How an Answering Service Can Up Your Law Practice’s Game
For any private attorney, or law practice, a good answering service should not be an after-thought but rather an integral part of your communications planning.
What is an attorney answering service? Many people imagine it is simply having extra hands on deck to man the phone lines. The truth is a good service goes much beyond that and ensures that it increases productivity and efficiency for a law firm in the long term by retaining clients and bringing in new ones.
Most attorneys know that time is money. When clients have new information or revelations about a case, they need to be able to reach their lawyer immediately- whatever hour of the day. This could in some circumstances prove life-changing. Nothing can be more frustrating to a client than to reach a dead-end on their attorney’s number. An attorney answering ensures that its trained personnel are available at all hours to handle your clients’ legal information with confidentiality and sensitivity. They can decide if a call should be put through to the attorney’s office directly as an emergency or handled with a prepared script to either elicit from or give the client more information.
Furthermore, as legal practice becomes more competitive in an increasingly tight economy, hiring full-time staff such as a receptionist or intern only to handle the phones is not economical. Also, a constantly ringing phone is disruptive to a productive office environment. When employees have to interrupt their routine work to answer calls, they lose time and focus and become a liability rather than an asset.
Having a dedicated answering service solves this problem. Also, as any law firm knows, there can be unusually busy periods when keeping up with the inflow of information and communicating with clients becomes a challenge. A good answering system can make sure that your firm is not caught off guard during stressful periods and can balance client engagement while meeting tight deadlines. Several answering services offer other options such as providing extra phone lines during exceptionally busy times when the normal lines are overloaded and jammed.
Satisfied clients make for a good brand and reputation. A firm that keeps client engagement at the core of its practice will ensure that no matter the outcome of a case, a client will appreciate you for your timely service and communication. It has been shown that good communication is the cornerstone for a successful law practice- and a good answering service can help you with that.
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