Why Answering Legal Is More Cost Effective Than Hiring A Law Office Receptionist

According to ZipRecruiter, as of January 2019, the average annual pay for a law office receptionist in the United States is $27,594 a year. The site also notes that annual salaries can reach as high as $38,500 for a law office receptionist. And this is all before incorporating any kind of employee benefits. That’s a lot of money for a firm to dole out, especially for smaller or solo practices. So if there was a more cost effective way to get your legal calls answered, shouldn’t you at least consider it?

Over the past six years, a lot of attorneys have found Answering Legal to be a useful alternative for handling their phone answering needs. Our legal answering service operates on a 24/7/365 basis, has a team of highly trained receptionists that can perform new client intakes, and even excels in areas such as message taking and call transferring.

Here are some things every lawyer should consider when it comes to the way their phones are being answered.

You May Be Able To Get The Same Or Better Service For Less Money

Why choose an in-office receptionist over an answering service? Most would probably say that they know what they’re getting from their current receptionist in terms of performance and reliability, and can’t say the same about a call center receptionist they’ve never met. And when talking about most answering services, they would be right. The employees at the average call center are in no way equipped to answer calls on behalf of a law firm, and are more likely to harm your reputation than help you capture new leads.

Answering Legal is of course much different than the average call center, as our receptionists only answer calls on behalf of legal practices, and all have a high degree of specialized training. In fact, the training programs we put our receptionist through allow them to handle legal phone calls with the effectiveness of just about any person you might hire to sit behind your front desk.

Does your firm need someone that can be trusted to perform proper legal intakes on all first time callers to your firm?

Our receptionists have executed hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of new client intakes before, and will get you the information you need to evaluate and proceed with a customer’s case. The legal intake questions our receptionists ask can be personalized towards your firm too.

Does your office need someone to take messages, and keep you updated on current client matters?

Our receptionists have gone through extensive message taking training, and understand the importance of recording and presenting lawyers with accurate information. At the conclusion of every call, our receptionists will pass along detailed client messages to you via text and/or email, which can of course be accessed right from your smartphone.

Do you need someone to help manage your schedule?

Once a lawyer becomes a full-time Answering Legal customer, they can have our receptionist team book new appointments directly into their calendar. Our service can integrate with just about any calendar software.

After completing a free 10-day trial of Answering Legal (which we encourage all lawyers to do, even if it’s just as an experiment), you’ll quickly realize that there’s not a whole lot that your law office receptionist can do, that our receptionist team can’t. And if you’re getting the same, if not better service from us, why not go with the significantly cheaper option? Take a look at some of our basic pricing plans.

Quick math will tell you that even using our large plan will cost significantly less than the monthly salary of your in-office receptionist. Our plans are also highly flexible, meaning we can develop a customized minutes package for your firm that lands higher, lower, or somewhere in between the plans listed above. Which leads us to the next thing you should consider.

You May Not Need That Much Coverage

If your firm has a pretty manageable call load, and the phones aren’t exactly ringing off the hook, does it make sense to employ your receptionist full-time? We’ve just established that our receptionist team can handle the responsibilities that would normally fall on an in-office receptionist shoulders. So why not take advantage of one of our smaller minutes packages and save a boatload of money?

We know growing firms are always concerned about making the best possible first impression on callers with potentially significant cases. We know that with just one client has the ability to make your month or even your year. But, we’re also confident that any member of our legal intake receptionist team will be able to inspire confidence in those must-have clients, and do so at a much cheaper price tag than your current receptionist. So this is a case where you shouldn’t let fear over missing out on something big, stop you from taking advantage of a great deal.

You May Not Be Getting Enough Coverage

One thing that we can guarantee our receptionist team will do, that your current receptionist won’t, is provide a live answer to every call that comes into your office. Since our phone answering team is active 24/7/365, we’ll be able to answer the calls your firm gets during after hours and weekends. Unless you want to challenge well established labor laws, your current receptionist won’t be able to answer calls 24/7/365.

As we’ve stated in this blog many times before, you need to provide a live voice in order to have any chance at capturing new clients. Just imagine how many more clients you could be capturing if you were able to provide a knowledgeable live voice to all of your calls outside of normal office hours.

You may also be interested in knowing that our receptionist team includes bilingual speakers, and can help your firm do business with Spanish speaking consumers in your area. Our bilingual answering services comes at no additional cost. Good luck finding a bilingual in-office receptionist, that doesn’t cost you a small fortune.

Why It May Make Sense To Keep Your Receptionist And Use Answering Legal

If your firm needs to cut costs, while still remaining impressive on the phone, having Answering Legal take on the duties of your office receptionist can make a lot of sense. But, it should also be noted that Answering Legal and an in-office receptionist can work great together. Your current receptionist can still be your primary phone answerer during the day, and continue to add an invaluable personal touch to your in-office experience, while our virtual receptionist team will be ready to provide a live voice for any calls your office can’t get to. And with our reasonable pricing plans, many firms will be able to fit the cost of both under their budget.

No matter which way you decide to go, it’s great to have options. So sign-up for a free 10-day trial of Answering Legal today, and see firsthand if using our service makes sense for your practice.