Often, when people are enlisting a lawyer or attorney’s services it is for a serious reason and they will call frequently for updates. Your relationship with clients is built on trust and if you frequently miss calls, they might think they can’t trust you to handle their case.
To ensure that more calls get answered, many lawyers, attorneys, and legal professionals partner with phone answering services. If you’re considering a legal answering service for your law firm, the following questions (and answers) may offer some insight!
- Do I need an answering service for my law firm?
- What services can a legal answering service provide?
- How do I find the best virtual receptionist for law firms?
Do I need an answering service for my law firm?
Law firms are busy places. Partnering with a 24/7 answering service ensures that your clients feel heard because someone is available more often to take their calls. It also allows your business to grow because a trained professional takes care of client intake while you focus on your cases.
If you’re wondering “Does my law firm need an answering service?” ask yourself the following questions. If the answer is “yes” to any of them, your firm can likely benefit from an answering service.
- Can I benefit from a Spanish-speaking bilingual virtual receptionist?
- Do I need support from a live receptionist during business and/or non-business hours?
- Does my firm go through busy and slow periods? Would we benefit from an answering service that allows us to ramp up and cut back on coverage as needed?
- Would I like to save time by not having to recruit, hire, and train an in-house receptionist?
- Would I like to save money on the overhead costs associated with a full-time, in-house employee?
What services can a legal answering service provide?
Legal answering services do a lot more than just answer phones, transfer calls, and take messages. Our professional live agents receive training in the legal field to provide seamless service to your clientele.
Here are some other valuable services a legal answering service offers:
- After-hours answering services. If your firm receives a lot of calls on nights or weekends, a 24/7 answering service will impress your clients in a culture that increasingly values constant availability.
- Bilingual virtual receptionists. Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in U.S homes. Many legal answering services offer bilingual receptionists to provide great service to callers.
- Lead intake and generation. With someone always answering the phones and taking in information on potential new leads, you won’t miss an opportunity for your business to grow.
How do I find the best virtual receptionist for law firms?
There are several important factors to consider when scouting a virtual receptionist service for your law firm. To help guide you through this process, we pulled together this checklist of things to consider when choosing the best legal answering service:
- Determine how much coverage you will need. Are you finding that most of your calls are going to voicemail during the day? Are you finding it difficult to keep up with casework because you must prioritize phone calls? Whatever your situation, a legal answering service can assist you with your specific needs.
- Consider what features will augment your business. Each firm and its set of needs are unique. Consider what your firm will benefit from most. Is it a bilingual virtual receptionist? A mobile app for easy account management? Or would it be helpful to have someone to triage and flag your emails? The good news is that Answering Service Care can help you with all the above!
- HIPAA compliance. Many law firms handle sensitive private health information and are required by law to be HIPAA-compliant. It is important that the legal answering service that you partner with is up to date on all HIPAA guidelines.
