How to Create a Chatbot to Capture Leads (No Coding Skills Required!)

Chatbots are quickly becoming standard in online business. What’s not to love? You get your very own personal assistant who will qualify and assist leads, helping you grow your business without demanding the time of your staff. 

Despite the obvious benefits, many businesses hesitate to implement a chatbot. If you aren’t using a chatbot yet, it’s likely due to one of three reasons.

1. Because you’re not yet sure about the benefits of a chatbot
2. You are questioning how difficult it will be to implement
3. You think it’s more advantageous to have a human touch handling all requests
   

These are all logical concerns, and in this article, we’ll address each one. Ultimately, a chatbot is a tool that can help grow your business faster, and with greater efficiency. And most importantly, it’s not too difficult to get started.

Chatbots Invite Growth

67% of clients hire the first firm that responds, but 64% of firms never respond to potential clients (Clio 2019 Legal Trends Report). Chatbots invite potential clients to engage with you at their convenience, increasing your response ratio dramatically without taking your attention from your existing clients.

Lead generation

Perhaps the most fundamental benefit of chatbots is their ability to sort out qualified potential clients from your website traffic. Through a series of custom prompts, chatbots filter these people through specific action items. Maybe you’re trying to get your potential clients to subscribe to your newsletter or book a consultation. Chatbots can direct the conversation towards these action items, refining your traffic to qualified potential clients. Then you get a list of names, contact information, and appointments distilled from your web traffic.

AI learning

Smith.ai chatbots are a level above a regular bot. Chatbots are designed to follow an “if/then” path. If a potential client clicks on an option, a few more relevant ones appear in a chain until the person reaches your call to action (subscription, consultation, etc.) Chatbots without AI are limited to a rigid “if/then” path.

Partnership with real-time human receptionists

Live chats have been found to increase “net new” leads by 16% according to aggregate data from digital marketing agency Get Noticed Get Found. An AI chatbot system paired with real-time human receptionists is the most elevated system. This added layer allows you to truly have the confidence that you are not sacrificing personal touch for efficiency.

With this option, your AI chatbot will take your potential clients as far as it can, then pairs with a human receptionist the moment it doesn’t know an answer. The human receptionists can monitor bot chats as well, making sure that your client is understood.

With Smith.ai, receptionists are available 24/7. Your potential clients researching you after hours on Friday can meaningfully engage with a real person, instead of forgetting to call you during business hours Monday.

Smith.ai receptionists can answer complicated questions, book appointments, and even take payments for services, all without you having to personally be involved. This takes lead generation to the next step by converting leads into paying clients.

How to Make a Chatbot

Let’s address (in non-jargon English) the basics of how to create your Smith.ai Chatbot.

1. Install live chat software

Live chat is simple to implement on your website. For example, Smith.ai offers a step-by-step process for installing on your site with support along the way. 

You don’t have to be a developer or know any coding and can get started in a matter of minutes.

2. Create your playbook

A playbook is simply the path you create for your chatbot. If you’ve ever seen a flow chart with multiple outcomes, you have a visual for a playbook. 

For example, let’s say you’re a tax lawyer building out your playbook. After someone clicks on your bot you want to collect their name and email address first. Then the chatbot asks “What are you interested in learning more about?” with the options “Tax Law” and “Something else” listed below. If the person then clicks on “Tax Law”, another menu would pop up saying “Great! Our office can help you with that. Will you please confirm your name and address?”. The client would then be prompted to re-enter their information. Your bot could then ask “We can set up a remote consultation for $150. Would you like to schedule an appointment?”, allowing the client to respond. The bot could process payment and add the client to your books. 

On the other side, if they had selected “Something else” your chat would send them down another path that could ultimately lead them to an outside referral.

This path of options and responses is your playbook. You can create many paths. For example, what would have happened if the prospective client had selected “Something else” instead of “Tax Law” at the beginning of this scenario? That’s up to you. If you are exclusively working in tax law, your playbook can notify the person and invite them to call back if they ever need help in your specialty.

If this is daunting, don’t worry; Smith.ai can help if you run into a problem or, if you prefer, handle it for you with white glove set-up. 

3. Customize

Depending on your programming skills, you can create highly customized AI chatbots. Common customizable options include adding your logo, color schemes, where you want your bot positioned on your website when the bot will pop up, and more.

4. Integrate

Your AI chatbot doesn’t have to be just for your website. Smith.ai bots integrate with your company’s CRM applications, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Lexicata, Clio and many others. The information gathered by your chatbot seamlessly integrates eliminating manual entry or risk of lost information.

If you are interested in learning more about creating a Smith.ai chatbot for your company, book a 30-minute consultation here.