Bringing in prospective clients to your criminal law firm is no easy task. You are up against stiff competition, and taking on new clients detracts you from your ability to handle the cases at hand. Many criminal law firms that have made a name for themselves in the legal sector have gained their reputations through how they manage their present and prospective customers.
When clients are treated respectfully, your business is likely to soar, whereas the opposite is true when they are treated poorly. That's why using a phone answering service is the most effective strategy for monitoring the expansion of your law firm. The following are some of the main benefits that your law firm will reap from working with an answering service.
Ensures Your Law Firm is Accessible Around the Clock
A call answering service provides around-the-clock accessibility, so clients can speak to a real person for help whenever they need to. It is even possible to have the call answering service handle calls on weekends and holidays. Customers are going to be able to contact your legal practice whenever they need help rather than being forced to call during regular business hours. This will be beneficial for your clients, who will have a far more positive experience overall, and also for your legal practice as a whole, as more satisfied customers mean more repeat business.
Your customers won't have to deal with voicemail or any other kind of automated system. Instead, customers can always talk to a real agent who will answer their inquiries and set up their appointments. This will allow you to manage your company's affairs without having to do any heavy lifting. You can rest assured that your clients will be happier with the services you're offering.
An Answering Service Offers Personalized Solutions Designed to Meet the Needs of Your Firm
A law firm does more than just take calls. Luckily, seasoned phone answering services are capable of offering a wide variety of services. As a result, you can pick certain services based on the demands of your business.
In addition, a professional phone answering service can adjust and enhance your strategies and procedures as your legal company expands and new needs arise. Your firm will experience a high rate of customer retention without incurring excessive costs.
Call Answering Services are More Affordable Than In-House Receptionists
If you need to recruit someone to take care of every activity in your legal company, you could wind up with an enormous team. When compared to hiring a professional call answering service, employing staff members is far more expensive.
For example, it could cost roughly $35,000 annually to pay a receptionist's salary, and this doesn't include things like office furnishings, overtime pay, benefits, or workers' comp insurance. When you take into account the expenses of paying each person at your company, these costs can add up quickly.
However, your legal company may outsource all of its call-taking to an answering service for just a portion of these expenses. You can compete with other legal firms thanks to the cheap overhead and high efficiency of these services. Moreover, this will assist you in minimizing the extra costs associated with paying personnel and purchasing any necessary equipment.
A Phone Answering Service Fosters Relationships and Client Loyalty
When customers are pleased with the level of legal help offered by your practice, they will continue to show loyalty to your firm when dealing with any future legal problems that could arise. Hiring a call answering service, particularly one that is available 24/7, can assist with promoting these qualities of dependability and engagement. When customers have concerns that can't be resolved right away, just listening to them and assuring them that you'll reach back is often enough to turn them into repeat customers.
Call Answering Services Offer a Good Way to Address Client Conflicts
You should never leave a client worrying about a problem that your company is tasked with fixing, especially if the matter includes an appeal of a licensing application. A phone answering service fills this gap by providing a suitable platform for clients to voice their grievances and having your attorneys listen to them.
The best approach to earn your client's trust is to listen to them, even when you don't have any immediate responses to the concerns they've brought up. It's a great way to show that your company values their happiness and well-being.
Employing an Answering Service Can Help Your Company's Reputation
Since the majority of criminal law issues are complex, you are likely to discover that many clients have great things to say about a legal company that has handled their concerns correctly.
You can expect the majority of your happy customers to spread the word about your company's excellent service when you choose a professional call-answering company. This could be accomplished through recommendations, online reviews, or other channels. As the news gets out, it turns into a means for publicity and advertising, which will significantly boost the expansion of your company.
Call Answering Services Protect Your Company's Credibility
A law firm can build a solid reputation and simultaneously ruin it. That's why it's so important to have a phone answering service to provide a constant level of customer service.
This is accomplished through the perception the client has of the answering service. Even if the answering service doesn't take every call, a simple phrase like "leave your message after the beep" could help in reassuring your customers that you're paying attention to them. Phone answering solutions also guarantee that voicemails are answered more quickly and effectively than internal receptionists can.
Call Answering Services Enhance the Professional Image of Your Firm
A survey indicated that nearly half of legal firm clients viewed the customer service employees they spoke to over the phone to be ineffective. This is typical behavior for in-house receptionists working in legal firms. These situations typically arise when receptionists have many jobs to complete at once and are unable to provide their full attention to incoming callers.
A phone answering service, nonetheless, would make this process much more pleasant for callers thanks to their well-trained receptionists and easy-to-use automated menus. With these tools at hand, your company will come off as more professional, evoking trust in the services you provide.
Call Answering Services Give Your Staff More Time to Focus on What Really Matters
Numerous things have to be done to ensure the smooth operation of your legal company, even though most of them already have personnel that are capable of handling both outgoing and incoming calls. There would be no need to waste time answering the phone just to be constantly interrupted. When you use call answering services, you expect to get prompt responses, virtual call filtering, and clear communication of all relevant company information. Eventually, you'll be able to free up your team, allowing them to focus on more pressing matters.
Reduce Callers' Waiting Time
There could be instances when the volume of calls pouring into your company is too much for your in-house receptionists to handle. Customers may become frustrated if they have to wait 10 to 30 minutes to speak to a receptionist who seems overworked. However, when the phone answering service uses an automated system your clients won't be forced to wait.
Clients can use the automated system to send in their messages and rest assured that someone will get back to them as soon as possible. This minimizes frustration and guarantees that their time is respected. Since bad customer service is the leading cause of customers failing to go through with a purchase, increasing your company's speed of service should be a top priority.
Guarantees You Receive All of Your Calls
While it's never ideal to keep a customer waiting, failing to return a call in a time-sensitive case could have equally disastrous results. You cannot afford to lose out on a customer like that. Fortunately, an answering service can ensure that no calls go unanswered. The majority of answering service companies use a computerized system that records details about each call.
Therefore, when clients contact your legal office, they won't have to deal with the frustrations of an endlessly ringing phone, long waits, or unanswered calls, and you won't have to worry about losing business. These companies may also provide remote phone answering services, enabling you to take all incoming calls while away from your workplace.
So any time you have an important meeting or court appearance, you won't have to worry about missing any important calls.
Call Answering Services Can Assist Your Legal Firm in Maintaining a Call and Voicemail Log
Call logging and voicemail features are two things that a trustworthy answering service will offer. All incoming calls are recorded, irrespective of whether or not the person calling spoke to anybody or simply left a voicemail.
Thus, you must pay attention to the specifics of your customers' concerns, particularly when they need your help defending their cases in court. Maintaining a record of calls as well as voicemails can also enable you to assess the issues raised by your clients and make improvements to certain areas, such as how they are handled, your advertising efforts, or the FAQ sections of your company website.
Using a Phone Answering Service to Benefit from Flexible Communications
You need to be able to juggle several tasks successfully to keep up with the rising demand for your criminal law company. You could use their help to get the word out to potential customers about your business's location, hours, specials, and more by setting up an information hotline. Certain call-answering providers also offer a way to develop mobile applications, which streamline and simplify mobile communication.
Choosing the Best Answering Service for Your Criminal Law Firm
To enjoy the aforementioned perks, you need to choose the right answering service. Law firms must be mindful of the sensitive and private nature of most potential calls.
Consultation with prospective call answering services should begin with a focus on whether or if they offer any specialized services. Legal processes are technical and complex, therefore you don't want to choose a phone answering service that simply has expertise in providing tech support or retail help, for instance.
It would be preferable with a company that has a proven track record and expertise working with clients just like you. Those that offer specialized solutions are more valuable to your business and can better address a wide range of caller problems.
Talk to the prospective answering service about their policies regarding the handling of private information before making any final decisions. They should be aware that you often deal with sensitive information.
You can express your wishes to them in detail before they start taking messages from your callers. You have the option of having them merely take clients' messages and direct calls as needed, or you could ask that they verify client details before setting up appointments. Additionally, look for a service company that provides coverage every day of the year, including holidays. Often, attorneys must work on time-sensitive and critical cases.
It's not uncommon for potential customers to call a legal firm in hopes of hiring an attorney or at least speaking with someone shortly thereafter. You need a phone answering service that's accessible 24/7 to help both your current and potential customers.
The perks of hiring a phone answering service for your criminal law firm outweigh any drawbacks. Answering services give you a polished look that gives the impression that you are a huge business, and build trust in clients whenever they interact with you.
By simply returning phone calls, you show that each one of your customers is important to you. Working with a phone answering service can assist you in accomplishing your goals if you operate a legal firm and would like to boost the volume of clients who hire you or trust your business.
Find a Professional Answering Service for Criminal Law Firm Near Me
Hiring an answering service is among the most effective strategies for boosting the quality of services provided by the legal company. You should remember that not every answering service will provide the quality of support you're after. One important factor to take into account when choosing an answering service is whether or not the business has worked with other clients in achieving the same level of success you are seeking. When you have these criteria for making a choice, you'll have a good shot at getting what you want for your business and criminal law clients.
