Top Seven Misconceptions About Law Firm Call Centers

Close your eyes and picture in your head what a typical law office looks like. You were probably just envisioning a beautifully designed office, hard working employees, and a highly professional environment.

Now close your eyes and picture what a typical call center looks like. If you’re like most people, you’re probably envisioning a high degree of chaos. Perhaps a large room of overstressed receptionists answering phones non-stop, all very much lacking direction and composure.

These two pictures seemingly would never mesh. Why would a lawyer from a highly professional law office ever trust a call center to manage their extremely sensitive and important legal phone calls? Well we’re here to remind you that conception isn’t always reality. In fact, a law firm call center, such as Answering Legal, can be the perfect phone answering solution for a legal practice. In this piece, we’ll go over seven of the top misconceptions about law firm call centers, starting with a pretty significant one.

All law firm call centers are the same

Saying that all lawyers are basically the same— effectively bunching you in with all the Saul Goodman’s of the world —would be an insult to your practice and all the incredible work you do each day. By the same measure, saying that all call centers are basically the same, minimizes the incredible service provided by a law firm call center like Answering Legal.

What separates Answering Legal from other call centers, is the fact that it serves exclusively lawyers. While other call center agents are answering phones on behalf of several different types of businesses, Answering Legal receptionists are able to give your firm their full attention and the best possible service.

Related: Learn more about the incredible impact a specialty answering service can make!

Virtual receptionists lack proper training

Call center agents have a reputation for being a bit rude and brash, but perhaps the biggest complaint people have with them, is they’re generally not very knowledgeable. It’s easy to understand why a lawyer might be hesitant to trust a receptionist they’ve never actually met to greet and field questions from first-time callers to their law office. Fielding legal calls can be much more complicated than handling the average business call, and requires a certain level of expertise.

Because Answering Legal only answer phones on behalf of law offices, they’re able to tailor their services and receptionist training programs specifically towards providing support for attorneys. This means the legal intake receptionist answering calls on behalf of your firm will have already gone through months of situational phone training, and will be ready to effectively handle anything that comes their way.

Virtual receptionists don’t have time to perform clerical duties

The main objective of a call center agent is typically to answer as many calls as possible. Most agents will look to take a caller’s name and number and a brief message, before quickly moving on to the next caller. This method of operation typically doesn’t vibe with law offices, as legal receptionists are expected to take detailed client messages and perform full legal intake on all first-time callers.

Answering Legal receptionists are not only fully trained in message taking and performing legal intakes, but have been instructed to always dedicate the proper amount of time to individual callers, to make sure their personal and case details are recorded correctly. As a result, lawyers end up fully briefed and prepared entering their follow-up conversations with potential clients they are trying to win over.

Law firm call centers can’t provide a personalized experience

Building up trust right away is essential to winning over new clients. But, when a client’s call is answered by someone who is clearly at an off-site location and knows nothing about the firm they are representing outside of its name, generating trust becomes rather difficult.

While Answering Legal’s receptionist team won’t be working out of your office, they’re pretty good at making it seem like they are. At the beginning of their relationship with Answering Legal, lawyers get the chance to personalize all of their lead capturing settings, and make sure all of the most pertinent information about their firm gets passed along to the receptionists fielding their calls. Answering Legal receptionists are then able to come off as a seamless extension of your law office while dealing with customers.

Related: Learn how Answering Legal’s receptionists are able to personalize their call handling for your firm.

You’re likely to be overcharged

Like any other business, law offices get a lot of useless calls, with calls from salesman and solicitors being some of the primary examples. These calls have nothing to do with helping advance your law practice, but that won’t stop some call centers from charging you for them.

You can feel confident that every minute you pay for with Answering Legal, is a minute well spent. Answering Legal customers only pay for the minutes on calls that relate to their business. Calls from telemarketers, or calls from family and friends are never added into a lawyer’s monthly bill. Attorneys will always know how much their spending each month, and will never experience unpleasant surprises in their month bills.

Call centers aren’t made for capturing leads

Nailing that first phone call means everything when it comes to winning over new clients. Obviously you won’t be there to capture every potential lead that calls into your firm, so you need a receptionist that can actually inspire confidence in people that call into your office when your unavailable.

As we’ve touched on already, Answering Legal receptionists serve exclusively lawyers, are highly trained in fielding legal calls, and know your business. On top of that, the Answering Legal receptionist team literally works around the clock, providing live phone answering for your business 24/7. A highly qualified law firm call center receptionist will have a significantly higher chance of keeping a potential client’s interest while your away, then an automated machine. Today’s consumer isn’t interested in engaging with robotic voices, they want answers right away from a live person.

Related: Top five reasons firms are signing up with live answering services!

You’ll damage your firm’s reputation by using a call center

Those running a business need to be extremely careful about the way they interact with consumers on the phone these days, as just one slip up or mistake can do tremendous damage to their reputation. Customers who feel they have been disrespected or taken advantage of by a business, now have several online review platforms they can use to vent about their experience. These negative reviews can be seen by everyone, and can be killers for a law office. So is a lawyer really going to put their faith in a call center agent to not make a damaging mistake to their firm’s pristine reputation?

While a poorly run call center can be a reputation killer, a high quality legal focused call center, like Answering Legal, can be a firm’s ultimate reputation defender. Answering Legal ensures that all of your firm’s callers are accounted for and properly received by a courteous, thorough, and knowledgeable receptionist, giving you the best possible chance to provide them with a positive customer experience.