Four Problems A Virtual Receptionist For Law Firms Will Help You Solve

From the outside, it’s easy to say that running a successful business of any kind is just about making sure to keep revenue high and costs low. That’s a gross oversimplification, of course—especially when it comes to law firms.

Running a law firm, especially a small one, is all about the details. Lawyers already work long hours, so working harder isn’t a feasible solution to any issues your business might run into. Instead, working smarter and knowing where to make tiny optimizations is key. Finding all the little ways you can save money and make your firm more efficient can add up to a big reduction in costs, and, therefore, a big boost to profit.

Among home cooks and chefs, where space is at a premium, there’s a saying: no mono-tools! Why invest in a tool that will only solve one problem? The best way to tackle the many ways you as a law firm owner could be working more efficiently is to find tools that handle many problems from different angles. An answering service that provides a virtual receptionist for law firms is one of those tools, and essential in many successful firms’ tool belts.

1. Unsatisfactory Revenue

The primary function of a virtual receptionist for law firms is to answer every call that comes into your firm. 24/7, 365 days a year, every caller will speak to a live representative of your firm, who will listen to them and help them on their legal journey. Just on its own, that will get you many more leads than missing that many calls.

After all, only 1 in 3 phone calls to law firms are picked up live.

The other two-thirds of those callers are getting voicemail or an IVR system that, likely, leads to voicemail. Those callers aren’t going to wait patiently for you to call them back! They have an urgent legal issue, and they’re going to hire the first lawyer who speaks to them directly. By answering those calls every time, a virtual receptionist for law firms will raise your lead capture rate to soaring heights.

And once you add in the effects of 24/7 coverage, your firm lead capture rate will skyrocket even higher. You’ll be able to expand your client base to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach you during the day.

Legal intake is the key to making this all happen. By asking your callers questions tailored to your firm and practice area, they’ll feel like they’ve already begun the process of hiring your firm.

52 percent of firms satisfied with their revenue make good use of tech tools like a virtual receptionist for their client intake, as opposed to 47 percent of firms unsatisfied with their revenue, according to the 2023 Clio Legal Trends Report.

The most successful firms apply technology effectively to their problems. For intake, that can mean a legal intake management system, a CRM, or, even, a legal answering service. By making sure every new client caller gets a professional, custom legal intake, you’ll be ensuring a stellar lead capture rate for your firm.

2. Unsatisfied Clients

If your clients aren’t giving you 5-star reviews, it could just be because you’re not asking for them. We have a guide to getting better reviews right over here, if you’re interested. But it could be a sign of a bigger problem. It’s one thing if you’re not getting reviews because you’re not asking for them. It’s another if you’re not getting reviews because your client experience needs improvement.

According to Clio’s Legal Trends Report in 2022, online reviews are the most important criterion clients consider when selecting a lawyer, and considered a good way to gauge client satisfaction.

The client experience is key to a successful law firm for many, many reasons. Besides, of course, the statistic just listed above, the biggest reason is because that’s your job as an attorney. You can’t guarantee positive results for your clients, as that is ultimately out of your control. But the experience your clients have as you guide them on their legal journey? That’s the most important part of being an attorney.

Improving your client experience should therefore be a priority for your firm. Just like any other part of running a business, this process is a matter of small optimizations.

For example, clients (and most people) hate voicemail. When you have a virtual receptionist for law firms, existing clients will never have to leave a voicemail again. They’ll appreciate being able to talk to a live person every time they call, and when that person tells them you’re not available and will get back to them soon, they won’t feel ignored.

New clients, on the other hand, will, as discussed above, appreciate a professional receptionist taking them through your firm’s unique legal intake process. But if you really want to impress them, your virtual receptionist for law firms can transfer them to you directly, no matter the hour. That kind of dedication will be rewarded by a higher lead capture rate, as well as more reviews and referrals.

3. Unwieldy Data Entry Requirements

Of course, running any business requires a lot of data work. Billing, keeping track of cases, and managing expenses can eat a lot out of your time. While it’s true that this kind of work scales as your firm grows, larger firms tend to have better infrastructure for data entry tasks. Small firms, therefore, spend a bigger fraction of their already limited time on administrative work that isn’t billable to any client . A virtual receptionist for law firms can help win back some of that time.

If you hire a premium legal answering service, they’ll likely integrate with your CRM, hopefully at no extra charge. Whatever legal intake management system or calendar you use, your virtual receptionist for law firms should be able to send information directly to it, eliminating a lot of your data entry pains.

That means the contents of the legal intakes prospective clients undergo can be posted straight to a new client profile in your CRM or legal intake management program of choice. You’ll be able to track, organize, and even automate responses to your new client callers, allowing you to bring your phone system into your firm’s automation plan.

The same can be said of messages from existing clients. Whatever they’re calling about, a record of that call and the contents of it will be added to their profile on your CRM. You’ll be able to tell what outstanding responses your clients are waiting on, and never fall behind on your communication.

4. Unbound Costs For Your Business

Keeping costs as low as possible without sacrificing quality is a key part of optimizing your business’s performance. There are, of course, some costs that are non-negotiable. If you’re not a remote law firm, rent is one thing you cannot avoid or really cut down on, for example.

But in the areas where there is wiggle room, a virtual receptionist for law firms can help you cut down on some unnecessary costs for your firm. Compared to hiring in-house phone help, you’ll be saving on salary, benefits, and training.

Just to put a number on it: a 2022 Training Industry Magazine report found that the average cost of training an employee was 1207 dollars.

A lot of firms have a problem with outsourcing their call handling—or outsourcing anything, really. Outsourcing has gotten a bad reputation because of its association with offshoring. Offshoring, of course, deserves its bad reputation, even if only because of its effect on your reputation.

A Purdue University study found that regardless of their satisfaction with a call center, 65 percent of consumers would alter their behavior or perception toward a company after finding out they used an offshore call center.

That’s why it’s important to note this distinction: always outsource, never offshore. The virtual receptionist for law firms you go with should be 100 percent U.S.-based, or else you risk losing face with your client base.

Of course, that will cost more than an offshore solution. But that cost will be offset by the positive effect on your reputation. It will be less expensive than hiring in-house, and just as effective.

Answering Legal’s Problem-Solving Solution

The best way to maintain the quality of your firm’s reputation when you decide to outsource is to go for a premium legal answering service over the less expensive, lower-quality options. Answering Legal is the best premium legal answering service around.

That’s because we have an advantage even our 100 percent U.S.-based competitors don’t: Our receptionists only answer for lawyers. Because of that, we can afford to spend months training them, making them legal intake experts. If you’d like to learn more about our virtual receptionists for law firms, click here.

In addition, our service is always growing. We are always adding new integrations with top law firms; you can click here to learn more about it. And our mobile app is always being updated to make it as useful as possible for our law firm customers.

Start solving problems for your firm today. Click here or call 631-686-9700 to sign up for our free trial. For a limited time, we’re offering firms that sign up for our service their first 400 minutes free.