So many law firms struggle to communicate with clients effectively. Should you use email? Should you use phone calls? Should you use text messages?
Law firms that use text messaging have a few distinct advantages over other firms. In this text messaging guide for law firms, we’ll cover the reasons why you should include text messaging as part of your client communications if you’re not already.
We’ll also go over some of the compliance and security concerns that come with texting your clients, and we’ll give you some strategies so you can use text messaging to your full advantage.
Why law firms should text their clients
Obviously there are some kinds of communication that just can’t be done via text message, especially for a law firm. But, there are a lot of ways that text messaging can benefit law firms.
Improved client acquisition
One of the best ways to bring in new clients is to start with a live chat feature on your website that is paired with text messaging communications. Why? Because potential new clients are visiting your website all the time, and if they’re interested, they’re looking for a way to contact you. Live chat gives you a way for them to do that and ensure they get a person on the other end (as opposed to a bot). Then, your team can use text messaging to engage them further.
You can use SMS to schedule consultations with potential clients quickly and keep them engaged with fast, attentive communications—something so many law firms struggle with. When you use live chat and text messaging together, you get a boost in lead generation, and can turn that into more business for your firm. The trick is to work with a text messaging software that offers live chat as a feature, so everything is streamlined and easy for your staff to use.
It’s possible to turn around sagging client numbers. One law firm that turned to text messaging saw a 40x return on their investment, plus six figures in additional revenue. Don’t underestimate the power of improving the way you acquire new clients.
Convenience for the client
Even though a lot of lawyer-client communications are formal in nature, that doesn’t mean every time you talk to your client, it has to be this way. Embrace the human side of your clients—the side that has their phone with them almost all day long—and get in touch the way they’d prefer you to, quickly and easily.
Today, clients have high expectations for the businesses they work with, which is why you should deliver the most convenient communications whenever possible. This extra step will stand out to clients who may be delighted with an experience that’s so easy and worry free.
Text messaging doesn’t just allow your law firm a way to get in touch with clients, but it also gives clients an easy way to get in touch with you. If they have a question about their case, for example, they can easily shoot a text message to their contact at your firm can respond.
Giving clients an experience like that throughout the entire process, is important since word of mouth and customer opinions matter so much. It also helps build long-term relationships so you can bring in more value from each client.
Convenience for you
Phone calls are often the most immediate way to get in touch with a client for quick, more urgent matters. But phone calls can’t be automated, which means your staff has to spend hours, sometimes days, playing phone tag with clients just to communicate something minor but pressing.
Email, on the other hand, can be automated, but it’s not nearly as immediate as text messaging. Ninety percent of text messages are read within the first three minutes, whereas 80 percent of emails are never read.
Text messaging strategies for law firms
Integrate with your system of record
When deciding which text messaging platform to use, you’ll want to consider how easy it is to use. Firms looking to speed up their close rate and manage clients as the business grows need to find a text messaging platform that ties text communications to the system of record you’re using.
A Salesforce text messaging integration can make your internal processes run smoother now and as you grow. With a robust native integration, you should be able to send messages directly from Salesforce instances, sync data from new and existing contacts right into Salesforce records and manage clients at scale. As you begin to text message your clients and use live chat on your website, you may see your leads grow. You need a way to manage that growth easily. That’s what a salesforce sms integration can do.
Automate messages
Being able to send automated messages is one of the best benefits of using text messaging as a communication tool with clients. Personalizing those messages can elevate their impact, keeping a personal touch law firm clients expect while still making communication easy on your team.
You need to build trust with clients while streamlining communications to make your work more efficient. Automated text messages can help you achieve both.
Learn how wh Law landed six figures of additional revenue when they started using text messaging.
Here are some more articles we think you’ll like:
How a law firm is handling more cases and increasing customer satisfaction
The benefits of a Salesforce text message integration
How to generate more leads with live chat
SMS is the channel your customers want
