How to Use Chatbots on Your Law Firm Website

Chatbots are one of the hottest tech tools on the market today. Almost every business is looking to use chatbots for customer service. But how can law firms implement best practices so that they can deploy chatbots effectively? Continue reading for tips on how to use chatbots on your law firm website.

Determine Your Goals

Before you deploy a chatbot, determine what your goals are. Chatbots are generally very good at doing a few things:

1. Generating new leads.
2. Increasing client conversion rates.
3. Serving as customer service agents.

What role do you want your chatbot to serve primarily?

Use Legal Industry Chatbot

If you’re thinking about using a chatbot for your law firm’s website, only use customized or out-of-the-box solutions specifically for the legal industry. Your artificial intelligence technology should understand legal industry practices and terminology.  Talk to other law firms in your practice area and find out what chatbots they use.  Find out what their experience was and explore some of the drawbacks and problems with the tech solution.

Integrate Fully

Your chatbot should be integrated seamlessly into your existing tech infrastructure as well as your customer service system. For example, if you’re using a chatbot online, the AI or the customer should have a way to seamlessly go from the online experience to connecting with a human being. This could simply mean integrating a function where the customer can opt to speak with a “manager” if their answers haven’t been answered properly and then be connected to a live human being.

Check System Compatibility

Make sure your chatbot can work well within any system that your clients are most likely to use. For example, if you’re an immigration attorney who mostly works with clients who communicate via their mobile phone because they don’t have a computer at home, your chatbot must be optimized to work well in a mobile interface.

Automate FAQs

There are some things that can be automated and others that can’t. FAQs are one of the things that can and should be included in a chatbot system.  Your FAQs are those questions that are so frequently asked that you can provide canned responses. You don’t want your human receptionist answering these questions since you’re paying for their time. Answering FAQs should be left up to the chatbot on your website.

Be Nonintrusive

One of the most important things about your chatbot design is that it not intrude on the client experience. Your chatbot should be positioned so that it is not hidden or positioned in a way that prevents the user from doing anything else on the page without interacting with it first. Remember, your chatbot is a helper, not a drill sergeant. Not chatbot should demand attention.

Mind Your Language

The language used in a chatbot should be:

1. Short (one or two sentences)
2. Conversational
3. Simple (avoid heavy legal terms if possible)

If you’re building answers into your chatbot, make sure you structure them in a way that it is easy for the user to read and understand.

Effectively using chatbots on your law firm’s website can help improve the customer experience and save you time and money in the long run.