Being a lawyer is not easy. Becoming a competent attorney takes careful management, patience, and attention in everything from welcoming new customers to handling open legal cases to keeping up with administrative duties. The good news is that lawyer chatbots can help lawyers in all aspects of their daily work.
Chatbots are generally known as pioneers by legal professionals. This is because the chatbot poses a few questions to the customer to lead to the right person. However, legal chatbots are much more than skin deep. In addition to serving as a customer directory, chatbots can also answer questions themselves, automate manual processes, and book consultations. Continue reading to find out how to get the most out of chatbots.
What is the purpose of a chatbot for lawyer?
A lawyer chatbot is a time-saving tool available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the legal firm’s website. Chatbots can be basic or complicated. On the other hand, all chatbots can assist users in finding information on the website or directing them to the appropriate contacts. In addition, chatbots send a summary of visitors’ inquiries and any other information when they refer website visitors to the relevant people (such as contact details).
For law firms, real-time chat is becoming more and more common. However, lawyer chatbots can help potential new clients create a better customer-centric experience through automatic and instant response. The demand for chatbots stems from one of the pain points of real-time chat, especially the “real-time” part. Customers want real-time chat to be instant. But sometimes, legal professionals can’t answer questions right away. For example, when attorneys are in court, with other clients, or on the go, they cannot respond to website visitors’ inquiries.) The lawyer chatbot can answer all these questions 24/7. Another way chatbots are helpful for lawyers is that while they manage communication with prospects and clients, lawyers get more time for law office management, making it a win-win situation – client handling and office management at its best.
Advantages of Chatbots for Attorneys
According to the 2020 Legal Trends Report, 79% of potential new clients want a response within 24 hours of contacting you. With the power of automation, chatbots can respond in seconds, eliminating the need for attorneys to check emails, review letters, and respond manually. Other advantages that chatbots can provide for your law practice are listed below.
1.Automated processes save time and money
Lawyers can save time by using legal chatbots to answer basic customer queries. Attorneys can focus on producing more billable time by automating these simple yet time-consuming chores. For virtual law firms, the chatbot also acts as a receptionist. With a law firm chatbot, the business does not need to hire virtual assistants or full-time staff to answer basic queries from website visitors.
2.Boost productivity and profitability.
A chatbot is capable of more than just answering inquiries. Lawyers can build chatbots to receive service queries and book clients for legal consultation. The chatbot simplifies the process of acquiring clients. Law firm chatbots can automate the client intake process, engaging clients in a more effective and ultimately profitable manner.
3.Stand out from the crowd
When confronted with legal challenges, customers frequently contact several law firms to determine which one best fulfills their requirements. New Clients cite responsiveness as a significant criterion in deciding which legal firm to engage with, according to the 2020 Legal Trends Report.
By offering prompt responses, chatbots help lawyers stand out from the crowd. Also, through auto-booking, customers can get an immediate response without waiting for actual staff to answer.
4. Provide a better customer-centric experience
Chatbots can provide an end-to-end customer-centric experience, not just the first contact with potential customers. Additionally, the law firm chatbot can maintain information about returning clients.
The chatbot can also deliver briefcase updates, answer typical case-related queries, and schedule follow-up appointments. In this way, chatbots can give customers greater flexibility for a truly customer-centric experience.
Applications of chatbots for lawyers
Depending on the type of chatbot you have and how you use it, you can customize your chatbot to be extremely complex or handle simple manual tasks. Some robots are even equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), allowing them to learn while interacting with more people.
Below are some examples of things chatbots can do for law firms:
Communication with the customer
Answering questions is the most common lawyer request for chatbots. Most chatbots can answer simple yes/no questions and have pre-programmed responses to frequently asked questions. These built-in FAQs use a simple keyword detection workflow. For example, if the question contains “What are your business hours?”, the chatbot will answer “9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon to Fri.”. However, other advanced AI chatbots can handle more complex problems.
Customer intake
Lawyer chatbots can receive forms instead of clients. In addition, Chatbots can make the customer ingestion experience more interactive. For example, potential customers may request clarification on specific topics.
Legal investigation
Keyword detection is a core feature built into every chatbot. With this feature, chatbots can easily and faster browse hundreds of pages of chat logs, transcripts, etc. As a result, lawyers can find what they need and conduct legal research more effectively this way.
Legal document
For legal professionals, manually creating contracts and other legal documents from templates is tedious and time consuming. So instead, legal chatbots automatically generate contracts, nondisclosure agreements, and different types of legal documents by detecting keywords, saving lawyers time.
Time tracking
Not all hours are created equal in the legal industry, such as billable and non-billable hours. Legal chatbots can be used as a time tracking tool by solicitors to monitor their utilization rate and comprehend how much time they spend on non-billable tasks.
Lead Generation
Lawyers cannot work 24 hours a day, but cases can be entered at any time. In addition, through auto-booking, legal chatbots can enable leads to qualify and conduct legal inquiries when new people come in, allowing law firms to generate leads 24/7.
Due diligence
Due diligence is particularly tedious and time consuming for attorneys when it comes to confirming facts and data in a case. Senior lawyer chatbots with built-in artificial intelligence aid in the automation and speeding up of the process by reviewing hundreds of documents at once and providing key summaries for legal professionals.
How can law firms get most out of chatbots?
Advanced AI chatbots for lawyers are best for companies that generate a lot of network traffic or frequently ask common questions. This advanced chatbot will free up company time by automating tedious manual tasks and delegating them to chatbots.
A chatbot that can book consultations and answer simple questions outside of business hours will most influence law firms or individual professionals. But, even if you are a solo professional without a website, Facebook messenger bots can also help you make on-site queries on social media platforms.
In the past, attorneys inevitably had to sit through tedious paperwork and answer the same questions repeatedly. However, because of the rise of new technologies such as chat bots, which help automate and simplify their work processes, lawyers can concentrate on what is most important: assisting their clients.
