How We Answer Your Phones

Customize your greeting to match your firm’s image

“Good morning! Thank you for calling Answering Legal, how may I help you?”

That’s how we answer our phones over here at Answering Legal, and that’s basically how we answer the calls that come into the thousands of law firms that use our legal answering service every day. You tell us exactly what you want us to say when we answer the phone, and we say it, perfectly, every time.

For example, let’s say the name of your firm is John Smith Law. You might want us to answer and say, “Good morning/Good afternoon! Thank you for calling John Smith Law, how may I help you?” It can be anything, from extremely simple, to long-winded. You get to decide how our virtual receptionists greet your callers.

Customize how we answer your new client calls

After the greeting, if our virtual receptionist ascertains that the caller is a potentially new client, you’ll already have predetermined how we will handle that call for you.

1: Most law firms want to speak to potential new clients right away, so we’ll quickly take down the caller’s information, and let them know we will place them on a brief hold while we try to get you on the call.

2: We’ll call you up and let you the name of the person calling, and tell you the reason why they’re calling you.

For example: If you are a personal injury attorney, and Tracy Johnson is calling you because she slipped and broke her ankle in a supermarket, we’ll call you up, tell you the details of the phone call we’ve had with Tracy, and if you’re available, we’ll patch that call to you, wherever you are. Your talk time after we transfer the call is not included in your minute usage.

3: If you can’t take the call, we’ll get back on the phone with the caller and perform a legal intake. You can customize your entire legal intake script at any time. After the call is over, we’ll let the caller know that you’ve received his/her information and will call him/her back promptly, and we’ll send your messages over to you via text message and email.

Here’s an example of the information we might ask for during a personal injury legal intake:

• The caller’s name and contact information
• The date of the accident
• Where the accident occurred
• The injuries sustained
• The insurance companies involved

You can change the questions we ask your callers to whatever you’d like, at any time.

Customize how we handle your new client callers

We can try to get as many or as few people in your firm on a call with a potentially new client as you’d like. Or, we can just perform the legal intake on all potential new clients, and send those messages to whoever you want! You can decide which members of your staff receive messages depending on the type of call, the type of law that the matter is regarding, and who is on the list of who to transfer calls to. It’s completely customizable, and all up to you.

Customize how we answer your existing client calls

After the greeting, our virtual receptionist may ascertain that the caller is an already existing client of yours, and will handle it according to your requirements. We usually recommend handling existing clients in one of two ways:

1: You can use Answering Legal as your front office, where our virtual receptionists simply screen your calls, and then announce every caller to you. This means that our virtual receptionists will obtain the basic information from the caller, let the caller know that he/she will be placed on a brief hold while we try to get you on the phone. You can then decide whether or not you’d like to take the call.

For example: Mark Brown is calling and is an existing client of yours. He has an open case with you regarding a felony charge, and he is calling to confirm that his court date is tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. We’ll call you up, tell you who’s calling and what they’re calling about, and you can decide whether or not you’d like to take the call. If you can, we’ll put that call through to you right away. If you can’t, we’ll take a detailed message from Mr. Brown and send it over to you, letting Mr. Brown know you will get back to him promptly.

2: Many of the law firms we serve find that existing client callers’ matters usually aren’t of urgent importance, some of our attorneys determine that they would not like a transfer attempt to be made should an existing client call. For this reason, our virtual receptionists will simply get the caller’s information and take a detailed message, so that you can call that person back at your earliest convenience.

Want to be able to customize exactly how your answering service handles your calls? Look no further than Answering Legal! We will work with you to ensure that your calls are handled the exact way you want them to be. Try our 7 day free trial and we’ll convince you that we’re the best answering service for attorneys.