When a consumer is reaching out to a law firm for help, they often have a problem that is not only important, but urgent; they want answers as soon as possible. At the same time, the problem they’re concerned about may be a sensitive issue, like a pending divorce or a criminal charge that’s uncomfortable to pick up the phone and talk about.

Live chat for law firm websites addresses both these issues. Prospective clients can reach out to a law firm in a way that feels less intimidating than a phone call, and they can get an almost immediate response from a live person who represents the firm. Live law firm website chat seems like a win-win: potential clients get the prompt response they want, and law firms get to impress website visitors with their responsiveness. 

So why don’t more law firms offer a live chat feature on their websites? According to the ABA’s 2023 Law Firm Websites and Marketing Tech Report, 81% of respondents’ firms definitely do not offer live chat (and only 12% were sure that their law firm’s website did offer it). That may be a lost opportunity for the 81%, but it also means you and your firm can seize the opportunity to stand out. 

Advantages of Live Chat for Law Firm Websites

Imagine that you need to buy something—say, a tool you’ve never used before for an important project. You’re feeling a little uneasy because you know you need something, but you’re not sure exactly what. You walk into a brick and mortar store, and you can see a lot of products on the shelves, but there’s no one there to greet you. You look around, but you’re not sure if the merchandise you’re seeing aligns with your needs. 

If you could just get a little guidance, you might commit to a purchase, but right now you simply have too many unanswered questions. In fact, you don’t even know where to start. After wandering the aisles for a few minutes, you turn around and walk out in frustration. 

Now, imagine walking across the street to a similar merchant, where a smiling clerk greets you shortly after you enter. They ask if they can help you, and you mention your project. The clerk asks a few relevant questions about your project, which clarify your needs and help your options come into focus. 

Chances are that you will walk out of the second store with a purchase, or at least a positive feeling about the business that makes you likely to return. Why? Because the business gave you the information you needed when you needed it, and perhaps answered questions you didn’t even know you had. Website live chat for law firms has the same effect, especially for visitors who are unfamiliar with legal services.

Immediate Response 

When you have an urgent question, you want a quick response. Live chat allows website visitors to get a response from a law firm within seconds. Granted, it won’t be a detailed, case-specific legal response from an attorney—but it will help the visitor feel heard and connected. That improves conversion rates.

More Convenient, Less Intimidating

Increasingly, people prefer to communicate via text, not by telephone. Live chat for law firm websites allows that—and it’s less daunting than describing a criminal charge or other personal legal matter to a stranger on the phone. That, plus the immediate response that live chat allows, adds up to a better overall user experience.

Always Available

Law offices typically keep standard business hours, but legal needs don’t always confine themselves to those hours. Live chat gives your law firm the ability to capture leads after hours—when competitors who don’t have this capability are unavailable to people searching for a lawyer.

Better Screening and Qualification

Website chat may not just help law firms get more clients; it can also help them get better ones. Paige Silver, Marketing Team Lead at The Modern Firm, observes, “Customizing screening questions for law firm website chat can help ensure that the leads that are getting through are a better fit for the law firm.” 

Challenges of Using Live Chat on Your Law Firm Website

In case it’s not already clear, we at The Modern Firm think law firm website live chat has a lot of upside, and we recommend it for almost any law firm. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some potential challenges. 

One is the fact that, if you do it in-house, live chat is fairly labor-intensive; you have to have somebody available to respond to chat at any hour of the day. Using a vendor can be more cost-effective and scalable, but of course there is still a financial investment. 

It’s important to manage the expectations of chat participants, as well. Given that live chat operators are usually not attorneys, participants should not expect to receive detailed legal advice. They should also be aware that the chat is not completely private; other parties, such as lawyers, paralegals, or system administrators may view the information in the chat.

Speaking of expectations—law firms may need to manage theirs, as well. Desired results may not be immediate. Paige Silver cautions, “It can take one to two months of working with live chat to refine screening questions and ensure that the law firm is capturing the right leads, the ones that will be a good fit for the firm and will be more likely to convert.”

Law Firm Website Live Chat vs. AI Chatbots

Live chat isn’t the only game in town for law firm websites, of course. We’ve all encountered AI chatbots, and let’s face it—they can do a pretty good job under the right circumstances. So how do they compare to live chat for law firm websites? 

Like live chat, chatbots on a law firm website can improve both the number and quality of leads, and they also improve conversions. They also tend to cost less than a live chat service, which is important to many small law firms. 

That said, there are some things chatbots simply cannot do as well as a live person. While chatbots can be taught to ask certain questions and respond appropriately enough to move website visitors comfortably through the opening of a sales funnel, there are traits chatbots lack: empathy; compassion; the ability to understand nuance and field unexpected questions. Real people contacting law firms with sensitive, nuanced concerns often have a better experience when there’s a real person on the other end of the connection.

If the choice is between not being able to respond quickly to inquiries and using a chatbot to do so, the chatbot wins hands down. But if you can use human live chat operators to build trust and rapport, handle complex queries, and communicate effectively, you probably should.

Getting Started With Live Chat for Your Law Firm Website

The Modern Firm partners with a live chat vendor, and has done so for a few years. An increasing number of our clients appreciate the interface between their live chat services and the marketing services they receive from TMF. 

As Paige Silver notes, “Data from live chat becomes another layer of lead tracking information that we use to make marketing decisions for our clients. Not only do we use this data to help refine the screening questions for the chat itself, but to make overall marketing choices tailored for our clients’ intended audience.”

There are, of course, an increasing number of live chat vendors available for law firms to work with, but The Modern Firm is happy to connect clients with a vendor we have found to be effective and trustworthy. To talk more about the reasons your law firm website needs live chat, or to get started implementing live chat for your law firm website, get in touch.