By Ramzi Badwi, Program and Outreach
Coordinator, Michigan Legal Help
Visiting a website for the first time can be a
frustrating experience. It can take time
for a user to find what they need, especially for those who are not very
comfortable using a computer. One of the
ways we remedy this on michiganlegalhelp.org
is by providing “Live Help,” an online chat feature similar to a customer
service help desk. Using this service,
agents can answer a visitor’s questions in real time and provide links to our
own content, quotes from our materials, or links to other trusted sources.
Behind the Curtain: Predefined Content
To a Live Help visitor, it may seem like the
chat agents are legal information gurus, but these agents are not acting alone
- they are a part of a strong, supportive network. Our agents spend several hours being trained
by Michigan Legal Help staff, familiarizing themselves with the website, and
engaging in mock chats. In addition to
this, they have a secret weapon that we call “predefined content.”
If you
have ever interacted with an online help desk, you may have wondered how the
agent responded to your questions so thoroughly and quickly. They probably had “canned responses” or
“predefined content” - previously drafted responses to some of the most common
questions. Once an agent takes a call on
Live Help, a window appears containing many previously formulated responses
that are organized by their subject matter.
Once an
agent clicks on one of these messages, its content is automatically pasted to
their chat window. At that point the
agent can either edit the message or simply send it to the visitor. These predefined messages help the agents
respond to visitors quickly and accurately and also helps us ensure visitors
receive consistent service from Michigan Legal Help, no matter which agent is
chatting with them.
Let’s consider an example to illustrate how
these messages are used. Imagine that a
visitor tells an agent that she is divorced from the other parent of her child.
A child support order is in place, but
the ex-spouse is not paying the amount specified in the order. The agent can simply click the predefined
content button for “Needs to Enforce Custody, Support or Parenting Time Order”
under the “Custody Issues” section. The
following message will then appear in the draft box of the agent’s chat window:
If your child’s other
parent doesn’t obey the court order for child support, custody, or parenting
time, you can file a motion to ask the court to enforce it or change it. Click this link to the article Enforcing
Orders for Custody, Parenting Time, and Child Support to read an article
that explains enforcement of these issues.
These template messages are a simple way to
provide efficient and well-rounded service to the most common issues a Live
Help agent will encounter. They often
include convenient links to relevant content; for example, the passage above
includes a hyperlink to the “Enforcing Orders for Custody, Parenting Time, and
Child Support” article on our website. All of our pre-formulated responses have been
carefully drafted by Michigan Legal Help staff and are reviewed and updated as
needed. It is also worth noting that we
have Spanish predefined content to assist the Spanish Live Help agents as well.
Our Visitors: What Are They Looking For?
Visitors come to Live Help for all sorts of
reasons, most of which are tied to a legal issue or procedure that we cover on
the website. Michigan Legal Help has a
few different tools we use to keep a finger on the pulse of Live Help and its
users. One of these tools is the
“Conversation Summary.” This a survey
that the agent fills out as the chat progresses, detailing the subject of their
chat by filling out a series of checkboxes. There are 34 descriptors in total that include
legal issues like domestic violence, paternity, and eviction. There are also other options like those that
indicate the chat was prematurely ended or that the visitor was seeking an
attorney or legal aid office referral.
In 2017, our agents handled 3,961 Live Help
chats, an average of about 330 per month. The most popular legal issues that visitors
asked about were divorce, attorney referral, and custody which made up about 17
percent, nine percent, and eight percent of the total chats respectively. This concurs with the traffic on the website
as the most popular area of content is Family, which contains our divorce and
custody materials.
Our Agents: Who Are They?
Live Help is an essential aspect of Michigan
Legal Help, and the agents that operate it are a large part of what make it
possible. Most of our agents are students currently attending law school in
Michigan; in fact, we usually reach our potential agents by holding a
presentation on their campus. One of our
biggest draws for these students is that their time spent with Live Help can be
counted as Pro Bono hours. The position
is also done remotely, requiring just a computer and an Internet connection, a
feature that is attractive to many potential agents. Another valuable aspect of the position is
that it involves interacting with real people who have real legal problems. This gives students a chance to gain
experience with issue spotting, a valuable skill they will need in their future
careers. As you may already know, there
are five law schools in Michigan: Michigan State University College of Law,
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, University of Michigan Law School,
Wayne State University Law School, and Western Michigan University Cooley Law
School. We have a relationship with each
of these schools, regularly holding presentations on their campuses and
training their students to become Live Help agents.
Our agents go through a brief yet thorough training process to ensure that they are ready to help visitors to the website. First, agents attend a 60-minute training presentation, either in-person or online. Afterward, they are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the website and are guided through our materials by completing a practice packet. They also use one of our Do-It-Yourself Form tools to generate a mock letter requesting that their landlord return their security deposit. This is all done to help them get a better sense of what a visitor might be referencing in a future chat. In addition to these tasks, agents-in-training complete two practice chat sessions in which they respond to mock questions from a Michigan Legal Help staff member. This is meant to simulate a real chat and get an agent comfortable with the types of questions they will be receiving.
After the chats have been successfully
completed they are given constructive feedback and then activated as an agent. They can begin signing up for shifts and
taking real calls at their soonest availability. At the beginning of every shift, the Live Help
supervisor will introduce themselves to the agents that are on the schedule and
encourage them to let them know if they have any questions. Michigan Legal Help staff are on hand at all
times in case an agent has a question or needs to transfer a difficult chat. MLH staff attorneys also review a portion of
every agent’s transcripts to provide supervision to the students and give them
feedback on their work.
Michigan Legal Help aims to be a valuable
resource for those who are handling their legal problems without a lawyer. We want to be as accessible as possible to
everyone who needs us, trying our best to make our website easy to read and
easy to use. Our Live Help chat service
is just another part of this solution. Live
Help can be used to assist a visitor who can’t find what they need or doesn’t
know where to start. We realize that not
all of our visitors are tech-savvy or knowledgeable of the law, and we want to
help them too. The next time you
encounter someone who can’t find the legal information they need, refer them to
michiganlegalhelp.org and our Live
Help chat feature!