January 13, 2021 4:29 pm
Great legal practices are often defined by their high quality of service. Not only via their attorneys’ legal acumen, but through the strong attorney-to-client legal relationships they build. Timely responses, seamless communication, and the ability to take calls after hours show a client you are putting them first.
This is also where many private practices fail in running their law firm as a business. The attorneys answer all of the firm’s incoming calls. Before you get on the line to give a first-rate legal consultation or assist a client through the legal process, consider having your potential client speak to someone else: a legal receptionist.
A legal receptionist helps facilitate a client-centered approach for private practice law firms and keeps the business of the practice running smoothly, taking over client intake and helping with time consuming tasks.
However, hiring a full-time legal receptionist is a difficult expense to justify for solo and partner practices. Finding the best legal receptionist is a resource-intensive activity that involves hiring and training that many lawyers don’t have the time to do. Overhead for dedicated personnel – paychecks and employee benefits like healthcare – can also be well outside a lawyer’s budget.
Hiring a virtual legal receptionist is a great way to provide receptionist support while keeping overhead low. You can provide attentive service, manage your time, and stay competitive by passing your cost-savings onto your clients.
What is a virtual legal receptionist?
A virtual legal receptionist is more than just an answering service. They are live professionals, who handle calls almost exclusively for law firms. Live legal receptionists answer calls with customized greetings unique to your firm, can help you qualify leads, fill out client onboarding forms, and send all information to the appropriate personnel. Moreover, they operate outside of the traditional 9-5 business hours, allowing your clients and potential clients to be taken care of by your firm, even if you’re at home enjoying dinner or deep in work for another case.
Many solo practitioners, partner law practices, and boutique law firms are hiring virtual receptionists, saving themselves the hassle and cost of hiring a full-time employee. This allows attorneys at the firm to work more billable hours and do what they do best: practice law.
As a solo or private legal practice, you need every asset available to keep your business ahead of the competition.
How can you benefit directly from an attorney virtual receptionist?
More Leads
Every prospect that calls your law firm is a potential client, but many variables go into whether they are a good fit for your firm. Do you specialize in the type of law they are looking for? Does the workload their case require match the resources at your firm? Have they worked with a lawyer before? These questions can be nuanced, and require a specialized type of receptionist to produce the best results.
Virtual legal receptionist services are specifically designed to benefit attorneys. While they may not work in your office, they work with you to craft greetings, information collection forms, call-handling procedures and more, all aspects designed around your law firm’s processes. They’ll provide callers a great impression of your law firm from the first call, and you’ll know whether a contact is a good-fit or if you should ready a referral before you return their call.
In the legal profession, every case you take on is important. Smaller legal practices need not only case volume to keep the doors open, but quality cases. A virtual legal receptionist can help qualify these leads on your behalf.
Professional Image
Timing matters for legal buyers. If a prospective client calls your law firm and reaches an answering machine they are likely to look elsewhere for prompt and immediate service. Even if you’re a hard-working attorney who happened to be in court at the time.
A virtual receptionist at a law firm helps callers immediately and shows prospects that their legal problems matter to you. This makes them less likely to dial another firm.
For a stressed out legal client, punctuality and professionalism trump all and first impressions matter. Make sure your first impression is conveyed through the receptionist services that you use and not your voicemail.
Time Management
As a legal professional, your schedule is likely to be complex and unpredictable. A virtual legal receptionist will help you navigate your time commitments without sacrificing the high-quality and personal service you pride yourself on offering to clients.
For lawyers and attorneys who operate on billable hours especially, every minute counts. You should be in charge of your day, not your telephone.
Amata Law Office Suites: The Best Virtual Receptionist for Law Firms
Amata Law Office Suites is more than just a shared legal office space – we offer a full range of services designed directly around your needs, such as mail processing services, on-demand paralegal and notary services, and live legal receptionists.
As the world moves towards digital solutions, our idea of what a traditional office space looks like has changed. Virtual receptionists for legal services offer an optimal, professional, and cost-effective solutions to communicating with existing and future clients.
How can Amata help your practice? Contact us today to learn more about our range of legal services.