Roughly 77% of U.S. adults say they own a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center. Individuals have become savvy, sophisticated consumers of online services, and this has led to a growing need for customer service-based mobile apps. Today, there are clearly established best practices for designing functional mobile apps that consumers appreciate when they are used. Mobile apps make life easier. They allow people to worry less and enjoy life more. This is a natural merger of our expectations for customer service, with a mobile on-demand delivery. More and more, we seek out companies that digitally deliver excellent customer service but with a personal touch.
For the legal services industry, this is both immensely challenging and yet exciting. First, let’s state the obvious: Lawyers are not known for customer service.
Second, while many companies have tried to embrace technology to improve legal services, they generally are just marketing sites that lack customer service with a human touch. We are trying to use technology to improve access to affordable legal solutions, and we’re carefully exploring advanced technologies and how we can scale them to fit our customers’ needs.
Companies are, of course, incentivized to push for greater digital engagement. A Bain & Company study of customer loyalty in mobile banking found that each mobile interaction incurs a variable cost of about 10 cents versus $4 to speak with a teller or call-center agent in person. But banks know that friendly tellers and great customer service are embedded in their business foundation. They willingly assume the cost of service and staffing in order to build loyalty and make their services indispensable. A mobile banking app is essentially an extension of the customer service you expect to receive when you walk into a branch.
Legal services companies should be looking at new opportunities for lawyers to use technology to engage their prospective clients and provide better service to existing ones. Legal apps, while not a new concept, vary widely in terms of utility and effectiveness. Most people can easily distinguish between legal apps that add value, like providing the creation of free legal forms or answering common legal questions versus those apps that are merely legal directories. It is very rare to find a company that creates a mobile app that not only makes it easier for DIY tasks but also adds humanized, personal touches.
Non-lawyers cannot practice law. Clearly, if we are owed money without satisfaction, a lawyer can help. And yes, bad things happen to good people. Let’s face it, a lawyer’s calming voice and verbal assurances can go a long way toward providing peace of mind and confidence. The very best mobile app provides some DIY, but it makes it really easy to enter DIFM (“do it for me”) where only a real lawyer will do.
The competition for more enhanced, personalized legal services online is probably just heating up. Moving forward, as we look to develop and introduce new technology to our audiences, we’ll have an eye toward these observations:
• A personal touch must accompany "gee whiz" technologies: Similar to how telemedicine is revolutionizing the medical field, the role of technology in the legal services industry should aim to transform how lawyers do business and change the way customers expect when they pay for legal help. It is pretty cool to photograph a speeding ticket with your smartphone and securely send it to your law firm, but it is truly life-changing when your lawyer meets you at traffic court to support and defend you. Yes, a mobile app can provide a more natural language-based questionnaire for you to begin the process to have your last will and testament prepared, but reviewing that questionnaire with your lawyer, without being charged by the hour -- that’s technology with a human touch.
There absolutely is a place for chatbots and voice assistance, and the marketplace demands it. But the successful company must walk a fine line. Products must also have emotional resonance and a personal connection. This means that simple answers can be from a virtual assistant, but when it comes to adopting a child, you want an accountable and responsive lawyer to serve you.
• Rising consumer expectations: Consumers are starting to appreciate the disruption among all industries in which quality and value are rewarded. In an age of transparency, people should expect a relationship with a law firm to be affordable, responsive and accountable -- meaning they don’t want to pay by the hour for routine legal services or do all the work themselves. With more business conducted online, people are increasingly conditioned to getting assistance and hearing back quickly.
This goes double for legal services because there is generally more at stake for consumers. They want a lawyer to call them back within eight hours and to make calls or write letters on their behalf within three business days of a breach and/or legal incident happening. Reflecting the growing influence of social media on online legal services, consumers also want to be able to rate legal services via apps like Yelp.
• Flight to quality: Anyone can create a legal app that tries to sell a legal plan or charge consumers to connect with a legal directory. To truly put a law firm in the palm of one’s hand, consumers must have access to a dedicated network of law firms that exclusively serve the members of that community and has a track record of excellent performance.
In 2018 and beyond, consumers will look to legal services that exceed the modest benefits of DIY. These services may range from 24/7 emergency access to a lawyer within 15 minutes to having a lawyer prepare a will, pre-nuptial or divorce paperwork from a questionnaire completed on a mobile app. Consumers will dismiss hourly rates, refuse to “pay and pray” and demand nothing less than comprehensive services where the focus is on a relationship, not a transaction.
