Advantages and disadvantages of legal assistance through WhatsApp

If you have a law firm and you provide legal assistance through WhatsApp, you have probably experienced or are experiencing the following problems:

#1 The only cell phone for service is in the office. Because of this, you lose control and visibility of WhatsApp conversations when you're at home (or on the street). Not to mention the possibility of a dissatisfied employee mistreating a customer. You need to have access to everything!

#2 Several phones are needed to handle the service, so there is an increase in fixed office costs, since it is not possible to have more than one attendant on the same WhatsApp number. That is, more costs, less money in your pocket.

#3 You're exhausted, because you work from Monday to Friday at the office and on the weekend you still receive messages from clients on your personal WhatsApp.

All these problems are a drain of money and energy that you need to get rid of urgently.

But what is the solution?

You need to transform disorganized and decentralized service into something where you can measure quality, have control and visibility of conversations, that has a low cost and, above all, separate your personal and professional life.

How to do this in practice?

The answer is simple. But first I need to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of providing legal assistance through WhatsApp.

After all, how to provide legal assistance through WhatsApp without knowing if this is the right channel for your customer service?

5 Advantages of legal assistance through WhatsApp

#1 Answer anywhere and at the right time

You probably love the electronic process because of the practicality. Imagine going to the Forum just to read “agree” from the other party. That's a huge waste of time and money.

And if I'm certain in life, it's that you don't like to lose money for nothing.

Why not be electronic in customer service as well?

It's a thing of the past to call or physically go to the office to make an appointment, as we live in a connected world. Nobody has more time to do that.

WhatsApp avoids unnecessary travel and optimizes your schedule to make you more productive and serve more customers in less time.

Here, you completely kill your customer's excuse that they're late because of traffic.

The best thing is that you can be at your office desk or on the couch in your living room.

Geo-limitation is no longer an issue when you use WhatsApp. Even more so now that everyone is working remotely to protect their families.

In other words, WhatsApp is a channel that facilitates scheduling a virtual consultation and, if necessary, in person. After all, there's nothing like good coffee to make an agreement between the parties.

#2 Separate your personal and professional life

Have you ever arrived at a party and a cousin, whom you hadn't seen in years, had a legal question for you? This is more than common in your daily life, isn't it?

And this same phenomenon also happens on WhatsApp.

But unlike what happens at the party, on WhatsApp it is possible to separate your professional and personal life. All you have to do is assign a number exclusively for legal assistance through WhatsApp.

For this reason, WhatsApp Business it is an excellent ally in this separation.

In addition, in the messaging app designed exclusively for professional use, it is possible to register greeting and absence messages.

This will prevent customers from contacting you at an inconvenient time or the infamous good morning gifs on Sunday mornings.

In the same app, it is also possible to have additional information, in the business profile, such as the office address, website link and landline numbers, so that the customer can be contacted more easily (even in this text you will understand how this works). This makes your service even more professional.

#3 Have the right document at the right time

The time for physical files filled with client documents has passed.

It's completely understandable that you don't notice this while working, because sometimes you're so focused on what really matters, such as the deadline of an important process, that you forget to cut costs and risks with simple changes.

So now you can practically see the results of just changing your files from physical to digital in your office:

#1 End of rooms designed exclusively for storing paper. A huge space saving. After all, you can swap your huge, poorly located office for a smaller, more beautiful place and still save on this process.

#2 No more people with the sole function of taking care of papers. That's a cost that can be cut.

But don't worry, you don't have to fire anyone! This employee can be transferred to the customer service team, because your flow of new customers will increase.

#3 End of the risk of damaging or misplacing a customer document that is under their responsibility.

#4 Without more difficulty accessing information. With the files stored in the cloud, you can consult them from anywhere, including your home.

Also, you probably receive documents via email and WhatsApp, but you don't print them. And as a result, it doesn't keep those documents in the physical file.

That being the case, you have lost and unorganized files in one place to have access to everything.

In other words, are you sure you haven't lost any document in this physical and digital mess?
We will never know...

But we can change that going forward...

How?

Concentrate your files in just one place, that's the best path for your organization.
Then, swap your physical files for digital ones. This is a great solution to resolve disorganization and, consequently, generate savings in space, labor, and even other invisible costs (which we normally don't account for), such as motorcycle boys.

Last but not least, Digital documents are combined with deadlines!

Before the deadline even dreams of ending, you can have the file directly on your phone almost ready to send to the electronic process.

In other words, WhatsApp is the convenience you need in your office.

#4 Highlight unread messages in an easy way

Waiting for answers may not be an easy task when you have a tight deadline. But even worse is not being sure if the customer actually received the request.

With WhatsApp, it is possible to activate reading confirmation.

So you can be sure that the message was sent, received, and even viewed by the customer. Just check out the Check blue next to the message.

But until then, nothing new under the sun, you could already do that on your personal WhatsApp.

The most interesting thing about WhatsApp Business is the possibility of marking the message as unread or even assigning a TAG (label tool) to a customer who has an urgent deadline.

See the example below of how to use labels to optimize your legal service through WhatsApp:

Note that in this example, there are the following categories: new customer, in progress, at completion, waiting for a permit, and pending documents.

In other words, it is possible to leave messages that are urgent first and highlighted starting from label color and organize your service based on your priorities.

This generates more agility in service and greater customer satisfaction.

After all, no deadline will be missed and all questions about progress can be easily viewed and prioritized.

In addition, the prioritization of more urgent cases can prevent banning from your WhatsApp number. Because, in a fit of rage, your customer can report your WhatsApp number for not having the message answered. See more in the text of Everything about WhatsApp Business.

#5 Efficiently delegate inquiries regarding the progress of the process

It is necessary to delegate some operational functions when a business grows. You're already familiar with this, because you probably have a secretary and interns.
But...

How to apply this same dynamic to WhatsApp?

The lawyer's most time-consuming job is progress queries, which can easily be done by an intern. Because it is enough to interpret what is written in the process and tell the client.

Thus, your client is also aware of the movement of the process and has more confidence that the procedure takes place in the best way. Esse feedback Constant is important because it gives security and credibility to your work.

However, it is a time-consuming job that costs time for the lawyer.

Therefore, delegate this function while you take care of other more important office matters, such as the closing of a new contract.

So, now that you've seen the advantages, you're probably glowing and thinking that WhatsApp Business is the best solution for your business.

But I'm going to become the devil's lawyer to tell you that it's not all flowers in WhatsApp legal service...

5 Disadvantages of WhatsApp Legal Assistance

Today, WhatsApp has some limitations that may make it impossible to provide customer service in Home Office time, let's see:

#1 Don't give access to your messages from a phone remotely

If you're not close to your phone and it loses its connection, You won't be able to use WhatsApp web at home. And you'll need to return to the office regularly.
This can even have an impact on your health. Because going to the office in the middle of a pandemic is not a healthy option, since you can get sick simply by going out on the street and having contact with other people.

And you don't want to run the risk of contaminating yourself and contaminating your family, do you?

So this is a complicated limitation for those who need to work remotely.

And now you're probably thinking that a solution for this is to have more than one phone for legal assistance through WhatsApp.

But in a very short time you will notice that it is an expensive option (besides the price of the device, the bills come up every month) and disorganized, because you don't have access to all the conversations to audit.

In other words, the amendment came out worse than the sonnet and his service became chaotic.

#2 Inability to make comments within the conversation

WhatsApp does not yet have a notepad inside each conversation to add important information such as the case number and other data such as social security number.

You can even write down the contact's name, but that way it gets disorganized and the search is more complicated.

In the ideal world, WhatsApp would have a quick and uncomplicated tab within the conversation to include the information you think is important.

#3 Just a backup

Can you imagine if the phone crashes before backing up (backup)?

There may be loss of all those recent files and conversations. It's important to have evidence and files to consult whenever necessary.

#4 Allows you to delete messages

In other words, WhatsApp allows you to delete evidence. You lose control of the messages that are being exchanged between your clients and your team.

That is, if someone wants to hide evidence, they can. And this is inadmissible in legal assistance through WhatsApp.

#5 Limited greeting message

Your WhatsApp only sends a greeting message to your customer in the following situations:

#1 the customer never spoke to you;

#2 the customer hasn't been in contact in the past 14 days.

That is, the “Hello, how can I help?” it won't appear to everyone, which increases a customer's response time more.

So, is legal support via WhatsApp in fact a viable option for your office?

The answer is yes! Today WhatsApp is a necessity for all law firms because of the agility of communication.

However, if your office has more than two people using the service phone (in the traditional WhatsApp Business way), this could lead to litigation to see who will keep the cell phone.

But this difficulty can be easily solved with a WhatsApp customer service platform.

Then, pay attention to the following 5 tips when choosing your WhatsApp service platform.

5 Tips for choosing the best service platform on WhatsApp.

#1 Choose a 100% Online Service Platform

When working remotely, choosing a platform that works in the cloud is essential to serve anywhere.

The ideal is that you have access to a service platform that is integrated with WhatsApp and that allows more than one person per phone number.

That is, you, your secretary, the interns, and even the financial department, if necessary, can access the same conversation simultaneously.

#2 Make sure message backup is available at any time

Imagine that same scenario again: the phone crashes before backing up.

If your communication application automatically downloads all conversations and files, nothing is lost, not even the good morning gifs.

Therefore, the ideal is that all messages are stored and nothing is deleted. After all, you don't want to delete a test by mistake.

#3 Choose the platform that provides access and control to audit messages

The objective is that the chosen platform does not have the option to delete a message and, even if it is deleted on WhatsApp, it is registered in your legal service application through WhatsApp.

That way, you have the confidence to audit WhatsApp messages without even having to touch your phone.

That is, you don't lose control and visibility of no conversation from the office service number.

#4 Use chatbots to expedite legal service through WhatsApp

Have an automated first service by Chatbot (message robot) will increase the efficiency of your secretary or your service team, because it eliminates the unnecessary and repetitive work of informing basic things such as business hours or office address.

Turn the most common information into automated response options and take advantage of your human service for what really matters.

Thus, your client is happier and refers you to your office more and more.

#5 Choose a cost-effective platform

Ideally, you should look for a low-cost platform that doesn't cover the initial setup, not even the onboarding meetings (initial training), has good support and has features such as:

• collaboration between team members in the same conversation with the customer;
• management of WhatsApp conversations to have visibility from start to finish;
• automation of service qualification with chatbots;
• internal communication in the same place where the customer is served;
• service queue to organize waiting customers;
• internal communication groups for the resolution of internal matters;

Now that you've understood everything you need to find on a platform...

It's time to put the tips into practice and...

Optimize your customer service with a cost-effective platform that allows you to place more than one person in WhatsApp service.

Therefore, if you want a solution that has all these advantages, PinkApp is the right platform for you.

With PinkApp you can organize, segment and monitor your entire service through WhatsApp without touching a finger on the phone. Best of all, you can concentrate all your internal and external communication in the same place.