Live Answering Service 101: How Lawyers Benefit From Using Our Service During After Hours and Weekends

Lawyers always need to be ready for new client opportunities, but that doesn’t mean they have to commit to answering phone calls 24/7. Signing up with Answering Legal will provide lawyers with a lot of benefits, but perhaps what they’ll like most about using our live answering service is the ability to hand off phone answering responsibilities during after hours and weekends.

In this post, you’ll learn more about how Answering Legal’s receptionist team handles your callers outside of normal office hours, and keeps new client opportunities from slipping away from your firm after you’ve clocked out for the day.

Meet The Receptionist Team That Never Stops Working

When we say Answering Legal provides 24/7 service, we truly mean 24/7 service. Our call center is always up and running, and filled with trained legal intake receptionists, who are ready to answer your incoming calls at all hours of the day or night. How are we able to ensure that we’re always fully staffed? At Answering Legal we only hire receptionists that live local to our call center location in Long Island, New York. With this being the case, we are always able to get receptionists to fill shifts on short notice in the event that a normally scheduled receptionist cannot make it in. Our receptionist team is never left shorthanded, and neither is your firm.

Read More: Why A Live Answer Means Everything To Your Customers

Options For Forwarding Your Calls

How you go about sending calls to our service is one of the first things we’ll determine once you sign up with Answering Legal. We know that not all lawyers are the same when it comes to after hours and weekend call handling needs and preferences, which is why we offer several call forwarding options.

Our most popular call forwarding options for after hours and weekends:

Manual Call Forwarding

If your schedule is a bit unpredictable, or you’re just very particular about when you do and don’t want to answer calls, our manual call forwarding may be able to offer you some much needed flexibility. Under this type of call forwarding, lawyers can physically turn on and off automatic call forwarding to our service, and do so at any time. You’ll get to decide when your work day starts and ends, and be in full control of your phone lines.

Rollover Call Forwarding

Worried you’ll forget to turn on and off call forwarding to our service, or just don’t want to be bothered with doing so? Rollover call forwarding may be your perfect solution. Under this type of call forwarding our receptionist team answers your firm’s incoming calls after a certain amount of rings. When you are away from the office, and have this type of call forwarding on, you’ll know that all of your callers are getting to speak with a trained legal receptionist within the first few rings of their call. If you happen to be in the office outside of normal working hours, you’ll still have the opportunity to answer incoming calls yourself.

Time Of Day Call Forwarding

With this call forwarding protocol in action, your incoming calls will automatically be transferred to our receptionist team during times slot pre-specified by you. If you’d like us to take over handling your calls from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weeknights, all you have to do is let us know. Same goes for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Your callers will be immediately transferred to our receptionists on the very first ring.

Answering Legal also offers Total Screen & Transfer Call Forwarding, in which we serve as the “front office” for all of your incoming calls, and obtain information from a caller first before giving you the option to be transferred in. However, this is a service you’re more likely to benefit from during normal working hours.

Read More: How we forward your calls

How We’ll Keep You In The Loop

When an Answering Legal receptionist answers one of your calls while you’re away from the office, you’ll have a number of options in deciding what they do next.

For existing clients, lawyers typically prefer our receptionists to simply take a message on their behalf, and send that message to them via text and/or email message. If you’d like us to transfer calls from specific clients to your mobile phone, we can easily accommodate.

For first time callers to your firm, attorneys often want our receptionists to try and transfer the call over to them right away. This gives attorneys the chance to win over new prospects in real time. However, if you prefer not to be bothered during weekends and after hours, our receptionist can take your prospect through the legal intake process. We’ll gather the client’s personal and case information, and send it to you via text and/or email message after the call concludes.

Keep in mind that you can change your call handling settings and preferences at any time, so if there is an evening or weekend you’d like to be more or less available to certain callers, all you have to do is let us know. Our support team is always easy to get in touch with, and able to answer any questions you might have. All you’ll have to do is call our support phone line or send us an email.

Take Back Your Evenings and Weekends!

No longer do you have to make the choice between getting the new client and actually taking some time off. Sure there will be some weeknights and the occasional Saturday where you have to put in extra hours, but when you actually do have a night or weekend free, Answering Legal will make sure you’re actually able to enjoy it. Our legal intake receptionists are exceptional when it comes to capturing new leads, and will always be available to field your clients incoming calls. With our service, you’ll still be able to monitor new client opportunities yourself, but do so at your own pace. So feel free to book that night out on the town or hit up a ballgame with the family over the weekend. Answering Legal has got your phone lines covered.

Experience our live answering service for yourself by signing up for a 10-day free trial. To get started fill out this form or call 631-686-9700.