Written by Carole Ankers, Chief Product and Technology Officer.
Consumer confidence in visiting the high street has dropped. According to research by data company Springboard, retail footfall has fallen by 65 per cent when compared with figures from June last year. With vendors and buyers more reluctant to meet face-to-face, how can conveyancers capture new leads?
Although the housing market is showing positive signs of recovery, a further challenge faced by law firms is that less people will move house in 2020. Last year, 1.8m house moves were recorded in the UK while Knight Frank & Savills predicts around only 740,000 moves in total this year. With smaller firms making the most use of the furlough scheme, generating, responding to and managing conveyancing leads will be more challenging than ever.
However, as retail visitor numbers in the high street have declined, online transactions have soared and here lies part of the answer. The necessity to work, communicate and buy online has recently become the default for many and one which may not ever fully reverse back to previous levels of in-person interaction. Customer’s expectations have also changed. They expect to transact remotely, in other words, get an instant quote and have it delivered by email.
Further, according to comparison site Finder, in 2019 there were 353,000 first time buyers. With 32 as the average age of first time buyers in the UK, firmly placing this important group in the Millennial category – known for their familiarity with mobiles, social media and internet us – it’s time for conveyancers to turn to technology to capture new leads and turn web traffic into business.
With online replacing many of our traditional buying behaviours, its necessary to have a compelling website. Something as simple as live web chat can engage with potential customers. An instant quote calculator tool, as well as complying with transparency of fees regulations, is also a must-have to be competitive. This can be as straight forwards as poweredbypie’s ‘plug in’ web calculator tool which sits alongside any existing technology already in place, such as a case management system. The calculator tool enables online quotes to be generated automatically 24/7 from an organisation’s website. Although it’s a cost effective, essentially ‘off the shelf’ solution, it’s fully branded as if it’s just another page of the law firm’s website for a seamless customer journey.
In this way, no-longer are law firms limited to just doing conveyancing business locally, this potentially opens-up whole new markets. For digital savvy homebuyers, dealing with a firm that can offer efficiencies in their workflow right from the outset is attractive. For some, it will be a deal breaker and if firms don’t offer this, they can simply go to an organisation that does.
At poweredbypie we have seen significant interest in our web calculator tool in the past year from firms looking to comply with transparency of fees regulations.
Claire Hewitt, Business Development Manager, EMG Solicitors, said:
“We added poweredbypie’s quote calculator tool to our website over 12 months ago. It was simple to set up and was operational really quickly. We now direct all our web chat enquires to the quote calculator. For us, it’s an easy, accessible platform to direct clients who require a fixed fee conveyancing quote. It also means that outside normal working hours, our website is working for us to generate leads and that we can comply with transparency of fees regulations.”
One small law firm with limited resources, where staff needed to focus on day-to-day legal case work, added the poweredbypie quote conversion tool recently and reported a significant increase in conversion rates for conveyancing leads. It was really just a time factor. These days customers want information instantly and they were a little too slow to respond. This changed with the addition of the instant quote calculator tool.
A further benefit to time-strapped conveyancers is that poweredbypie made updates to the calculator tool reflecting the changes in Stamp Duty within hours of the recent announcement to ensure law firms were providing the most up to date information possible.
Add-on solutions available to help organisations appeal to the tech-savvy population don’t end here. As well as automating conveyancing web quotes, poweredbypie’s Brighter Law toolkit can share documents securely through Document Portal. Document Portal enables simple and secure electronic exchange of all documentation within the conveyancing process. It helps law firms stay in touch with clients by providing a safe, secure alternative to email and post for the exchange of sensitive information. It allows clients to sign and return documents, speeding up processes and keeping conveyancers on top of their workflow.
Local regulated searches can also be ordered through poweredbypie’s Brighter Law toolkit. Read a full case study here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-study-mckeag-co-making-move-regulated-local-searches-clayton/
All poweredbypie’s technological solutions are conveniently linked and can be integrated with case management systems if necessary too. By understanding the conveyancing workflow, we have been able to develop tech that creates real efficiencies and competitive advantages for law firms.
Organisations which do not embrace technology will fall behind their competitors. There is also the risk of losing business. We know the internet and technology will make up a greater part of how we work moving forwards so there has never been a more important time to take on technology to appeal to new customers, capture conveyancing leads and manage workflows efficiently. It’s time to let your website do the work of answering queries and generating leads.
For further information please see www.poweredbypie.co.uk
This article was submitted to be published by poweredbypie A as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
