As a law firm marketing and technology agency, in our experience, it’s a rare case indeed to find a software company to report the findings of user interaction with their platform.
Hence, the first part of the Family Law Insights Report by Settify, a four-part series analysing the engagement of more than 10,900 people with family law issues who have used the lead generation platform, has been well-received and appreciated by us.
At Practice Proof, we have numerous clients who have Settify integrated into their websites and whilst in association with the family law practice we can track file opens that derive from the Settify platform, the report does illuminate some very interesting facts and figures.
The focus of the first report is on the preferences and behaviours of Settify users. In particular:
– what factors do clients find most important when selecting their family lawyer;
– how many family lawyers do they consider;
– at what point do they make up their mind to engage the firm.
In a practical sense, our encouragement of firms to use Settify emanates from our experience that the sooner you’re able to engage a person who is in a search phase into a process, the better. In other words, once a person has invested time and energy into an online sequence, from which they’re going to get a return (something useful back) they’re less inclined to keep searching, providing the experience and information is useful.
The report emphasises this fact. Amongst the 10,900 users that were surveyed, the primary motivation for searching online at the outset was to “understand the legal process” followed by wanting the process to be quick and easy and wanting personal service.
For law firms with a commitment to content creation, they would be well-versed in understanding the importance of generating content that responds to clients’ burning questions and their website analytics would show that trend, but unless the content is gated (requiring email address etc to download) firms are oblivious to who is consuming the content. In contrast, the benefit of Settify, as illustrated in the findings is that in the potential client’s search for useful information, the acquisition of the client’s details for follow up is via the conversational nature of that platform unpinned by reciprocity (giving to get), with the difference that it isn’t as stilted as the usual, “give us your name, email, phone etc before you download.”
The other interesting data-set is the fact that despite the platform being technologically-driven, user’s decision to engage was because of their want for “personal service.” This, of course, illustrates the fact that technology, when properly executed, can create this personal user-experience.
One other result from the data for law firms, irrespective whether they’re using Settify or not, is the importance of prompt follow up. Upon Settify’s analysis of the data, high conversion rates were invariably in unison with prompt call response times. For example, upon Settify’s notification to law firms of a form completion, the likelihood of conversion increased by 95% if the firm called the potential client within 1 hour of their completion of Settify. In contrast, slow response times markedly decreased the likelihood of conversion.
Interestingly, of the 10,900 polled in the course of their use of Settify, 44% of people used the platform outside office hours. In light of this stat, you can’t help wondering about lost opportunity for those firms who do not deploy smart technology to service potential clients outside office hours.
The first report in Settify’s multi-part series is not only an encouraging sign for Settify itself, but it is illustrative of the fact that if law firms position client experience front and centre of their operations and ensure that their marketing and technology touchpoints reflect this, good things follow.
In the words of Legal Industry Analyst, Mark A Cohen, “Digital transformation is much more than the latest, shiniest tech tool. It is a commitment by an organization—people—to align with its clients/customers, create and support an agile workforce, to be diverse, multidisciplinary, pursue lifelong learning and constant improvement, to collaborate, and to be customer-centric. Absent this framework, legal tech is fizzle but not pop. (1)” The evidence thus far overwhelmingly reveals that law firms using Settify and people with family law issues are at an intersection point of which both are deriving considerable value.
Cohen, Mark A (2019) “Getting Beyond the Tech in Legal Tech.” https://www.legalmosaic.com/hello-world-2-2/
