5 Reasons Answering Legal Is The Best Phone Service For Small Business

Not sure if you’ve heard, but it's a great time to be a small firm lawyer. That is at least according to a new report from the ABA, which says small firm attorneys earned an average of $226,000 in 2017. If your growing practice has yet to bring you that level of financial return, don’t worry, success could be just around the corner. In fact, something as simple as improving your office’s call handling, could end up elevating your firm to new financial heights.

Why does the way you answer phone calls matter so much? Well think of it this way.

The client acquisition process typically has three steps:

Step 1- Attorneys market their services, and try to attract consumers to call into their firm.

Step 2- Clients speak on the phone with someone from your law office, and are taken through a legal intake process.

Step 3- The selling point begins, as prospective clients come in for consultation and decide whether or not to hire an attorney.

Where things all too often go wrong— many times without lawyers even realizing there is a problem— is Step 2. When your phones are answered by untrained receptionists or not answered at all, most of the leads you generate in Step 1 quickly go to waste. This means most of your clients never even come close to reaching Step 3. Simply put, if your firm isn’t dedicating the necessary preparation and resources to answering phone calls, it won’t be able to grow, no matter how good a lawyer you are.

So how can you improve your call handling and reach the level of financial success many of your competitors are experiencing? It’s time to turn to Answering Legal. Here are five things that make us the best phone service for small business.

1. We’ll Provide You With The Most Opportunities To Capture New Clients

In order to win over new clients on the phone, you’ll actually have to answer the phone. And we don’t just mean sometimes, but every time. Every time your office phone rings, you need a live representative from your firm picking up within the first three rings. You never know when a significant new case opportunity is going to come calling, and you always want to make the right first impression. Failing to have a live voice pick up a call, sends the message that your firm is either uncaring or incompetent, and will more often than not result in customers quickly moving on to calling another firm.

The limited staff of a small law office is going to struggle to answer every call that comes their way, and in most cases won’t be able to answer any calls during overnights, weekends and holidays. Teaming up with Answering Legal makes all too much sense for smaller sized practices, because we can give them the phone answering coverage of a large firm at a price that fits into their budget. Not only does our receptionist team work 24/7/365, but they’re bilingual too, meaning you’ll always have new opportunities to connect with Spanish speaking clients, and grow your small business even more.

2. Our Receptionists Are Experts At Performing Legal Intake And Taking Messages

With Answering Legal, you’re not just signing up for non-stop receptionist coverage, but quality receptionist coverage from highly trained professionals. You can count on our receptionist team to properly greet and communicate with all your first time callers, take them through a full legal intake process, do so with the same efficiency as a trained employee from your office. Before any of our receptionists are allowed to perform any intakes on behalf of our attorneys customers, they are put through months of legal intake training. You can feel confident that they will perform the process correctly every time, because they’ve done it hundreds of times before.

The message taking skills of our receptionist will also equal or exceed that of even the best in-office receptionists. Our service allows you to have messages left by both new and existing clients sent directly to your smartphone via email or text message, allowing you to always keep tabs on new client opportunities and give current clients the best possible care.

3. Our Team Will Keep Embarrassing Call Handling Mistakes To A Minimum

Today the first place consumers typically look for guidance in their hiring choices is online, and one thing that can kill a small firm fast is negative reviews. So if your firm’s online reputation is less than stellar, you’re likely to see the amount of prospective clients contacting your law office decrease in a hurry. Growing businesses simply can’t afford for that to happen.

Overcoming a large number of negative reviews can be challenging, so you’re best bet is to make sure they don’t happen in the first place. Answering Legal can always ensure your firm comes off looking great on the phone. Our receptionists will always be kind, respectful and understanding towards your clients and their legal needs, and make sure callers are never left in the dark as to how and when their legal needs will be attended to by your firm. Making sure a client never feels ignored or unappreciated can go a long way in helping them have a positive customer experience with your firm.

4. We Can Help Overwhelmed Lawyers Take A Break

Small firm attorneys are often hesitant to take breaks, because they’re worried about missing out on new business. After all, when trying to grow your firm, missing out on even a single new client feels unacceptable. But, here is the reality most lawyers don’t want to face. If you don’t take the occasional time off, you are eventually going to break down from either fatigue and/or stress, and you won’t be a very good lawyer.

This brings us to yet another reason why Answering Legal is the best phone service for small business. We can help small firm attorneys continue to capture leads and answer their phones, while they’re away from the office for an extended period of time. We’ll perform legal intakes on all new clients, and send you their intake information via message, allowing you to monitor your calls for anything important or time sensitive while away from the office. We’ll also let your callers know when they can expect to hear back from you regarding their matter, and make sure they don’t go running off for other legal assistance. This way you can take that much needed vacation and come back feeling refreshed and ready to impress all those new leads we’ll have waiting for you.

5. We’re Ready To Grow With Your Firm

At Answering Legal, we’re able to effectively serve firms of all different sizes, so you’ll never have to worry about outgrowing us. Our receptionist staff is always growing, and working around the clock to ensure we can handle any increased client load your firm may experience. We also offer pricing plans and minute packages for small, medium and large sized firms, and will work with you to find the best payment plan for your growing practice.

Oh, and there’s more good news! Before paying even a single cent, you can try us out for free by filling out our sign up form here! Let us help make your law office the next small firm success story.