Family law is a sensitive area of practice that requires an attorney to be present for their clients during work and post-work hours. Trying to meet your clients’ needs and balance your work and private life could be stressful for you or your staff. Integrating answering services in your law firm can lessen your law firm’s workload.
Your clients’ calls are attended to even when you are busy in meetings or personal life. Answering services assist family law firms in receiving phone calls, messages, scheduling appointments, and a whole other functions. In this way, you can rest assured that your clients are always looked after. You will maintain a good record with the current clients and win over more clients in the future.
This article discusses the benefits law firms can acquire from using answering services and other aspects concerning such services.
Overview of a Family Law Answering Service
Answering services are services provided by call centers to family law firms. Live operators from the call center receive calls, respond to clients' concerns, and report information and data taken from the calls. Calls made to the family law firm are forwarded to the call center through unique call forwarding numbers. Your clients' calls are routed to the call answering center when you cannot answer them, and a live person will then guide the client as per your preset guidelines. Let us look at some terms used in the answering service industry.
Call Center- is a company that offers external live operators for companies receiving large volumes of calls, messages, or emails. The call center provides technical support for customers or acts as a link between the clients and the company.
Internet Answering Services- entails services that revolve around emails or chat services and not actual calls.
Virtual Receptionist – performs tasks in the same way a receptionist would; answering and forwarding calls, providing information to clients, and other office-related services. The only difference is that the virtual receptionist is paid according to the services offered, unlike a receptionist who is a full-time worker at your office and requires additional employment benefits.
Virtual Office Service – works similarly as a virtual receptionist service but with office space for temporary meetings for businesses that work remotely.
Automated Answering Service- works similarly to an answering machine; it entails a recorded voice response that guides the client depending on their needs. The customer is directed to select options that will then produce a message appropriate for their input. For instance, your client may need to choose option one for a specific need and opportunity two for other information. The prompts also guide the client on how they can leave a message if they need to.
Why You Should Use a Family Law Answering Service
There is no telling when a client may need your professional opinion in matters affecting them. You could be right in the middle of court proceedings, and a client calls. You cannot pick calls in the middle of a proceeding or meeting, yet missing the call could mean that you lose credibility with this client. You want your clients to know that you are there for them through their divorce, custodial battle, or child adoption and still take care of your work and personal life; this is where call answering services come in.
Call answering services to ensure that your clients' calls are well catered to and do not overwhelm you as you perform other tasks. Virtual receptionists are usually trained in handling professional calls and thus will be well suited for your family law firm. You can provide further instructions based on the needs of your law firm. In this way, the call answering service will seem like part of your law firm and not a separate entity. Clientele services will be exceptionally met, ensuring you do not lose clients to other family law firms.
Furthermore, answering services provides an affordable option for all types of businesses, whether large, medium, or small. Whether your law firm has just started picking up or you are already established, an answering service can fit right in with your business. The variety of plans available ensures that you can choose an option that perfectly aligns with your budget.
It also helps your law firm organize call information to make it easy to retrieve data if needed in the future. Data organization is part of the services offered by answering services. This function allows your family law firm to be organized, thus increasing the business's overall efficiency.
Answering services are flexible since they work per your instructions and needs. For instance, you are the one who controls what the client should hear and how your clients are handled. It would help if you customized the script that will be used to answer your clients' calls to ensure the client feels their case is handled with compassion. When setting up your answering services for your law firm, you choose the words that are said to your client. You can write a script that the answering service providers follow when receiving and giving your clients information.
Additionally, you can use answering services even when you have your receptionist. Call answering services depend on the capacity of your law firm. If your receptionist is having a hard time with work overload, the assistance will help out, allowing your staff to focus on other aspects of their work. Answering services are an excellent investment if you want to improve your law firm's customer service. If customers feel well assisted in an emergency where they need legal guidance, they will most likely remain loyal customers and refer more clients to you. With an answering service, you can be sure that such vital calls are handled with compassion and escalated to you as soon as possible.
24/7/365 Services
Moreover, answering services ensure that you will have someone to respond to your clients no matter what day it is or what time of the day and night. You can arrange with your service provider on how calls made past work hours are to be handled. Being available for your clients earns you their trust, and they will consequently want you to handle their cases. You can enjoy public holidays and take time off at night without worrying about missing important calls.
How a Family Law Firm Answering Service Works
If you are considering hiring answering services for your law firm, the first step you need to take is to research the call answering services available in your region. Check on the services they offer and compare it to your needs. You also want to check ratings and reviews of their services. Also, consider their pricing and establish whether it will fall in line with your budget.
Once you settle on an answering provider of your choice, you should take the next step and get in touch with them. You will discuss various aspects of your business and what services you require from the call center. After that, you will need to sign-up for answering services at the providers’ website.
During the signing up process, you need to choose a toll-free business number for your family law firm. In case you require more than one business toll-free number, your answering service provider can avail it, but you will incur extra costs. The next step will entail setting up the nature of calls you would like to be answered. You also need to include instructions on any other unique information you would like to pass to your clients once their calls are received.
The process of setting up a call answering service is easy and user friendly, taking approximately an hour to complete depending on the service provider you choose. Due to each case's uniqueness in family law, you must provide a detailed script of customized answers to questions mostly asked by your clients in different situations. The virtual receptionist uses this script to ensure your clients experience the same reception they would if they called your firm directly.
Additional benefits of acquiring answering services for your family law firm include:
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Bilingual Services
Thanks to growing technology and ease of travel from one country to another, you can serve clients from all walks of life, and some could be non-English speakers. Answering services provide bilingual staff to support diversity for family law firms. You only need to specify the language combination you would like for your clients, and the call center can provide a suitable virtual receptionist.
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Appointment Management
In the family law industry, most clients will need to meet you personally to discuss their cases. You want to adopt a well-organized system to plan and schedule your meetings. Appointment management can save you embarrassing situations such as two different clients appearing for a meeting on the same day and at the same time.
Answering services integrate their scheduling features into the services they provide for your family law firm, enhancing the customer care experience and helping your business run smoothly. A well-planned system will ensure that every billable hour is spent efficiently. With your calendar being updated continuously, you can be sure you will neither forget meetings nor mix up appointments will be neglected, and you will serve your clients better.
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Call Screening
Call screening involves analyzing the topics of discussion of each client and the virtual receptionist on a call. The virtual receptionist places the calls according to what the client needed and the urgency of each call. In this way, a family attorney can easily track which matters are urgent and easily access their call data. When clients call a family attorney, they could have pressing issues and require immediate legal guidance. You want their emergency calls to be attended to by a live receptionist who can guide them appropriately if you are busy.
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Message Taking
Most plans include message taking and distribution in their answering services. All you need to do is discuss your family law firm's needs, after which they will suggest a suitable plan for you. If you receive large volumes of messages, answering services can also cater to this.
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New Business Lead Capture
New business lead capturing for family law firms has never been made easier than with answering services. Non-essentials calls are filtered out, and possible leads are identified. In this way, you can turn the leads into clients. In the fast-paced world of family law, you want to capture prospecting clients fast before your competitors lure them.
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After Hours Services
Depending on the nature of cases your family law firm handles, you may receive calls in the wee hours of the night or early in the morning before work hours. Answering services offer plans that help keep up with the varying timing of clients' calls, messages, and emails. In this way, your clients will always have their calls answered when they need assistance past your office hours.
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Call Transfer and Routing
If there is a need to escalate calls, answering services will follow the instructions you offered on how and when to escalate your clients' calls. The answering service can patch on your cell, telephone, or anywhere else per your preference. The answering service will save you time to work on other projects and cases by ensuring only the necessary calls, client leads, and customers are escalated to you.
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Integration
Ultimately, the most impressive part of acquiring answering services for your law firm is their ability to integrate into your institution and work as one body. Clients can hardly tell that an answering service is handling your calls. The virtual receptionist adapts your family law firm's specifics into the answering service such that the service feels like an extension of your institution.
Per-Minute Pricing VS Per-Call Pricing
Depending on your service provider, attorney answering services' pricing can be based on the minutes taken in serving your firm or the number of calls answered. Per-minute pricing considers the time spent in answering calls, searching and organizing information on your behalf, or sending messages and emails. Per-call pricing can be less straightforward since you will be charged the same price for important client calls and wrong number calls or hang-ups. However, with Per-minute pricing, you will get the value of your money since the rates will be proportional to the length of calls and time spent at your business' services.
When you decide on using an answering service for your family law firm, you must go through the plans offered by an answering service provider and ensure they will fit in with your business. Also, consider each plan's costs, hidden costs, additional fees, and whether the total expenses align with your budget.
