5 Big Signs that You Need Legal Answering Services

Legal answering services can professionally represent your law firm so you can spend more time with clients.

When you decided to become a lawyer; you know, attend law school, pass the bar exam, work with a great firm or start one of your own, you probably didn’t take a lot of classes or expect to spend a ton of time answering and talking on the phone. But it’s likely that, as a lawyer, you do spend a great deal of time talking to someone on the other end, time that ought to be spent providing legal advice and representation. Have you considered legal answering services to help solve this problem? If not, here are five big signs that you might need them:

1. You often find messages on your voicemail – Every time someone leaves a message is a time when someone ought to have been there to answer the phone. And think of all the times the phone rings, and the person decides NOT to leave a message after going to voice mail. Each missed call could be a missed call from a lead or potential client. Each missed call could be someone choosing your competitor instead. With legal answering services, a live person will always be available to answer the phone and to help, without even being in the office!
2. You spend much more time on the phone than you’d like – If you’re a small practice, a one-man legal team, or a part-time lawyer, you might spend much more time on the phone than you’d like. This phone time could be spent answering simple questions, screening calls, scheduling appointments, etc. when you could spend your time researching cases or meeting with current clients. Legal answering services could fulfill those needs so you don’t have to.
3. You just don’t have the time to take calls – How many times have you gotten a call to your office phone or cell phone, only to ignore it because you’re in the middle of a meeting, or on your way to court? Have you done this with calls coming from current clients, vendors, or very strong leads? Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to ignore those calls because someone was there to answer them? Legal answering services can answer those calls for you, and forward the important ones to your cell so you know when you do get a call, you ought to take it.
4. You don’t have the time to take the calls you do take – Okay, so you picked up the phone this time around because it could have been a potential client, or current client, or vendor. But, it turns out it’s not and you just don’t have the time to answer questions about family law and whether or not the caller needs representation. With legal answering services, you can have someone answer the phone who not only has the time to answer those questions but is also knowledgeable enough to answer them in a way that makes you or your law firm look trustworthy and professional.
5. You need another legal secretary or assistant, but can’t afford one – Legal answering services are much cheaper than a full-time staff member. If you need a full-time staff member, or even a part-time one, and can’t afford it, then outsourcing the need to an attorney telephone answering firm an be a great solution. It’s not only cheaper, but it also means one less person you have to train and manage on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, there’s no way for an attorney to get away from the phone entirely. How would anyone important get in touch with you? But, legal answering services make it possible so that ONLY the important ones get in touch with you, and someone else handles the extraneous calls. Put it that way, and every attorney could use these services!