According to recent research, businesses of all sizes are increasingly in need of legal representation. Due to increasing workloads and shifts in client expectations, law firms face a myriad of new and complex problems.
Therefore, businesses are looking for ways to enhance their operations and the quality of their interactions with clients, and Lawyer answering services are among the most popular options. Considering the abundance of available options, selecting an attorney answering service that’s a good fit for your practice is important.
If you’re looking for an excellent legal answering service, Best Call Center is an excellent choice. In other words, the service provider will promptly and competently attend to the needs of your clientele.
Legal Answering Service Definition
In the legal industry, an answering service handles all client and staff calls. A legal answering service may take on the following examples of duties for legal practices.
- Feedback on the most common inquiries
- Taking notice of and responding to incoming text messages
- Collecting caller data
- Making plans for meetings
- Taking down information about potential new customers
- Call forwarding
- Answering electronic mails
- Call-volume management
You can find legal answering service providers that do both inbound and outbound calling. For your business, this might mean more potential new clients.
The Functioning of a Legal Answering Service
The legal answering service does not physically exist on your business premises, but it sets up the necessary telephone and other communication facilities to answer your calls. Experts in the field of answering calls for law firms are part of the team.
The human representatives are helpful, quick to respond, and well-versed in legal communications. Customers who dial the toll-free number reach actual persons who can answer their questions thoroughly. When working with answering services, you won’t encounter any robotic responses.
Because clients communicate with real people who are extensions of your law practice, they never have to leave messages. The agents provide the caller with correct information about your legal practice. It’s up to you to determine whether or not you want the calls or texts diverted to you.
Finding the Right Legal Answering Service
It’s important to think about what you need from a legal answering service provider when doing your research. You need a provider that will work with you to develop effective strategies for reaching your target audience. The following are factors to think about while deciding on a legal answering service to work with.
1. Telephone availability of attorneys
Contacting a lawyer is usually a last resort for someone in need of assistance. They will probably go to another lawyer if they can’t get in touch with anyone. The time of day or night makes no difference. Because of this, having a receptionist service that operates around the clock is essential. The most ideal scenarios will incorporate no-extra-charge weekends and holiday hours.
2. Call-in service fees & rates
Lawyers typically employ a live answering service instead of a full-time receptionist since it’s more cost-effective. When signing up for a service provider, make sure their rates are lower than what it would cost to hire an employee to perform the same tasks in-house at your legal practice. Examine our transparent pricing structures to learn more about the cost savings you’ll realize by using our company.
3. Legal answering bilingual
Having native English speakers on staff is a must, but you should also prioritize hiring a business that is bilingual. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, Spanish has more native speakers in the United States than any other language. Because of this, it is crucial that you choose an answering service that can communicate with Spanish speakers so that you won’t lose out on business.
4. Educating future legal assistants
Not all response services are created equal; choose one that employs only the most seasoned professionals to field your calls. Best Call Center’s legal department is trained to handle calls from clients of law firms, so they are familiar with terminology and procedures that may be foreign to remote receptionists at other companies. It’s important to put a lot of thought into the answering service you choose, as the person who answers the phone may be a customer’s first impression of your business.
5. The effectiveness of calls
A well-run call center will have procedures for handling messages and emergency calls. You won’t have to worry about clients falling through the cracks if you have a system in place that requires them to input their name, phone number, call time, and needs and then stores all of that information in one place.
6. Modifying existing accounts and scripts
The finest organizations not only have a well-thought-out plan but also understand that every legal practice is different and has its own set of requirements. If you choose a service that offers multiple options tailored to lawyers, you’ll be able to tailor when and how you get calls, texts, and other notifications to your needs. The calls you want to be forwarded and the ones that may wait should be subject to your own criteria.
7. Size of law firms
Customers who get an answering machine are much more likely to hang up and look for another lawyer, therefore, it’s in your best interest to work with a firm that has a large number of receptionists. If the business is big enough, someone will always be able to answer the phone.
5 Questions Before Hiring an Answering Service
When deciding on an answering service, the following are the most important factors to think about:
1. Do you provide service around the clock?
Why pay for a service if you can’t get someone to answer the phone when you need them? For example, if a potential customer calls at 5 a.m. and your answering service is closed, you may never hear from them again.
2. Do you also cater to other industries or only the law?
A company that also fields calls for therapists and doctors is not solely focused on legal matters. A broad answering service is not what you need if all you want is a human voicemail. Consider, as an alternative, hiring a legal answering service to act as a virtual receptionist, fielding calls, and responding to emails on your behalf. They need to be able to field simple inquiries about your business, probe for more information about the person making contact, determine whether or not they are a viable lead, and finally make an appointment.
3. How long do you usually take to pick up the phone when someone phones you?
A reliable service should monitor call center wait times. In the event that a service doesn’t address this concern, you should look elsewhere. It’s preferable if a service can guarantee a response time of fewer than 20 seconds. Generally speaking, a response time of more than 59 seconds is cause for concern and should prompt you to look elsewhere.
4. Do you feel safe?
Have you considered backup plans in case of an emergency? Will your call go unanswered if the call center closes due to bad weather or some other emergency? Determine if the organization uses remote workers or has many call centers in different locations. Although physical safeguards are vital, digital ones are even more so. Protecting user information from unauthorized access is a top priority for any service worth its salt, so it’s only natural that they’d use encryption.
5. For quality assurance purposes, do you record calls?
You may want to check in on the service’s call handling from time to time to make sure everything is running smoothly. A company that is sure of the quality of its representatives will gladly let you listen to call recordings to ensure they are using proper phone etiquette and asking and answering the right questions to qualify new clients.
Asking yourself the proper questions will help you narrow down your choices to only one or two services. Make sure you understand what you will owe up front (most will require a modest setup cost) and how you will be invoiced by the companies you investigate (generally this is by-the-minute call time).
Pick a provider who is flexible enough to help you build a plan around the specific needs of your practice. Locating a reliable provider will free you up to focus on your legal practice and the people you’ve already built relationships.
Do You Require the Services of a Legal Answering Service?
If you’re in charge of a law business or practice law yourself, you know how important it is to be available whenever the phone rings. But what if you don’t pick up the phone? Exactly what methods do you have in place for prospective customers to contact you? One option is to hire a legal answering service.
A lawyer’s ability to communicate with his or her clientele is greatly aided by the services provided by legal answering services. They handle incoming client messages, relay those messages to the proper attorney, and monitor upcoming commitments. In a nutshell, they support the availability of crucial resources for customers.
In contrast, not every answering service for lawyers is the same. How can you determine which is ideal when looking for a solution? This is a five-step process:
1. Choose the service that best fits your needs
The three most common options are in-house, outsourced, and hybrid legal answering services. Law companies that maintain their own answering service provide those services in-house. Answering service providers who focus on the legal industry offer outsourcing services. Hybrid services combine in-house resources with external vendors.
2. Learn about the many service options
Determine which legal answering service is ideal for your needs by reading up on the many options available. Services performed entirely in-house offer greater flexibility but sometimes come at a higher price than their outsourced or hybrid counterparts. Cost savings from outsourcing may be possible, but only if you hire a reputable firm with experience fielding legal calls. Some hybrid services even combine cost savings with individualized attention to give you the best of both worlds.
3. Shop around and see what you can save on
Once you’ve decided on a few different companies, it’s time to compare rates and offerings. Make sure the provider you go with offers a variety of services, like call forwarding, voice mail, and emergency assistance outside of regular business hours. Make sure you find out if there are any hidden costs.
4. Talk with possible service suppliers
The finest supplier for your legal practice can be found through in-depth interviews with a shortlist of potential candidates. Inquire about their history in the field, their methods, and their commitment to client satisfaction.
5. Get serious and choose one option
After you’ve talked to every service provider, you may pick the best one for your situation and your wallet. You should look for a legal answering service that is both reasonable and dependable if you want to use it for your law practice.
Having read this, you should take the time to discover the best legal answering service for your organization. With reliable support, you may give your full attention to practicing law.
What Makes Best Call Center the Best Option for a Legal Answering Service?
Legal services providers often fail to respond quickly enough to client inquiries. With more firms competing for clients, it’s crucial that those who provide legal services use effective methods of client communication management.
Best Call Center provides exceptional legal answering services for small enterprises in the legal industry that help them compete successfully. Services provided in a timely manner and to a high standard by agents who have received extensive training in the field are now available to customers.
Customers can get answers to their questions and suggestions for improvement from agents in real-time and across many channels. The best call centers provide services that are always active and up to date in real-time. Your interactions with their representatives will always be positive.
