Law Firm Customer Service: Seven Consumer Statistics Your Practice Needs To Be Aware Of

Technology is constantly evolving, and as a result, so are the purchasing habits of legal consumers. In order to win over clients these days, lawyers must take some time to learn how the consumers they are hoping to reach operate online and interact with new businesses. If not, their marketing efforts will likely end up being extremely misguided.

In this blog post, we’ll aim to increase your law firm customer service knowledge, by sharing with you seven must-know consumer statistics. Any perceptions you have about modern day legal consumers may end up changing after reading this piece.

#1- According to Sharethrough, 83% of Millennials find online content useful in making purchasing decisions.

Content remains king when it comes to online marketing, and the above statistic proves it. Reaching out to an unfamiliar law office can be a daunting task for the average person, and most consumers will dedicate serious time to researching a firm online before actually contacting them. If your firm is lacking in any kind of online presence, and features a bare-bones website, establishing trust from a new lead is going to be close to impossible.

By creating original content, such as informative blog posts, vlogs and eBooks, your firm is able to showcase its expertise to potential clients. Not only will having content focusing in on legal topics that your target audience cares about help draw more online users to your firm’s website (make sure you’re choosing the right keywords), it will help provide comfort to online users once they get there. So make sure your firm has an active blog, and a home page full of valuable information about your firm.

#2- According to Hubspot, 43% of people admit to skimming blog posts.

The attention span of online users is getting lower and lower, and getting people to fully digest a blog post has become quite the challenging task. Lawyers may be used to reading long never-ending paragraphs, but blog content formatted like a research paper is likely to scare away readers in a hurry.

This of course doesn’t mean you should give up on blogging for your firm. Just the SEO value of blogging alone makes it a worthwhile marketing practice. Instead, focus on making your blog posts more readable. Check out this advice from professional legal marketing content writer Leah Presser.

“People reading online appreciate larger print, plenty of white space, and clear headings and subheadings,” Presser said. “You should be using keywords in the headings and subheadings. And when reading one after the other, the headings should ideally provide a summary of the whole piece. Then, people will be able to tell if it’s worth their time to read the post and skimmers can hone in on subtopics that interest them most.”

#3- According to CIODive, up to 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device.

Offering website visitors a quality user experience has always been a top priority for law firms. But in recent years, a new wrinkle has been added into the user experience conversation, as most consumers now do a large portion of their online navigating via mobile devices. A few months back, we spoke with Matt Peschong, founder of Mankato Web Design. He provided us with the following tips for making a law firm website easier for consumers to navigate on a mobile device.

• Include a clear call to action phone number on the top of your landing pages.
• Have a clear menu icon as well as the word “MENU” next to it for those who are not familiar with the icon.
• Keep header elements with your logo, phone number, and menu icon while a user scrolls down your page.
• Include contact form field elements specific to data fields, such as having the phone field populate numbers automatically on a cell phone.
• Use large fonts that are easy to read on a cell phone.

Also be sure that your website features a responsive design, which works well on both desktop and mobile platforms. In 2019, we would hope that part goes without saying.

#4- According to Everlaw, 80% of all law firm traffic is to the biographies of specific attorneys.

In the legal industry, it appears that people are still interested in hiring people, and online consumers are prioritizing learning about the actual humans at a law firm above all else. While offering general information about your firm is still a must, you’ll want to make sure that the individual attorneys at your practice each have their own online presence. Prospective clients like having the opportunity to learn about the attorneys they will be working directly with, and who can blame them.

The Answering Legal blog recently asked website content writer Rodney Warner about the importance of having well-written lawyer bio pages on your website. Here’s the answer he gave us.

“Would you hire an attorney without researching his or her background or finding out what experience they have?,” Warner said. “We live in a time where we research which restaurant to try and what smartphone to buy. If someone’s been seriously injured, arrested for DUI, or getting a divorce, they’re not going to research which attorney to retain? If the SEO planets are aligned, an internet search for a specific type of attorney may also result in an attorney bio at least near the top of the first page.”

And what should a quality attorney bio page be looking to accomplish?

“(Attorneys need) to tell their story in a compelling way that encourages a prospect to set up an appointment to talk to him or her,” Warner said. “This question needs to be answered: why should a potential client trust this attorney with a very important matter?”

#5- According to HubSpot, 78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many emails.

The question, “how often should I send out emails to my customer lists,” is truly a difficult one to answer. Sending out things like firm newsletters and company updates can be a great way to stay engaged with former clients and future referral sources, and keep your practice at the top of their mind when unexpected legal situations arise. However, data seems to indicate that sending out emails too often can result in your former clients and associates getting annoyed, and potentially opting out from receiving any of your future content.

Lawyers engaging in email marketing will want to pay close attention to the results of every campaign they send out. If open rates are high, and unsubscribes are low, you know you’re doing something right with your email campaign scheduling. If the opposite is true, you may want to send out emails less regularly, or consider adjusting the subject line or content that is going along with your outreach efforts. Email marketing success usually is the result of at least some trial and error. Consider making multiple mailing lists, one for people who you think will want to hear from your firm often, and another for those who you only want to send along important news to. Also don’t make all of your emails offer-based. Make sure you’re passing along valuable content and information to your email subscribers as well.

#6- According to HubSpot, 63% of people said they’d click on a Google ad.

Many lawyers consider pay-per-click advertising to be intimidating, because of it’s somewhat volatile nature and high cost. But, recent data makes it seem like the opportunity to secure high profile locations in Google results may be too good to pass up on. People looking for something online are likely to click on what they see at the top of page one on Google, and if you can get your firm in those spots for search keywords relevant to your target clients, you could be making whatever money you spend on your PPC advertising back in a hurry and much more!

Earlier this year we spoke with Casefuel founder and CEO Jan Roos about the value of PPC marketing. Roos said, “There’s no other channel that can get you consistent lead flow as quickly as PPC traffic, and provided you know how to close the leads coming in that means there’s no other channel that will return your marketing investment quicker.”

PPC is likely something attorneys won’t want to take part in without some expert guidance or some serious research on their own. But, they can find the right people to help with the process, they could see their firm grow in a hurry. For recommendations on PPC agencies that can aid your firm, we recommend consulting our legal marketing discussion groups!

#7- According to Salesforce, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.

It’s clear that today’s consumers aren’t just concerned with the legal results you bring them, but the way they are treated during the legal process. Modern day clients expect the law firm they hire to be constantly accessible, and that starts with their very first phone call to your firm. If the first time they reach out to your law office, a customer is greeted by a voicemail machine or a rude and uncaring receptionist, there’s a good chance that customer won’t end up becoming a client.

Make sure you always offer your new leads a positive experience over the phone, by investing in some phone answering help from Answering Legal. Our service caters specifically to the legal industry, and our phone answering team is highly professional and able to answer calls live on behalf of your firm 24/7/365. Anytime your staff is unable to get to a call (or simple doesn’t want to), one of our live virtual receptionists will be there to greet your potential client, take them through the legal intake process, and educate them on what your firm does. Answering Legal makes capturing new leads easier than ever, and if you don’t believe us, read about the law firm of Zirkin & Schmerling’s experience using our service.

To learn more about what it takes to impress online consumers in 2019, check out our “Let’s Talk Legal Marketing” webpage.