LegalChatPros and Cons of Website SMS Text to Chat on Law Firm Websites
With so many digital marketing technologies out there you may be wondering why quality SMS Text technology is a key add to your law firm’s website. As a compliment to live chat, SMS Text gives dealers yet another means for website visitors to get their questions answered and start them on the road to becoming a client. For the record, the first SMS Text message was actually sent nearly a quarter of a century ago, in 1992.
In short, a visitor is on your website because they have an interest in or need for your services. While they are on your site, you have two options: you can hope they have enough interest to take the time to fill out an inquiry form, or be much more proactive. Adding live chat with SMS Text capability for your website with a popup proactive chat invitation is the digital equivalent of having a greeter or receptionist. It has the advantage of giving a potential client contact with a live LegalChat operator around the clock who can provide basic information and assure them they have come to the right place for legal assistance.
Website SMS Text Advantages
Website visitors can initiate a LegalChat SMS Text conversation from both desktop and mobile websites. There are a few reasons people may opt for Website SMS Text on law firm websites. These include:
- It’s a comfortable communication medium for nearly everyone. More than 6 billion text messages are sent in the United States each day.
- The conversation remains on the phone. They can refer back to the conversation and even continue it any time they want.
- They can carry on the conversation at their convenience. They can begin the conversation and go into class or work and pick it back up when they are free. The proprietary LegalChat live chat operator console shows the operator the entire conversation during each conversation. The conversation can even switch between the firm’s in-house operators and LegalChat operators if your staff are handling their own chat conversations part of the time.
SMS Text Disadvantages
While there is great potential for SMS Text to help add to lead counts, there are a few disadvantages, as well. These include:
- The phone number is required up front. Experience has shown that asking a website visitor for their mobile phone number at the beginning of the conversation will cause them to vanish, as many people would rather not disclose it.
- Limits on text length. While many providers and phones will sometimes allow longer messages using technology to connect the text into one long block, messages are technically limited to 160 characters.
- Messages are limited to text characters. During a live chat conversation, LegalChat operators can pass images and videos to the client. And with their permission, the operator can actually open a requested page in the visitor’s browser, rather than just send a shortened URL link. This is a strong advantage of chat, rather than text, as website pages will remain open in the browser after the conversation.
- The technology requires a dedicated phone number for the dealer and fees for each message.
One of the great features of SMS Text from LegalChat is that we require a double opt-in commitment from the shopper. The first is a checkbox on the website, and the shopper is also required to respond to an opt-in question in the initial text message from the operator.
SMS text on law firm and legal services websites is a strong supplement to live chat, and that is why LegalChat offers it as a supplemental service with 24/7 operators on call.
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