As a criminal defense lawyer, receiving all your clients’ calls might be challenging. Most of your administrative staff will spend their time researching, working with clients, or attending court sessions. Therefore, your criminal defense law firm may fail to provide new clients with all the attention they require. However, a legal answering service will boost your caller's impression of both professionalism and commitment services. The agents are trained on how to handle all types of services provided by your defense law firm with complete professionalism. Therefore the service will work as an intermediate between your law firm and the clients.
An answering service plays a critical role in managing and running your criminal defense law firm. The service is beneficial to the law firm. For instance, they provide a 24-hour answering capability; they are affordable, organized, and offer a first-time impression. They remain at work even when the unexpected happens, among other benefits.
The service will help your law firm come across the callers most professionally and effectively. By reaching the clients professionally, your law firm will retain clients and add new clients. Below are the common benefits of using an answering service for your criminal defense law firm:
1. You Will Avoid Missing Calls From Your New and Existing Clients
With an answering service in place, clients will contact your defense law firm at any time, either day or night time. Therefore whether you are in court, meeting, or with clients, your customers will still be served. Your criminal defense law firm's growth may be attributed to how the clients reach the law firm. If a new customer calls the firm and no person to answer the calls, they will likely move to another criminal defense law firm. Additionally, if the customers call, reach your firm, and receive better services, they will develop a positive attitude towards the law firm. Alternatively, most callers will prefer moving to another defense law firm if your firm isn't responding to them professionally. Therefore your firm will end up losing clients.
However, with an answering service in place, the law firm will always have someone to answer the incoming phone calls. Therefore, no more missed calls will be recorded with the service at work, whether during the night or daytime. The callers will be motivated by the service and make the defense firm sound more established even when it is a new defense law firm.
2. Answering Basic Questions
When a new client calls your defense law firm, they may ask routine questions like, where the law firm is located? What time do you operate? Among other questions. The respondent should provide clear feedback to the callers. If the respondent seems uninformed, the client may change their mind and call another defense law firm. However, with the answering service at work, it will answer basic questions on behalf of the criminal defense law firm. Therefore the service will prevent interruption when the administrative team is handling sensitive matters. The answering service's several activities include confirmation of appointments, directing the killers, and scheduling. Therefore the service will help to free up you and your staff time.
3. Helps in Retaining the Customers
A law firm may lose customers due to a communication gap. Customers are always frustrated when the law firm can't speak or leave a voicemail. Additionally, the clients may be frustrated by the poor services provided by a law firm. For instance, a law firm with a rude and uninformed receptionist may quickly lose clients. If your defense law firm has an active answering service, losing clients would be a thing of the past. The service provides professional and effective services to both the new and existing clients.
4. Less Interruption
A ringing phone may become a distraction to you and your administrative staff, especially when you are busy with sensitive court matters. Therefore it will be a big problem when you are conducting pressing issues that require your attention.
Notably, as your criminal defense law firm grows, you will receive more calls. Although receiving the calls is a good idea, it might be a distraction to the law firm. Therefore, if your law firm faces constant interruptions, the distractions reduce the firm's productivity. The administrative staff may lose much time receiving and answering the phone calls. Additionally, a ringing phone in front of a meeting may seem unprofessional.
However, with an answering service at work, you will take out fears of losing future business. Notably, a live agent will receive the calls anytime a new or existing customer calls. Therefore your administrative staff will perform their duties effectively without interruptions.
5. Keeping Your Criminal Defense Law Firm More Organized
A law firm's organization is a critical element in determining its output. An organized law firm will work better than a disorganized law firm. Therefore, an answering service will keep your criminal defense law firm more organized by keeping track of every call, answering the customer calls and writing down the customer's information. Additionally, all the customer's messages may be emailed and held for a year in a login portal, tracing the messages easier.
Additionally, you will respond to the calls as they come in rather than having many caller messages at once. Since the records are stored, you will be able to access them at a later date easily.
6. Affordable
Hiring an in-house receptionist may be very expensive, especially for a new defense law firm. Additionally, most staff only work at the usual hours, limiting your time to access your customers. However, with an answering service for your criminal defense law firm, you will access the customers 24/7. The charges of an answering service vary depending on the agreement with the service providers. For instance, you may be charged based on the total number of the received calls, or you may pay the set amount for a certain number of minutes. Moreover, you may pay monthly. Therefore an answering service will be cheap compared to hiring an in-house receptionist.
7. The Agents are Compliant With Data Protection Laws
Most clients may be worried about the firm's data protection and privacy laws. However, don't worry about issues relating to privacy and data protection. When choosing the answering service providers, you should choose an answering service with agents trained on complying with various sorts of data protection laws. Therefore, include the data protection directive, FACTA, HIPAA, and COPPA. Your customer calls will be private and fully protected. The client's data will be safe at the defense law firm.
8. Better Clients Service for New and Existing Clients
If your law firm is in the process of growing, you may lack extra bandwidth for answering the incoming phone calls. Most administrative personnel will be busy with tasks, including submitting documentation, research, among other tasks in the defense law firm.
Therefore your firm will require an answering service to help the administrative staff perform their works with minimal interruptions. The ability to speak with a live person and answer the arising questions professionally leaves a better first impression than a voicemail.
Apart from benefiting the new clients, the answering service will benefit the existing clients as well. Even when the clients have worked with your defense law firm for many years, the service is still beneficial in giving an impression that your law firm has a team working day and night for them. Additionally, with the legal answering service, you will ensure the customer calls are appropriately addressed. If your law firm is always busy, it's easy for a client calling to be forgotten or misplaced due to something more serious coming up. However, an answering service ensures the calls are recorded and addressed timely.
9. The Service Provides Added Availability to Its Clients
A solid, reliable answering service will enable lawyers to be in touch with their clients 24/7. Additionally, the service will ensure the sensitive communications are received confidentially and professionally. Even if the calls are urgent, the answering service will see them and ensure no missed calls in the criminal defense law firm. If the clients are in urgent need, they will access the defense law firm since it provides 24/ customer support. Moreover, during the weekends and holidays, the firm's services will remain open through the answering service.
10. Your Criminal Defense Law Firm Will Experience Credibility and Professionalism
Your defense law firm may collapse once it has a receptionist answering the incoming calls in a misinformed, rude, and informal way. However, to have complete control of the firm's incoming calls, you should adopt an answering service for your law firm. With the service, you have the freedom to record the outgoing messages to ensure they meet and reflect the standards of professionalism your firm requires. Sometimes you may have your receptionist having a terrible day, or he/she may meet challenging situations leading to the law firm's poor performance. The success of the receptionists is built by their ability to deliver quality services. However, with an answering service, the consistency level of answering the questions is unquestionable. The clients will be served to their satisfaction. Moreover, with an automated service menu in an answering service, the callers may reach the department or people they want to receive help from the staff members.
11. The Answering Service System is Always Active
Your law firm may be closed for reasons like weather catastrophes, emergency pandemics, or power outages. However, an answering service will continue to operate as usual. Even when the unexpected occurs, your defense law firm will remain open, and no missed calls will be recorded.
12. Reduced Callers Waiting Time
A caller will grow quite frustrated when they spend much time in a waiting bay before reaching their intended recipients. However, with an answering service for your law firm, your clients won't wait. Additionally, the clients will choose the department or person they want to reach and leave a message for a call-back. The answering service will provide your defense law firm with detailed call summaries of the callers after any call, text messaging, social media, or staying in contact with the clients.
13. The Service Will Offer a Live Human to the Clients
Most callers hate automated messaging service. Therefore your defense law firm may lose clients due to automated services. The clients will feel not important enough to the law firm since you are busy helping other clients. However, with an answering service at work, both new and existing clients will be served to their satisfaction. Additionally, the service will keep you and the clients connected anywhere at any time. You and your administrative staff don't need to return after a meeting or court to check the client's messages. The live agent will relay the messages to you, thus being connected anywhere you are.
14. The Service is a Great Alternative to Hiring a Receptionist
Hiring and training receptionists may be time consuming and expensive. Additionally, the receptionist will be absent during the weekends, holidays, and during the night time. Moreover, the receptionist may skip a job when he/she is sick. Therefore your criminal defense law firm will end up losing some clients. However, with an answering service in place, it doesn't take any days off. Thus the law firm will remain open. Additionally, an answering service will skip training fees associated with a receptionist.
Conclusion
Every law firm aims at growing and achieving its goals. However, success is majorly determined by the firm's service and relation with its customers. Therefore, the defense law firm will require special call handling and expertise. An answering service at work will boost the growth of the law firm. Additionally, the service will deliver professional customer service.
The agents are highly trained to facilitate high-quality output and handle various legal phone calls for your law firm. With the service as part of your administrative team, you will be connected with new and existing clients by answering their call and scheduling more consultations. Therefore, if you are a lawyer owning a defense law firm, you should use an legal answering service for your law firm's success.