Call Forwarding: 4 Scenarios In Which An Answering Service Can Save The Day

At a law office, it can be all too easy for customers to pass you by. It is impossible to know when exactly a call from a new or existing client will come into your office, and unrealistic to expect a firm to be able to answer all of it’s incoming calls. You can’t afford to not answer calls, because missed calls equate to missed business. So what can be done to make sure your firm never misses out on a client?

At Answering Legal, we not only have a trained team of legal receptionists to answer an attorney’s phones 24/7, but provide exceptional call forwarding services to ensure that a firm’s customers are always handled in the best matter possible. When teaming up with our legal answering service, you get to choose from four different call forwarding methods, each of which is highly customizable.

A proper call forwarding system can become a truly invaluable part of any law office. In fact, you may be surprised by how often call forwarding with Answering Legal saves your firm from making costly mistakes. To further prove this point, we’ve laid out four scenarios in which different methods of call forwarding can keep your business from letting customers slip away.

Scenario #1: The Busy Day

You are awaiting a call from an important client, but expect to be in and out of meetings the entire day. How can you ensure that this client is properly accommodated?

It can be difficult to make a client feel like your first priority, when they are just one of many important clients your firm is in the process of serving. These types of situations require an elite level of call handling, and to properly address them, we recommend attorneys utilize Answering Legal’s rollover call forwarding. With this method of call forwarding, you will get a highly trained legal intake receptionist picking up your phone calls after a predesignated number of rings.

With rollover call forwarding:

• You will first be given the opportunity to answer your important client’s call.
• If you end up being unavailable to pick up the call, your answering service will pick up the phone on your behalf after a few rings.
• One of our legal intake receptionists will kindly greet your customer, than politely put them on hold as they try to see if you want to be transferred in on the call.
• If you are unavailable at the moment, our receptionist team will take a message from the client and let them know when they should expect to hear back from you. They can also perform legal intake on any potential new clients.

A client is much more likely to understand you being briefly unavailable, if they get a helpful live voice on the other end when they call in. According to Nuance Communications, “less than 1 percent of people will hang up on a live person”. You should never allow your important calls to go to voicemail, as doing so will leave clients feeling frustrated and neglected. Our legal intake receptionists will assure your clients that help is not too far away, and keep them from becoming disgruntled. Rollover call forwarding will keep you from overstressing about missing a client’s call, while also helping you address customer issues in a prompt manner.

Scenario #2: The After Hours Caller

It’s 5:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, and you decide to head home for the day. 15 minutes later, a call comes in to your office from a new customer in immediate need of legal assistance. What can you do to keep that client from moving on to another firm?

We believe that 15 minutes should never make the difference between obtaining or missing out on a new client. If you find that it frequently does, you should make the switch to Answering Legal’s time of day call forwarding. This method lets you design your call forwarding preferences around your office’s daily schedule.

With time of day call forwarding:

• You let us know which hours of the day you want our receptionists to completely take over your phone answering.
• If a customers calls after you leave the office for the day, one of our legal intake receptionists will pick up the call, and take down name, phone number, and a message.
• You will receive a message with the details of the customer’s call, and can determine whether you need to call them immediately or wait to return their call the next work day.
• You don’t have to worry about forgetting to turn on and off call forwarding when you open for business and close at the end of the day. We’ll always take care of that for you.

You can’t count on an after hours caller to wait patiently until the next day for you to call them back. Perhaps 20 years ago you could, but with so many outlets to get legal help in existence today, your caller will likely begin looking elsewhere as soon as they hear the beep. If a caller instead has the opportunity to communicate their issue to a live representative, and is given the opportunity to learn more about your business, they will be more likely to invest in your services. Our legal intake receptionists will perform a full legal intake on all new customers that call after hours. This allows you to call them back the next day, already fully prepped on their situation and ready to tackle their case.

Scenario #3: The Clogged Phone Lines

You find yourself missing out on many potential clients, because you are too busy handling the calls of persistent existing clients, as well as the aggravating calls of solicitors. How can attorneys that don’t have an in-office receptionist, go about filtering their calls and giving their new callers first priority?

We’re sure all attorneys are familiar with the client who constantly calls them every time the tiniest question pops into their head. You’re happy (or at least willing) to address this type of client’s many concerns, but not at the cost of connecting with future clients. For help improving your call prioritizing, we recommend using Answering Legal’s total screen and transfer call forwarding.

With total screen and transfer call forwarding:

• You get notified whenever your firm receives a call, as our receptionists announce every caller.
• One of our legal intake receptionists lets you know whether or not a new or existing client is on the line, and what the nature of the call is.
• You are given the option every time to either have the caller patched into your cell phone/secondary phone, or have one of our legal intake receptionists either take a message for you and perform a full legal intake.

This method of call forwarding makes daily time management a breeze. With it in effect, you can always make sure you’re in the best position to take on the calls of new customers. When existing clients call in, you will know before committing to answering if it is an urgent matter, and have the option of letting your answering service handle the call for you. No matter which way you handle things, your clients will always be accounted for, and never feel ignored. Dealing with pesky sales calls will also be a thing of the past, as solicitors get completely handled by our team at no additional charge, and never disrupt your work day.

Scenario #4: The Vacation

You’ve worked hard for months and months, and have finally earned a few days away from the office. You are looking forward to a break from work, but would still like to monitor your calls to make sure you are not missing out on anything too important. How can this be accomplished?

As an attorney, we’re guessing you don’t have too many opportunities to relax throughout the year. But when you do get the rare opportunity to rest, you should be able to rest easy. Signing up for Answering Legal’s full-time call forwarding can help you achieve vacation zen.

With full-time call forwarding:

• All of your calls will be picked up on the first ring by one of our legal receptionists.
• We can let callers know when they are likely to be hearing back from you.
• You will have all customer messages sent to your mobile device, available to read at any time.

When on vacation, you only want to get on the phone when you absolutely have to. With this call forwarding method behind you, you will be able to fully enjoy your time off, knowing that our receptionist team always has you covered. And when something urgent does pop-up, you will be notified immediately.