Running a law firm in Long Beach can be tasking, and it is not uncommon for you, as a post-conviction relief attorney, to struggle to keep up with the constant flow of clients’ inquiries and calls. With numerous issues requiring your attention, you can easily let essential communications and messages slip through the cracks. Regrettably, when a potential client cannot reach you, they will not hesitate to call your competitor. It can lead to lost revenue and business, not to mention negatively impacting your firm’s reputation. Partnering with a phone answering service ensures you meet your clients' needs, boost their confidence in you, and grow your practice. In this article, you will learn why investing in a call agency for your law firm is essential.
Your Answering Service Helps You Avoid Missed Calls
Every missed call is a lost opportunity. When you miss calls, you miss consultations and opportunities to grow the law firm. While business communication occasionally depends on one call, there is only one opportunity for your first impression. When your callers get a voicemail, they will call your competitor instead. That means lost business opportunities and revenue.
Missed calls can also become another task on your to-do list that you must address the next day. The administrative duties might initially look like a small deal but can result in inefficiency. While returning calls from your previous day, you risk missing out on potential clients’ calls through your other line. Backups, service delays, and falling behind on other critical projects can all result.
A live answering service can help improve client satisfaction by offering a human touch that automated systems do not offer. The call agent can answer questions, help with issues, give your clients the attention they deserve, and show them that you care about them.
Also, your answering service will take your calls and deliver them to you via email, text message, fax, or your preferred system, allowing you to handle other tasks.
Handling Emergency Calls
As a legal expert, you recognize that clients’ calls do not necessarily occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. You could also be out of the office arguing a case in court or visiting clients in person and have no means of being notified of an emergency until you return to your office. While your receptionist can help, it is time to take your legal firm to the next level by utilizing an answering service that can professionally handle calls round-the-clock.
Typically, your expert emergency answering service will follow a script you've written to ensure that your callers receive accurate information from the company. Then the call agent will follow your set of protocols and a custom script to address your callers and the nature of the emergency and capture the relevant details your business needs. The agent can prioritize calls and notify you of urgent concerns based on the nature of the issue. Moreover, defendants with serious problems can be promptly transferred to your phone line to ensure you give them prompt attention.
Your Call Agency Can Help You Stay Organized with Appointment Scheduling
For most law firms, appointment scheduling is the heart of everyday operations. Without booking appointments successfully, what you do might be zero. You require defendants and their families to seek your services.
However, setting up initial consultations and managing appointments for existing clients can take a significant part of your day, waste revenue-generating hours, and cause you to lose leads. As a criminal defense attorney, you should spend your time fighting for defendants’ rights and working aggressively to ensure you help them seal or expunge their criminal records, giving them a second chance in life.
When a prospect or existing client contacts your law firm to book an appointment, you should handle their call accurately and promptly; that is where a call agent makes the difference. The answering service will integrate with Google Calendaring and Outlook 365, among other calendar tools, making your appointment scheduling and confirmation process seamless. The agent can keep abreast of your current schedule and set appointments around it or restrict your consultations to specific times and days when you are consistently available.
Also, the call agency acts as an extension of your law firm. It can create scripts that suit your needs, and the systems will provide specific information that should be provided to the callers. Your callers might realize that they are talking with a third-party call service.
Legal call center representatives can also:
- Inform you of changes to your calendar.
- Manage clients’ requests for scheduled changes.
- Dedicate enough time for consultations.
- Ensure your clients are happy and satisfied.
Making an appointment is only effective if the suspect remembers that they scheduled it. That is why your call agent should send out automated reminders. And to optimize the time with your client, the call agents can include the following additional information in the reminder:
- Direction to your office.
- Answers to post-conviction relief-related frequently asked questions.
- Links to forms that should be downloaded and filled out.
Reduced Overhead Costs Compared to Employing a Receptionist or Secretary
Hiring a staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, can be costly. According to Glassdoor.com, a full-time receptionist's estimated annual salary is approximately $34,700. Your answering service provides trained qualified, and ready-to-work staff. When your business fluctuates, so does the need for workers. The agency offers steady services at a cost-effective price, irrespective of the number of workers you need. Typically, most agencies’ pricing is based on the number of minutes the law firm uses and does not charge for more than you use. You do not have to worry about offering healthcare, employee absenteeism, or staff quitting.
Also, hiring new workers is often overwhelming. With a new worker, whether full-time or part-time, you must consider the experience, benefits, and wages before determining the ideal candidate. After hiring them, you should ensure they offer the same excellent services your law firm is renowned for. In other words, you have to dedicate time to training and monitoring new employees.
A live call answering agency does this for you. The agency will continually train its operators with counseling and coaching approaches to ensure they stay updated on your criminal defense law firm’s needs.
You Can Record the Incoming Calls for Future Reference
Call recording can track all your outgoing and incoming calls and the aim of every call. Law firms with substantial call volumes experience overwhelming call activity, making it essential to record your calls so you can easily refer to information stored in the recording. Most call centers save recorded calls as audio on their software, email, or devices, making accessing past conversations seamless.
Also, if your law firm has recordings of your calls, you can always have expungement information and case facts that might have been forgotten while transmitting them.
Call recording also helps you execute call quality assurance. Going back in time and analyzing calls made to you can offer insight into the challenges faced. You can study how the agent interacted with your potential and existing clients and determine what needs to be changed and what strategies are working.
Listening to recorded calls can help you understand your callers’ habits and preferences. How did your prospects find your law firm, and what made them contact you? These questions can help you know whether you are marketing your legal services in the right place or targeting the right audience.
Enhances Your Staff Productivity
Phone calls can be a distraction. Client calls are great for your law firm; they assist you in maintaining communication with potential and existing clients and offering top-notch customer service. However, too many calls can hamper productivity, especially during busy months. If you do not answer your phone, you could lose clients, but if you fail to manage your business back end, you will not be servicing clients.
Moreover, the calls can interrupt workflow and waste time. They break the momentum of your legal team, forcing it to spend time finding out where it left off before handling the calls.
A live legal answering service eliminates calls and boosts productivity. If your staff can maintain the momentum, they can pay attention to more essential tasks and complete more tasks in less time, increasing profitability.
Improves Value‐Added Services
Defendants and their families contact your office for legal services and the value-added services that give you a competitive advantage. Nevertheless, your team cannot offer the value-added service if it is busy handling clients’ calls.
Your virtual receptionists can filter urgent incoming calls and permit your employees to:
- Fight for your client's life and give them a fresh start,
- ensure they achieve favorable case outcomes, and
- enhance your brand’s professional image.
With a call agent, your legal team can take messages and calls when free, permitting them to pay attention to offering the best value-added services possible.
Can Convert Your Leads to Sales
The legal industry is very competitive. People seeking legal help expect that they can reach an attorney quickly. Effective communication with clients, appropriate messaging, and prompt response time can differentiate between a successful law firm and an unsuccessful business.
Your seasoned call agency can do more than answer your calls. It is a great return on investment (ROI) strategy that can qualify your leads and offer lead conversion and client retention services, helping you continue growing your practice. Your live answering service will ensure your leads receive the required details and timely attention they deserve. The agents are experienced in active listening skills and adaptable processes and are dedicated to offering your callers personal attention.
Retaining your existing clients is as essential as attracting new ones. Your professional answering service will ensure your calls are answered timely and courteously, increasing customer satisfaction and promoting customer loyalty.
Typically, legal call agencies are also designed around a specific formula that maximizes lead retention for your brand. From the initial phone call, this winning approach assures a lasting first impression of the company and the ability to represent your clients.
A Competent Answering Service Will Create an Illusion of Big Size
As globalization grows daily, business dynamics are changing rapidly. Generally, clients are more inclined toward big and well-established businesses.
Considering the huge costs of growing your business, it might seem impossible for a small or medium-sized law firm. Luckily, with virtual call answering agents, you can make your clients believe your brand is seasoned.
Additionally, the agency will uphold your brand’s image and make it seem legitimate. It helps your staff and clients know you are serious about running your firm effectively and efficiently. Virtual receptionists are trained to connect with clients, win their trust, and build robust professional relationships.
Expert in Answering Calls and Bringing Personality
Answering calls is a skill that demands a lot. While you have made and received numerous calls in your life, when the question of taking business calls arises, a person experienced in answering calls becomes necessary.
Call agents are trained and have the right set of skills and frameworks to ensure all calls run smoothly. You can rest assured that the degree of expertise they bring will grow your business.
To survive in the competitive legal industry, you should have a personality that compels clients to return. If any defendant or their loved ones contact you and an automated machine answers their call, your business will lose that personality. That means a loss in all senses of the term. However, if a real person handles all calls, your clients will identify with you, trust you, and be loyal.
Offers Bilingual Services
Most successful companies meet their customers where they are. If the target market prefers texting, the company will text back. The fewer the barriers between you and your clients, the easier it will be for them to seek legal services.
Most criminal defense law firms miss opportunities by communicating ineffectively with the Hispanic community in Long Beach. While most Spanish-speaking natives are bilingual, most are not proficient in English.
With a trained bilingual answering service, your Spanish-speaking clients can gain an understanding of your legal services, including expungement. You can also understand your client’s case facts and legal objectives, reducing the risk of misinterpreting your client's information and allowing for effective assistance.
Contact a Skilled Phone Answering Service Near Me
The legal world is a fast-paced industry. When people are in legal trouble, they want help and advice promptly. If they are stuck on hold or have to listen to voicemails, they are likely to hang up and dial the next criminal defense lawyer’s name that they find online. Since you cannot always pick up your calls immediately, a skilled attorney answering service can be your solution. Other advantages of hiring a virtual answering service include reduced overhead costs, improved customer satisfaction, and the illusion of a big law firm, helping clients trust you and growing your brand.
