3 Reasons an Attorney Answering Service Provides Clients Better Representation
The importance of providing comprehensive legal service is not something that will ever change no matter how innovative the world becomes. Partnering with a reliable attorney answering service will help provide a modern and affordable solution to handling overflow. This is also the perfect solution to answering calls when there is no one available at the firm.
Fielding calls from court representatives, prospects, and clients to an experienced attorney answering service will represent your firm in a professional manner. It’s so important that the third-party service you choose provide your callers with an excellent representation of your services. A dedicated team of customer service professionals will help you prevent unplanned consequences when you’re not reachable.
Despite the high usage of mobile phones, there will be times that attorneys are unable to answer phone calls from clients or court officials who are looking to:
Confirm areas of practice
Schedule, cancel, or reschedule appointments
Request an update on their case
Relay important information regarding their case
Tell the office about time-sensitive information regarding a case
Confirm address and get directions to the office
Employing an attorney answering service is essential for attorneys who have a heavy case load, are looking to grow their practice and don’t want to miss out on speaking to prospects, are often in court, don’t have an in-house office staff, or travel often.
A Dedicated Attorney Answering Services Delivers Structure, Discretion, and Flexibility.
You can have the most excellent secretary or paralegal, but they can’t possibly answer every call. Not to mention, a lot of people tend to handle their personal issues outside of office hours before or after they’re own work schedule. That’s why so many lawyers use after-hours call centers. The difference between those call centers and a dedicated attorney answering service is that the latter is more than just a live answering machine. They’re not there to just take a name, number and robotically tell the caller that someone will get back to them. Answering machines can provide you with the same.
The human touch is a much-needed component to people are who are concerned about a legal matter. The attention to detail and confidentiality an attorney answering service can deliver to clients will go a long way.
Each lawyer has a specific way they’d like each call handled during their down time to upkeep their reputation and level of service to prospects and clients. That’s why companies like Dedicated Office assign a professional attorney answering service manager to customize a call handling protocol during the onboarding process. The manager then trains the staff to ensure procedures are accurately followed for each type of call.
It’s vital to use an attorney answering service that has scalable technology with their own term server that will secure your account data. Dedicated Office uses a customizable system that guides each answering service professional when an inbound call is received.
Utilizing instinctive technology, an innovative attorney answering service should have the capability to distinguish calls by numerous criteria that will be pre-defined by you. The account will be programmed to:
Automatically generate your account protocol complete with a customized greeting with your law firm’s name so caller’s will feel that they’re reaching your office directly.
Provide representatives with directions on how to handle each call type
Load scheduling instructions
Display office address and directions
Guide the attorney answering service professional with the questions to ask or data to retrieve from the caller based on the call type.
Automatically send message details via email and SMS upon call completion
Dedicated Office Conveys Transparency.
Being that all calls are recorded, transparency is built into your service. This is particularly critical when what is said by the caller (or day and time of call) is possibly in question. With a secured recording feature that you will have access to, you’ll be able to retrieve information about any of your calls when need be. The bonus is, your calls will also be archived in cases where you need to gain access to a call that took place some time ago.
Enhanced Representation of Your Firm to Clients and Court Officials.
Your attorney answering service is an extension of you. The disorganized lawyer that carries around a heap of folders and paperwork isn’t the type that necessarily exudes confidence to a client.
Don’t be that attorney.
Innovative technology and automation make an attorney answering service more effective, precise and lucrative. Your firm will be represented in a more professional manner to your clients, which will instill confidence about you to them. They’ll feel like they have a spokesperson who cares about them and is not just looking to collect money from them. Your colleagues in the legal system will also be amazed with your level of organization and capability to get more done.
The biggest selling point of a first-rate law practice is responsiveness. When your clients’ finances, estate or freedom are on the line, you must have dependable methods of contact during times when you’re not available. Contact us today to get a free consultation on how employing an attorney answering service will improve your firm’s reputation.