It’s the start of a new year. Many law firms set goals related to growing their practice and, of course, improving productivity. It’s certainly no secret that client acquisition takes both money and time. That time may be taken away from billable matters. The real consideration is how to both lower client acquisition cost while improving law firm productivity. Legal technology continues to provide fantastic solutions for lawyers. Properly chosen, a virtual chatbot could very well lower the client acquisition cost while improving law firm productivity.
Virtual Chatbots and the Cost of Client Acquisition
We’ve already (very) briefly touched on the concept that one part of the cost that comes along with client acquisitions is in the time spent with potential clients. For smaller firms, this is often time that may be spent on billable matters. We’re not necessarily talking about the concept of providing a free consultation, either. We mean actually determining whether a prospective client is a good fit for your practice. Asking and answering basic questions related to the prospective client and their issue.
Think about the average amount of time you spend replying to emails, returning phone calls, or talking with people who call your office. Have you ever thought about what else you could do with that time? In the legal industry, an extra six minutes of billable time per day creates 23 more billable hours each year. Take your hourly rate and multiply it by 23.
Then, track the non-billable time you spend with prospective clients. Take that time and multiply it by your hourly rate. While this time plays an important role in client development, studies have shown you can lose up to six hours per day by interruptions in your work. In fact, a recent study showed that most lawyers spend only 29% of their day (that is, 2.3 hours) on billable matters.
Virtual chatbots can be used to automate the qualification process for prospective clients. It can be used to ask a series of questions and collect specific information about the potential client to determine if they are a good fit for the firm. If they are, an appointment for a consultation may then be scheduled.
Related: Business Development for Lawyers: Can Legal Tech Help?
A virtual chatbot enables law firms to spend less of their billable time with pre-screening potential clients. This helps law firms lower the client acquisition cost over time.
Virtual Chatbots and Improved Productivity
The time previously spent on client acquisition via answering questions and onboarding new clients can then be redirected to billable matters. Virtual chatbots can also help law firms by automating the creation of commonly used documents and even to help on-board new clients. Because of the artificial intelligence used, virtual chatbots may even help lawyers improve their relationships with their clients.
Virtual Chatbots Are Good for Business!
To learn more about how virtual chatbots can benefit your law firm and help you lower client acquisition cost and improve productivity, schedule your free demo.
Tom Martin is a legal AI advocate, lawyer, author and speaker.
He is CEO and founder of LawDroid, a Generative AI Legal Technology company, and co-founder of the American Legal Technology Awards.
Tom has been recognized as an ABA Legal Rebel and Fastcase 50 Honoree.
Tom has presented as a speaker at ABA Techshow, LegalWeek, ILTACON, Clio Con, Legal Innovators, and many others. Tom’s writing has been published in the ABA’s Law Practice Today, Law Technology Today and GP Solo Magazine, to name a few; he has also been featured on numerous podcasts, including Legal Rebels, Un-Billable Hour, Lawyerist, the Digital Edge, and New Solo.
Tom also has his own podcast: LawDroid Manifesto on iTunes. Subscribe to his Substack at lawdroidmanifesto.com.
He serves as a mentor at the Yale Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking and ATJ Tech Fellows. Tom is a graduate of Yale and UCLA School of Law.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Tom now lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and two daughters.