A message arrives on a Saturday. A daughter writes that her father is in a hospice, that he has never made a will, and that the family have been told it may be days.
An automatic reply confirming receipt and quoting a fixed fee for a standard will is the worst possible response, and it is what most firms send.
Why this matters more here than almost anywhere
Because the enquiries arrive at the worst moments of people's lives, frequently with a real deadline, and because how the first contact is handled is remembered for decades.
What arrives through these forms
Terminal illness, a sudden deterioration, a death, a hospital admission, a family in conflict and somebody who has just been told they should sort something out urgently.
The design principle
Published practical information can be answered at any hour. Anything where somebody describes their own situation, particularly involving illness or death, reaches a person immediately.
What can be answered automatically
Fees, what a will involves, appointment formats, what to bring, where you are and how to get in touch. Practical, published, impersonal.
What must never be
Whether a will can be made in particular circumstances, anything about capacity, what a family should do about a death, or anything that requires knowing the situation.
Recognise the signals
Mentions of hospital, hospice, illness, a diagnosis, a death, urgency, a deadline, or emotional language. Any of these should route immediately rather than replying.
Acknowledge like a human being
A short message saying somebody will call, when, and that the enquiry has reached a person. No fee quote, no marketing, no cheerfulness.
Have an urgent route that works at weekends
Because these situations do not wait for Monday, and a firm that can respond on a Saturday is the firm instructed, which is the reasoning in will writing enquiries that need a gentle first step.
Publish that you handle urgent matters
Hospital and hospice attendance, short notice appointments and how quickly you can respond. Families do not know to ask and will assume you cannot.
Give the person who calls the context
The message, the time it arrived and the circumstances, so nobody has to tell the story twice. It is a small thing and it matters enormously.
Publish a bereavement page
What to do first, what can wait and what the firm can help with. Practical, calm and useful to somebody who cannot think straight, which is the same care as property and home questions in estate planning.
Know where automation should stop
It is a judgement about design rather than capability, which is the argument in when not to buy an AI receptionist and the same boundary as test results and prescription questions that need a person.
Review the messages that arrived
The only way to know whether the routing works is to read what came in last month and ask whether anything was answered that should have reached a person. Checking periodically keeps a system safe as the situations people describe slowly change, and it usually reveals one category nobody anticipated.
Capture the essentials and nothing more
Name, contact, urgency and the nature of the situation in their own words, through a short structured route rather than a long form, which you can see on the forms page.
Getting started
Publish practical information generously, route anything involving illness or death to a person immediately and acknowledge it warmly. SpideyChat for law firms answers from your published pages and hands over the rest. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about routing on the features page.