Best Practices for Lawyers Delivering Legal Services On-Line
With every business and firm switching to online mode for marketing, advertising, consulting, etc. even lawyers can provide legal service through online mode. These days everything appears all about video conferencing, video consulting, work from home, etc. most professionals have started providing expert service through the internet. Legal services are no exception; a lawyer can start their online consultations and believe me it will be a promising segment.
Promoting legal services online:
- The first concern for lawyers here is how well they can manage their online role and offline role, as you are aware lawyers are most busy with their cases and court hearings. If you can set up a time for carrying out consultations online then this can be beneficial in long run.
- The first step will be to promote your service and the best way to do so is by asking your existing clients to switch to the online mode for follow-ups. They will eventually help in spreading the word in their circle.
- For the new clients who wish to join online consultation, winning their trust is very important. You have to be convincing enough to them that you will pay proper attention and give equal importance while dealing with their case.
- You can use social media for making your practice visible to audiences. Use platforms such as Google and LinkedIn to spread awareness about your online venture.
- Keep an eye on your competition; there are multiple forums and websites which can give a brief idea and knowledge about a particular issue. But such forums can never replace an in-person lawyer. You can advertise your services to them to attract leads for your business.
- Try and arrange for live meetings whenever your client asks for them, meeting once in person may not be sufficient in some cases. Understanding your client is important to building the client-lawyer relationship. This will help in keeping up with the interest of your client in long run. This doesn’t mean you have to only conduct live conferences, whenever required you have to be present for actual meetings with your client.
Treating your online clients with the same courtesy as in-person clients is mandatory. Try to respond to their emails and messages on a priority basis, dedicate one section of your time to reading emails and responding to them with full interest.
Ensure that what you are promising them is received by them on time, do not delay such situations. Always keep yourself updated with the latest tools of technology related to legal online services and make them available to your online clients.
Key points to remember:
- Use the simple and easy tool for engaging with online clients, the easier you make things for your online clients, the happier they will be.
- Try to make your consultations and interactions as personal as possible. Even if you never meet in person, you have to make up for that relationship through your virtual calls and interactions.
- Be clear with your fee structure with online consultation, it would be great if you could track the number of consultations and hours spent on a particular case with your online client. This will help to develop honest consultations between you two with time.
- If you use some basic tools for calculating the fee and generating invoices it would solve half of your problems.
- Try and encourage your client to be as transparent as possible this will lead to growing your relationship and working style unaffected. Allow your client to upload all the required documents in the tool this way they will also feel involved in the case and consultations.
- Taking feedback and surveys will help in overcoming your imperfections. Ask your online client to rate their experience with you. The more reviews and good ratings you get the better referrals you get in the future.
- Always keep your video on and ask the client also to keep it on for creating a personal meeting atmosphere. Don’t hush or hurry the consultation, give all your time to the client to open up and express themselves.
- Be polite and gentle while asking personal questions, make notes then and there so that if the client sees you noticing everything they feel relaxed and heard.
However, personal consultations always have an advantage over online consultations, and not always have to look for shifting your clients online. It depends on the nature of the case and the comfortability of the client. If the client wishes to continue to see you in person you cannot force them to switch to online mode. Hence it all depends on the necessity and condition of the cases.