Find new clients using chat tools for your law firm’s website

Did you know that bringing in new business is a big challenge for lawyers? The good news is that effective marketing is the perfect antidote to this problem. Unfortunately, most attorneys know very little about legal marketing, and with so many online and offline marketing options out there, it can be difficult to decide which ones will work best for your law firm’s needs.

Before the Internet, legal marketing was a little easier, though often more expensive. The Yellow Pages, park benches and billboard ads — along with radio and TV spots — were par for the course for some law firms. If you wanted to reach more people, there were your main channels, and none of them were cheap.

Nowadays, attorneys have many more options, many of which are more cost-effective than the old-school methods. The problem is that increased choice can complicate matters and make legal transactions more confusing than ever, especially as we deal and communicate online with increasing frequency.

There is no immediate end in sight to the remote work trend, and as a result, legitimate users are developing a habit of getting information from both online content and interactive features on websites. Rather than picking up the phone to get answers to questions, they prefer to get answers online. This means that your law firm’s website acts as the firm’s virtual front door.

One way or another, you should be able to provide the answers you need, as long as doing so does not violate ethical guidelines and inadvertently create an attorney-client relationship. Otherwise, you risk losing business to more responsive competitors. That’s where website-based chat tools come in; They are one of the best frontline marketing tools for law firms.

Discussion tools for lawyers

Chat tools are an affordable and practical way for law firms to provide information to potential clients and can also be used to obtain intake information from them. By using live chat tools or AI-powered chatbots, your organization will be more responsive and ultimately more successful.

There are many chat tools available for lawyers, it’s simply a matter of finding the right one for your firm’s needs. I wrote about chatbots a few years ago, and since then, there are more options for chat tools than ever before. The following are some of the most popular website chat options for lawyers.

But be aware that this article is not all-inclusive, and whichever you choose, you will be entrusting some of your law firm’s confidential client data to a third party. Accordingly, you have an ethical obligation to carefully vet your chosen service provider, as all data is stored on servers owned by third parties. This obligation includes understanding how the company handles the data. The location of the servers where the data is stored; Who can access the data; and how and when it will be supported—among other things.

Many chat tools to choose from

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the negotiation tools of lawyers.

First, there are virtual hosting services, most of which offer chat tools for your company’s website. Both of the companies below integrate with many law practice management software systems.

Ruby And Smith Both offer standalone live chat tools. Ruby offers live chat and The price starts Up to 10 chats for $129 per month. Smith.ai offers both live and AI-powered chat tools. of Free AI chatbot It provides a “personal assistant” that can be added to your organization’s website. Captures leads, completes client intake and schedules appointments. Smith.ai offers up to 20 live chats with live agents starting at $10 per chat, and beyond that the price per chat is reduced based on the subscription plan you subscribe to. Full pricing information is available. over here.

And then there is. Gideon, a chatbot designed for lawyers and co-founded by Jared Correa, a prominent legal practice consultant and advisor. Along with co-founder Elan Fields, Correia created this chatbot service with the goal of streamlining client onboarding for law firms. Gideon chatbots can qualify leads, schedule hotline calls, appointments, create new customer cases, and collect documents based on chatbot responses. Pricing is not available on the website. Gideon integrates with many law practice management systems.

It is another option. LawDroidIt is a company that creates custom automation tools for law firms, including chatbots. Some of the tasks that can be done using chatbots include customer intake and appointment scheduling. Pricing is not available on the website and will depend on the specific function your company wants the chatbot to perform.

There are also a few other legal-specific chatbot options to consider. YoTengoBotDesigned for use by immigration attorneys to assist with client onboarding. Pricing starts at $89 for up to 100 monthly active contacts.

It is another option. KLoBotWhich attorneys can use to create custom-built chatbots for their firm. Pricing is not available on the website.

Bottom line: If you’re in the market for a chat tool for your company’s website, you have several options. You’re certainly not limited to the ones listed above, and you’ll find that there are many different types of chat tools at different price points that can fit your law firm’s needs. Whatever your company needs, one way or another, you’re sure to find a chat tool that fits perfectly!

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York-based attorney, author, and journalist, and she is a legal technology evangelist. MyCase, a company that provides legal practice management software for small businesses. She is a nationally recognized author Cloud Computing for Lawyers and is a co-author. Social Media for Lawyers: The Next FrontierBoth published by the American Bar Association. She is also a co-author Criminal law in New York, a Thomson Reuters report. She writes regular columns for ABAJournal.com and Beyond Law. He has written hundreds of articles for other publications; He regularly speaks at conferences on legal communication and new technologies. Follow her on Twitter. @nikiblackOr it can be found on her [email protected].

This column reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal or the American Bar Association.