Your website never closes. But too often, the opportunity to engage a potential client does.
In the healthcare and legal industries, this gap between visitor activity and business hours can be the difference between winning a new client or losing them to the next option in their search results.
Here’s why after-hours engagement isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s critical to your practice’s growth.
After-Hours Activity Is Higher Than You Think
While your team clocks out at 5 p.m., your audience is still online.
Approximately half of healthcare appointments are booked outside of regular business hours, with Sunday evenings between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. being a particularly popular time for scheduling. Whether it’s podiatry, chiropractic care, or urgent care, patients increasingly prefer the convenience of booking on their own time, often late at night.
Legal services show similar trends. While there isn’t as much appointment data, a significant portion of local legal searches on smartphones lead to an in-person visit within 24 hours. This indicates a window of intent—someone researching legal help after work hours is often ready to act quickly.
Additionally, over 25% of visitors to lawyers’ websites are using mobile devices, suggesting they’re browsing during evenings or weekends when they’re away from a desk.
If your website can’t respond instantly, those visitors may never return.
The First Five Minutes Matter Most
Once a prospective client reaches your site, how quickly you respond is just as important as when they visit.
According to one widely cited study, responding within five minutes makes you 21 times more likely to convert a lead compared to waiting 30 minutes. Even a brief delay can have an outsized impact. Missing the five-minute window by just one minute measurably reduces both lead qualification and conversion rates.
In other words:
- The visitor who fills out a form at 9 p.m. may never answer your call the next day.
- The potential client who starts a chat after dinner might disappear if nobody replies in real time.
- Each minute of delay increases the chances they’ll keep searching and find someone else who can help immediately.
Why 24/7 Chat Changes the Equation
Adding 24/7 AI chat isn’t about replacing your staff. It’s about ensuring that when someone is ready to take action—whether it’s 2 p.m. or 2 a.m.—your business is ready too.
By automatically greeting visitors, answering common questions, and collecting contact information, round-the-clock chat:
- Creates a professional first impression, no matter when someone reaches out
- Captures leads you’d otherwise never see
- Starts the conversation instantly, while your competitors are silent
For industries where response time directly impacts trust and conversion, this can be the difference between an inquiry and a booked appointment.
Bringing It All Together
Your website is always open. Your opportunity to connect with a potential client is not.
With so much after-hours browsing and such a narrow response-time window, businesses that rely on “we’ll call you back tomorrow” are falling behind.
Whether you run a healthcare practice or a law firm, investing in 24/7 engagement ensures you can meet people where they are, whenever they’re ready to act.
Because in today’s world, being available around the clock isn’t just a convenience. It’s a competitive advantage.
Learn about MyAdvice’s AI Chat Solution and reach out to our team to find out how Chat can help you grow your lead volume.
