In an Employment law firm, you expect to deal with different cases involving employers and their employees. Often, you will handle cases that require expeditious action to find justice for the aggrieved party. As a result, your firm should establish a reliable mode of communication and customer care services to promote great experiences for the clients in need.
Like other businesses, you may encounter several challenges in running an Employment law firm, hindering you from progressing the practice. The difficulties experienced in the workplace depend on your circumstances, and the accessibility to services.
Nevertheless, some common challenges have continued to compromise the quality of services your clients receive, to the detriment of your business. For example, most law firms face stiff competition from other establishments that offer similar services to clients dealing with employment issues.
For example, the client may meet with a legal consultant who offers advice in the same field, leading to lower demand for your services. Therefore, you must create an elaborate office plan that keeps you ahead of your competition. One of the main ways to manage workplace challenges is by working with a call answering service.
Essentially, a call answering service provides efficient customer care and communication services to your business. The inclusion of the service also leads to task-sharing, whereby your employees are relieved of the responsibility to handle inbound calls and emails on top of their daily legal obligations. The following are some benefits of using a call answering service in your Employment law firm:
Minimized Missed Calls in the Office
Mostly, missing a client's call means a lost chance to work with him/her. When a call goes unattended, the person will look for an alternative, allowing your competitors to attract your clients.
Subsequently, you want to avoid missing client calls at any time by incorporating an efficient call response team. In your office, the front desk operator may have multiple other responsibilities, leading to increased chances of missing calls.
However, you can avoid the predicament by partnering with an answering service provider. Upon beginning the partnership, a live receptionist will be ready to pick incoming calls with no distractions.
Normally, the live receptionist can intercept inbound calls, including those diverted from your office. Sometimes, an employee may direct a client requesting details on frequently asked questions to the live receptionist for a detailed interaction.
Also, you may increase the number of live agents working with your firm depending on the office call volume. In doing so, you manage the calls depending on the expected interactions per day. Setting the specific modifications is beneficial for your firm, as each potential receives a guaranteed response.
Compared to the office environment, the answering service provides a more beneficial system that eliminates potential losses. Moreover, your clients will enjoy the efficacy of reaching your office without having to make multiple call attempts.
You Benefit from Online Appointment Setting
Setting appointments is also an inevitable of running a law firm, as clients will need to meet for case analyses. When scheduling meetings with your firm partners or potential clients, you will need an organized system that prevents clashing dates and times.
If your law firm uses a handwritten appointment setting method, you are likely to forget several crucial meetings. The hard-copy book may also get lost sometimes, creating some inevitable delays. To avoid this, the live receptionists will use the cloud system to confirm a time vacancy, then proceed to fix a meeting for you and the caller. Thanks to the cloud system, the live agent can also forward you the information as soon as he/she creates the appointment to help you prepare yourself.
On top of this, the system sends prompt alerts a few days before the meeting as reminders for pending matters. This way, you never have to miss important meetings that could help you expand your client base.
Provision of a 24-Hour Customer Care Service
When you are determined to grow your Employment law firm, you have to accommodate callers who contact you after hours. The extension of availability sets you above other service providers in the legal field, as your callers will be sure of your reliability.
Moreover, a twenty-four-hour answering service is useful in creating emergency response avenues. The most common issues involve an employee's unfair treatment or dismissal with severe outcomes for the affected person.
When you decide to partner with a call answering service provider, live agents will take on any inbound calls to your firm at any time of day or night. The most significant advantage of a twenty-four-hour service is the extended exposure and strengthening of client relationships.
Most callers will admire your initiative to accommodate them regardless of their calling times. In return, they will want to work with you for a long time and provide recommendations to their loved ones as well.
You also do not have to worry about the type of service your clients receive, as the live agents' purpose is to always remain proactive and cheerful when speaking to the callers. Further, the call answering company includes organized shifts for their live receptionists to avoid overworking them despite the 24-hour service.
To add to this, the service is an excellent option to keep your office running on weekends and holidays. With the option to contact you at any time, you can expect to gain loyal clients who value your firm's services.
Improved Organization in Handling Calls
If your law firm lacks proper functional organization, you will lose out on a lot of opportunities to grow your business. Additionally, your employees will work under a lot of pressure to manage different responsibilities with a minimum efficiency. As a result, the improper organization of client details can hold you back from making significant strides, while also attracting a bad reputation.
Since you may be in charge of a start-up law firm, it could be difficult to avoid the different challenges associated with keeping up with customer demands. Therefore, you need a support system that provides enough live agents to help in prioritizing urgent matters. In an Employment law firm, you want to focus on cases that could jeopardize an employer or employee’s position within a short time if not attended to. Hence, you will need to maintain open communication with the affected client throughout for the best problem-solving strategies.
Upon identifying the top priority clients, you can forward the details to the live answering agent working for your firm. The information guides the live agent in organizing particular clients into special categories to avoid missing their calls.
Also, the live answering receptionists will forward your summarized information on the different inquiries made over the week, along with the different clients seeking the information. Thanks to the simplified conveyance of the details to your employees, they can focus on providing solutions to the identified problem areas.
Use of Scripts for Consistency
When handling inquiries, you want to provide the caller with certified information, including verified details that your firm specializes in. When an aggrieved caller contacts your Employment law firm, he/she will inquire about employment laws that relate to his/her situation. Hence, you may have to provide guidelines to the call answering service you partner with, to help in creating a script. Alternatively, you may provide your version of the document, especially if you prefer to write the exact way you expect your live agents to deliver specific information.
Thanks to the instructions you give, your clients have access to clear legal directives that offer interim relief for their grievances before filing a court petition. Moreover, since the live agent will follow a specific approach when speaking to the client, he/she will derive all the necessary details needed to build a case. The live agent does this discreetly, to avoid making it obvious to the client that a script is in use.
It is important to remember that when most clients discover that the agent is engaging in a scripted call, they may find it unprofessional or impersonal, creating a poor image for your firm. However, you can worry less about dealing with the circumstances, as call answering service providers train their agents to engage in a natural tone that upholds a natural conversation.
Upholding Your Law Firm's Brand Professionally
After thriving in the Employment law niche, you are likely to develop a trademark or brand associated with your firm. Often, most brands include catchphrases and specific methods of handling inbound calls that should remain consistent for a reputable brand. Normally, you will have to train new office employees on how to answer calls for proper brand alignment, which may become quite tasking after some time.
Moreover, you are not always sure that the newly-trained employees will uphold these standards at all times, as the office environment may sometimes put them under stress. You can therefore abolish the uncertainty by giving a call answering service the responsibility to maintain your law firm’s brand. To do this, you may instruct your agents to use certain phrases when greeting the clients, and when concluding the call.
You also want to ensure that the live receptionists add a personal touch to the on-call interactions with your clients, as it helps in creating a generally positive image. Therefore, the agents can also ask the client how they are doing before proceeding to assess the caller’s plight. As discussed, the client is likely to face serious problems in the workplace, including unfair dismissals. As a result, the live agents also provide reassurance to the clients to help them remain patient and hopeful in your firm’s services.
Your Clients Benefit from Bilingual Services
The country hosts many citizens from different ethnic backgrounds and various countries. Among these, Spanish-speaking citizens make up the highest percentage of clients you are likely to deal with after native English speakers. Based on the high percentages, you will need to consider including bilingual answering services to cater to clients who prefer Spanish as the dominant language.
Usually, you would have to employ a bilingual specialist in your office to handle clients using a different language, creating more office expenses. However, when you partner with a call answering service, you receive the bilingual service as part of the package, if need be. This way, you can save on costs as you continue to benefit from the helpful service.
When the bilingual live receptionist handles the call, he/she will be happy to translate the details to English before forwarding them to your desk for efficient communication. Moreover, since the live agent has proficiency in Spanish, you can worry less about receiving distorted information that compromises the help you intend to offer your clients.
Lastly, it is also noteworthy that the bilingual service is available for twenty-four hours. As a result, you can accommodate all callers in different languages, at all times. With the service, you, therefore, have an edge over your competition, for the greatest business growth potential.
The Live Agents Recognize Data Protection Directives
In any legal office, your client’s information should always remain confidential based on the sensitive nature of case details. A failure to uphold the client’s privacy could attract serious repercussions, including prosecution and loss of clients. While you may purposefully ensure that your employees uphold the privacy standards, you may not always be around to enforce them, creating loopholes for potential problems.
Upon working with a call answering service, your client’s data will always remain private and protected from unauthorized third parties. During their training, the live agents will learn of the existing data protection laws and the consequences of failing to uphold them. Afterward, they will apply the skills to daily call answering operations, to align with your expectations.
When dealing with an unfamiliar situation, the call answering representative may contact you for guidance, to avoid acting in doubt. Thanks to the elaboration that the answering agent seeks on unclear issues, your clients will receive high-quality customer support.
The Final Take on Getting an Answering Service for your Employment Law Firm
In conclusion, hiring an answering service to manage your law firm will bring about positive changes in your workplace. The efficiency and organization in client communication sets your firm above the rest and gives your clients the satisfaction and assurance they need. Also, you and your employees will enjoy the conducive work environment from reduced pressure and interruptions. Eventually, you will actualize your goals and expand your business for yours, your employees’, and your partners’ benefit.
