For most law firms, answering and intake services are completed by in-house staff – often who juggle many responsibilities. Hiring a full-time staff member to answer phones or make follow up calls can be expensive. The flip side of this dilemma is that missing calls could mean missing leads and clients, which equals missing revenue.
How can law firms solve this dilemma? By outsourcing their answering and intake needs to a legal call center. A law firm answering service like Legal Conversion Center reduces workload and cost, improves efficiency, and generates more conversions. Take a look below at how a law firm-specific answering service could be just what your firm needs to grow to new heights.
Boost Your Law Firm’s Growth With a Law Firm Answering Service
Lawyers and in-house law firm staff juggle many responsibilities. Lawyers, in particular, are often too busy with clients, courts, opposing counsel, traveling, and legal functions to handle tasks like answering calls and intake. By outsourcing to a law firm answering service, law firms and lawyers can rest assured that their potential clients are being properly attended to while they focus on their important tasks.
Here are just a few ways that a law firm answering service can help boost growth.
Enhanced Law Firm intake Productivity
An answering service can improve client experience by ensuring that their calls are answered promptly and professionally. This can lead to higher client satisfaction, better reviews, and referrals, all of which can help the law firm grow.
Increased Customer Service Availability
An answering service can provide round-the-clock availability, allowing clients to contact the law firm even after business hours. This can increase the number of potential clients who reach out to the law firm and improve the chances of converting those leads into paying clients.
Lead Generation and Call Screening With Efficiency
Time Management: By delegating call answering to an answering service, lawyers and staff can focus on their core work and become more productive. This can lead to better time management and increased efficiency, which can help the law firm grow.
A Cost-Effective Solution
Outsourcing call answering to an answering service can be more cost-effective than hiring additional staff to handle phone calls. This can free up resources for other growth initiatives, such as marketing or business development.
Tailored Legal Intake Service For Your Law Firm
A law firm answering service can provide tailored services for your law firm that support your mission, brand, potential client base, services, and applicable regulations. Law firm intake services like Legal Conversion Center offer a full range of services that can all be customized to your law firm’s needs in the following ways:
Clients Can Be Served In Both Spanish And English
More than 13% of Americans, or 42 million, are Spanish speaking. That represents a tremendous potential for law firms who can serve the Spanish speaking community. By providing customer service in both English and another language, a bilingual answering service can cater to a wider range of customers, including those who may not speak English as their first language. This can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to increased retention and sales.
By offering services in another language, a bilingual answering service can expand a law firm’s market reach to non-English speaking populations. This can lead to new customers and revenue streams. By outsourcing to a bilingual answering service like Legal Conversion Center, your law firm can save money on hiring and training bilingual staff. This can free up resources for other growth initiatives.
Educated About Your Services
A customized legal answering or intake service makes sure that potential clients are educated about the services that your law firm offers. This is important to make sure that you are getting applicable leads, and, if necessary, can forward inapplicable leads to another law firm. This helps clients without having to say “no” or simply reject them.
Obtain The Correct Information On The First Call
It is essential for law firms to obtain correct information from potential clients because it can have significant consequences on the outcome of the case and the relationship between the law firm and the client. Here are a few reasons why it is crucial:
- To Assess the Case: Correct information is crucial for a law firm to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the potential case accurately. The information obtained from the client will determine whether the law firm should take on the case, and if so, what approach to take.
- To Develop a Strategy: Once the law firm has accurate information about the potential case, they can create a plan and a strategy to achieve the best possible outcome for the client. Incorrect or incomplete information can lead to a flawed strategy, which can harm the client’s case.
- To Manage Expectations: Correct information helps the law firm manage the client’s expectations. If the client is not forthcoming with accurate information, it can lead to misunderstandings, unrealistic expectations, and dissatisfaction with the outcome.
- To Maintain Credibility: Law firms need to maintain credibility and reputation by providing accurate advice to their clients. If a law firm makes decisions based on incorrect information, it can harm their reputation, and the client’s trust may be lost.
- To Comply with Legal Requirements: In some cases, the law firm may have a legal obligation to obtain specific information from the client. If the law firm fails to obtain accurate information, they may be held liable for any legal consequences that may arise.
We Train All Of Our Call Center Agents On Compliance
Law firms manage cases that often involve personal and medical information. One of the benefits of partnering with a law firm answering service like Legal Conversion Center is knowing that agents will maintain compliance with applicable laws while representing your firm. Some of the most important regulations for a law firm answering service to maintain are:
TCPA Regulations
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal law in the United States that regulates telemarketing calls, auto-dialed calls, text messages, and unsolicited faxes. The TCPA requires companies, including call centers, to obtain express consent from individuals before making automated or prerecorded calls or sending text messages to their mobile phones. It also requires companies to provide a clear opt-out mechanism for consumers who no longer wish to receive these communications.
Additionally, the TCPA prohibits calling numbers that are on the National Do Not Call Registry and prohibits calls to emergency lines, hospitals, and other similar facilities. Companies that violate TCPA regulations can face significant penalties, including fines and potential lawsuits from consumers.
HIPAA Guidelines
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines are a set of federal regulations in the U.S. that govern the use, storage, and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) by healthcare providers, health plans, and other covered entities. The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes standards for protecting the privacy and security of PHI, including electronic PHI (ePHI). The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities to implement administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of ePHI.
Additionally, the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities to notify affected individuals, the Department of Health and Human Services, and, in some cases, the media, if a breach of unsecured PHI occurs. HIPAA regulations apply to covered entities as well as business associates, who must also comply with the rules when handling PHI on behalf of covered entities. A call center is one example of a business associate that must follow HIPAA guidelines.
Failure to comply with HIPAA guidelines can result in significant fines and legal penalties for covered entities and business associates.
DNC Registry
The National Do Not Call Registry (DNC) is a database maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S. The DNC registry allows consumers to opt-out of receiving telemarketing calls. Telemarketers are required to access the database and remove registered phone numbers from their call lists. The DNC registry applies to residential landlines and cell phones, and consumers can register their phone numbers for free. The registry does not apply to political organizations, charities, and companies with which the consumer has an existing business relationship.
Call centers must be aware of the DNC registry so they do not accidentally violate consumer rights. Furthermore, law firm answering services often implement internal registries that include information about consumers who do not wish to be contacted. Violations of the DNC registry can result in significant fines and legal penalties for telemarketers who call registered phone numbers without permission.
Partner with Us
As you can see, there are many benefits to working with a law firm answering service. There are many companies out there offering similar services, but choosing one specific to law firms can greatly improve your experience. Partnering with the right answering service can help lawyers reduce cost and stress, improve efficiency, and build their reputation.
At Legal Conversion Center, our tailored legal intake solutions offer top-of-the-line customer service that supports growth and conversions for our partnering law firms. Find out how we can help your firm grow and get more conversions than ever before by contacting us for a free quote.
