Why Your Law Firm Website Needs A Chatbot (I Hate Bots Too)
Bots - and chatbots in particular - are annoying and they are everywhere! Bots and other forms of AI (artificial intelligence) are popular on websites and social media for one and only one reason: THEY WORK! Chatbots provide law firms with a new tool that gives your website more opportunities to connect and engage with visitors and prospective clients, 24/7/365 - and they are reliable and affordable!
What Is A Chatbot?
A chatbot can free up your law firm’s staff from many routine, initial phone calls and are available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - staffing that would be very expensive for a law firm. A chatbot is a form of online conversation using AI technology that is programmed to perform like human interaction with written or verbal communications including:
ask questions
answer questions
provide information
showcase your services and legal team
schedule appointments
direct visitors to another page on your website
collect data about your visitors and prospects
help potential clients learn more about your law firm and your services
engage qualified leads for your team members to followup with in IRL (In Real Life)
What Is A Legal Chatbot?
A legal chatbot is like any other chatbot EXCEPT it is designed specifically for the unique needs and client issues of law firms. All businesses are not the same, and while a generic chatbot may work great for your law firm, it also might not be the right choice for your firm. Law firms often need their chatbots to integrate with their CRM, case management software and other legal software.
Does Your Law Firm Need A Legal Chatbot?
Maybe - but maybe not. Your firm may not even need a chatbot. Who are your firm’s potential clients - are they other businesses? Are you targeting other law firms? Are your prospects only available 9-5, Monday through Friday? Are your ideal clients all in your time zone?
Once you get a handle on your target audience’s demographics (and I hope your firm has at least one ideal client profile or avatar, and preferably several!) you’ll have a better idea of whether your firm can benefit from a chatbot. Modern legal consumers are used to finding information online, at any time of day and on any day of the week.
Once you’ve decided that a chatbot can help you cost-effectively grow your business, the next decision is what chatbot features are important for your business. Here are some features you should consider when choosing a chatbot for your law firm.
10 Questions To Ask Yourself When Choosing A Chatbot
Is it brandable?
Can you give your bot a name, a face and add your logo - or is it promoting the bot developer?Is it customizable?
Can you easily write your own bot scripts, or do you need to have a programmer edit your bot questions, actions and answers?Is it easy for clients to use?
Of course the chatbot should be easy for your legal team to use! But more importantly, is it comfortable and friendly for your prospects and clients to use?Do you need a unique script for every website page?
Does every visitor to your site’s pages have the identical questions and follow-ups - or are there different questions for different clients’ needs and services?Do you presently have a 24/7 answering service?
How many calls do you receive when your firm is closed? What’s the cost for an answering service?Do you promote when you’re closed - or when you’re open?
Does your website advertise that prospects should call you only during traditional work hours to get more information and find out if you can solve their legal problem?Does it integrate with your legal software?
Do you need your chatbot to communicate with your other tools and programs including payment systems, e-signatures or appointment scheduling?Can the chatbot integrate with your social media?
Are you trying to get leads from your social media (and if you aren’t, why are you on social media?)?Is your intake team overworked or working inefficiently?
Does your intake team feel that they’re wasting time with calls that aren’t right for your firm and your services?What are your missed opportunities?
Are you maximizing all the visitor and prospect potential on your website, and you don’t need to make any changes to convert more leads to clients?
What Are The Best Chatbots for Law Firms?
There is really no “best” chatbot for law firms. In my experience, they all have different pros and cons including price, convenience, ease of use and effectiveness. However, working with my law firm clients’ websites and while building new websites for clients, I’ve had extensive experience with several different chatbots that I’m going to share with you to help you understand the different features that may be important to your law firm. There are many more chatbots for you to consider: these are the bots I have the most experience with.
Note: I am not paid to promote any of these chatbots, and I don’t receive a referral commission for sending new clients to these chatbot providers - in fact, they don’t even know I’m including them on my list!
1. GideonLegal
Gideon is a legal chatbot designed specifically for law firms, by a lawyer and a legal technology expert. I started working with a law firm client’s Gideon chatbot while Gideon was still in beta - and so I talked with the owners and developers directly about how to optimize how and where we use the bot on the website.
Honestly, Gideon is easy to set up, customize and brand - and it works. The team is responsive and helpful. Gideon integrates with other legal software and can talk to visitors and prospects 24/7/365, which is critical for a law firm with clients in multiple time zones, with busy schedules or who live and travel around the globe.
One feature I really like is that you can create a custom conversation for every single page on your website - or you can design one conversation for your entire site. This allows you to “test” out Gideon’s features and learn the best type of conversational flow for your services and clients, and then gradually customize and roll the bot out with new conversations as much or as little as you need for your firm.
It’s more expensive than the other chatbots I’ve worked with, but honestly: the results are better too.
2. ArtiBot
ArtiBot is a customizable bot that captures leads, books appointments and accepts payments on your website. It integrates with other software and tools including SquareSpace, WordPress and Zapier. It’s not built exclusively for law firms - but it’s a good, effective, and not too complicated chatbot to engage your website visitors 24/7/365 and to get leads you might otherwise miss out on.
Plus, ArtiBot's mobile apps let you get notifications every time you have a new lead - so you can easily and conveniently decide when and where to follow up with your prospects.
And, it’s free. Yes - F.R.E.E. ArtiBot might be a good trial run for your law firm to enter the bot world. Who knows - it might even be the best bot solution for your law firm!
BotPenguin is a freemium chatbot: there is a free version with basic features, and or you can choose a paid option that offers more features and flexibility. All versions offer live chat, drag and drop customizability and data analytics. BotPenquin integrates with your CRM, Facebook, WhatsApp and other legal software.
Paid features include integration with multiple Facebook pages and additional tools and unlimited bots for unlimited customer engagement solutions.
If your law firm has a Facebook business page, you can use Facebook’s free chat tool that integrates with Facebook Messenger. You can access the bot by logging into your page’s Business Suite. Facebook’s chat tool provides live chat via direct messages and can provide customized branding and messages. The chat plugin also can create auto-replies to Frequently Asked Questions.
Through Messenger, the Facebook chat plugin allows you to keep the connection and continue the conversation with prospects even after they are off your website.
Chatbots Can Convert Your Website Visitors Into Clients
People do business differently than they did 10 years ago, And to be honest, people do business differently today than they did prior to March 2020. More and more people - not just Millennials and Gen Z - are comfortable chatting with and sharing information with a bot. You may not personally like bots - but if you’re like me and use chatbots because they work - it might be time for your law firm to get on the chatbot bandwagon!
Is it time to add a chatbot to your legal team?
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