Why Does An Attorney Answering Service Seem To Be A Better Option Than A Full-Time Receptionist?
As law offices continue to face challenges in their effort to beat the competition, they need to adopt innovative ways to keep costs under control and to maintain brand loyalty. With customer service being an integral part of your marketing efforts, you may want to make sure that you adopt appropriate strategies to make customer service one of your key strengths.
You have to admit the fact that your front-office executives have a big role to play when it comes to achieving your customer service goals. One major part of delivering excellent customer service is ensuring that you maintain phone etiquettes and address your clients’ issues in an appropriate manner. Your law office receptionists may have to handle diverse tasks throughout the day and so they may not be the best resources to answer your phones in a highly professional way.
You may want to hire the services of an attorney answering service team that can handle your calls on a 24/7 basis while allowing you to cut down on costs that you will otherwise incur by employing a full-time receptionist at your office. If you are running a small business, you will typically require around 250-500 answering service minutes every month. With 85 cents being charged per minute, your total monthly cost may vary between 200 to 420 dollars.
As per data revealed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly earnings of receptionists stood at $12.87 in 2014. This translates into a yearly salary figure of $26,760 and this does not include benefits or payroll taxes. To sum up, an answering service will cost you $200-$420 every month while a full-time receptionist will cost you $2,230 monthly. While these figures are enough to help you make a decision, you may still want to get an idea of how you can save big by replacing your full-time receptionist with a virtual receptionist.
Your full-time receptionist will be available at your office to answer phones for only 40 hours a week while your virtual receptionist will be available round the clock, for 128 hours a week, to address your clients’ queries. Additionally, you need to invest your time and energy in training a new in-house receptionist while with a virtual receptionist, you can afford to skip the training part. Answering service employees are professionally trained to handle calls in an efficient manner and they can really help you use your customer service strategies as a way to boost the reputation of your brand. You will not have your in-house receptionist to answer your phones during his/her paid vacation or public holidays. On the other hand, you will always have an answering service employee to assist your clients even when you are enjoying a vacation with your family.
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