A couple in their forties have been meaning to make wills since their first child was born. She is now nine. Every year they agree it is important and every year nothing happens.
It is not the cost. It is that neither of them knows what actually happens, how long it takes or what they would have to decide, and the unknown is easier to postpone.
Step 1: describe the whole process in six lines
Enquiry, appointment, draft, review, signing, storage. Seen as six steps over a few weeks it stops being a project and becomes an errand.
Step 2: say how long each step takes
Realistically. People imagine months and it is frequently a few weeks. This alone moves people who have delayed for a decade.
Step 3: say what the first appointment involves
How long, what is discussed, whether both partners attend and whether anything must be brought. Removing the fear of being unprepared is what books it.
Step 4: say plainly that nothing must be prepared
People delay because they think they need a list of assets and a decision about everything. Telling them the first conversation works it out with them removes the blockage.
Step 5: publish the fee
Fixed fees for a single will, mirror wills and more involved arrangements, with what each includes. Fee uncertainty stops more wills than fee level does.
Step 6: explain the decisions they will face
Executors, guardians, beneficiaries and what happens to the home. Naming them in advance lets people think rather than being asked cold in a meeting.
Step 7: explain the appointment options
Office, home visit, video or telephone, and whether a signing appointment must be in person. For older and less mobile clients this decides everything.
Step 8: explain the signing formalities
That there are requirements about how a will is signed and witnessed, that the firm arranges it and who cannot witness. People worry about getting it wrong.
Step 9: explain storage
Where the will is kept, whether there is a charge, how it is retrieved and what the family would need to do. It is the most common question after signing.
Step 10: explain when it should be reviewed
Marriage, separation, a birth, a death, a house purchase or a significant change, which is the ground in will review enquiries after a change in circumstances.
Step 11: handle sensitive enquiries carefully
Terminal illness, bereavement or urgency needs a person immediately rather than a booking form, which is the approach in will writing enquiries that need a gentle first step.
Step 12: never give the advice in the enquiry
What somebody should do, how an estate should be arranged or what any arrangement would mean is the work. Capture the situation and book the appointment.
Step 13: make the booking easy at any hour
People decide at eleven at night after a conversation about something else entirely, which is the readiness described in consultation structure and what happens on the day and your first hour with SpideyChat.
Getting started
Publish the six steps, the timescales, the fixed fees and what happens at each appointment, then book at any hour without giving advice. SpideyChat for law firms answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about booking on the features page.