Today, law firms have an unprecedented number of tools and resources for customer service at their disposal. This has not only made the legal industry more competitive than ever but also changed the expectations potential clients have for the availability and responsiveness of the law firms they contact.
As third-party communication services become more popular, law firms of all sizes are realizing that they no longer must rely on reaching clients only during business hours. Based on our data, approximately 30 percent of potential clients initially contact a law office on nights or weekends. If your practice is unequipped to accommodate them, they will simply move on to your competitor.
The following are three ways to ensure your firm is adequately set up for responding to and signing after-hours clients.
One way to ensure availability for potential clients after hours is to use a call center or intake service. Having a live operator available to answer your phone calls, even if only to take a message or complete a simple intake form, will dramatically increase your chances of signing that caller as a client. Too many firms just put their calls through to a voicemail system, which could reduce the likelihood of obtaining that person’s contact information.
One example of a company that provides after-hours call services is Answer Connect. They will communicate with your potential clients and take thorough messages that they email to your team right away.
We also recommend both Legal Intake Professionals and Alert Communications because they each provide a full intake and screening process. Since they focus on law firms, they are good choices if you’re looking for more than just a messaging service. They will also live transfer quality potential clients who meet your specified criteria after screening.
If you would rather keep things in-house, assign an attorney or member of your legal team to be responsible for monitoring and responding to potential clients after hours. Designating this duty up front will create accountability and remove the question of who is supposed to call the potential client back.
Appointing a specific person to follow up with your leads will additionally ensure all potential clients are addressed and improve your chances of signing them as clients. This is also a good opportunity for new attorneys to get more experience and responsibility.
Availability to potential clients doesn’t only mean phone calls. In recent years, live chat has become the preferred method of contact for most website visitors, as its satisfaction rating of 73 percent outranks all other customer service channels.
Having a 24/7 live chat service on your website gives your potential clients another opportunity to reach out and interact with a real person. A live chat operator will obtain the visitor’s contact information and the basic details about their potential case and then send that information to you and your team via email or text so you can follow up with the potential client as soon as possible.
Here is an example of after-hours lead delivered by Client Chat Live:
We are happy to discuss any of these methods and how you can get more clients after hours. Please contact our team at 808-495-0231 or send an email to intake@clientchatlive.com for assistance.
