, the more time you have to generate new high-value clients, or work on the high-value work from the clients you already have.

Automations opens you up to opportunities.

Marketing, Technology

Hold On, I’ll Transfer You: Modern Law Firms Need Digital Intake Solutions

For a long time, even deep into the 21st century, law firms were content to rely on analog processes for intake.  High-touch was the watchword; and, the feeling was that that was the only version of events that a potential client would accept.  But then, the coronavirus pandemic turned law firm marketing on its head, and attorneys soon realized, while despairing of traditional opportunities, that perhaps legal consumers were more willing to engage low-touch/no-touch, automated intake options than those attorneys had previously thought.

Now that that’s been settled (in much the same way that ‘work from home’ has been verified as actual work, in the modern construct), it opens up a ton of new opportunities for law firms, which can revert to totally analog procedures, adopt a hybrid model, or go full digital.  Most law firms will approach the middle ground; but, there remains an opportunity for the majority of law firms to add more technology to their intake processes, which should lead to added efficiency, as well as more lead conversions.

And, digital intake tools are absolutely the best way to meet the modern law firm lead’s need for speed, for access to a lawyer. Almost always, the first business to engage a lead ends up picking up that work; and, that’s true in legal, as well.  However, the problem with analog tools is that they require impatient customers to wait.

Let’s take an example: Live chat can be expensive, but functions like a phone call taking place online.  There’s an operator, who may or may not be available.  The consumer waits to be connected.  Sometimes, the operator is able to schedule an appointment, sometimes not.  That’s an analog process, converted to the web. 

Now, consider a chatbot, which may utilize the same script that a live chat operator would be using, but that provides immediate answers, in real-time, and which could book a lead to an appointment with the appropriate person once a few qualifying questions have been answered.  That’s a digital process, built for the web.

Given the speed and accuracy with which a digital agent can operate, it may mean the difference between just getting a lead and converting a client.