Pick Up Line: There Are Lots of Different Ways to Manage Reception in a Modern Law Firm

Speed of response and engagement is essential for starting legal consumers on the client journey.  If you don’t get to your leads quickly, you won’t have a chance to close them.  So, it’s important that, if someone calls your law firm, you pick up . . . or, have someone pick up for you.  That’s in part because 64% of law firms voicemails are never returned. 

 

But, most lawyers aren’t picking up the phones on their own.  And, traditionally, the answer for that was that the law firm would hire a receptionist, who sat in the exact same, physical space every day, while answered phone calls on the same, exact phone.  But now, you’ve got more options. 



You can still hire a full-time, traditional legal secretary or receptionist, who can sit at a desk and pick up the phone, sure.  But, VoIP phone systems can be used from any internet-ready device.  So, you could have that person work outside the office.  And, if you didn’t want to hire an employee to do this kind of work, you could look at a contractor, through a service like Fiverr or UpWork, who can also work outside the office on a VoIP system.  You could also utilize a virtual receptionist service, which would allow you to access contract receptionists, to whom you can provide an intake script.  That service could operate for you on a full-time basis, or could even offer after hours coverage, if you have a traditional receptionist in-house already. 

 

The point is, if you want to get your phone picked up ever time (which you should want to have happen), there’s a combination of services available that could cover you 24/7. 

 

. . . 

 

Wanna talk business management for your law firm?  Give us a call. 

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.

To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top Shelf: How to Maximize Lawyer Staff in a Modern Law Firm

Image
Broadly speaking, lawyers take on too much.  You know: at work, emotionally.  They’re probably also trying to carry too many grocery bags into the house at one time.  You know how it is.     This, of course, leads to a whole host of problems, including that attorneys have higher incidences of alcohol and drug dependence, as well as depression, than does the general population .  Maybe you already knew that.  But, the fact is that this also has a direct effect on how much a lawyer can make. Hear me out: Because lawyers try to do everything, and to do everything perfectly, they’re also more prone than the general population to take on more work than they need to.  For example, they’re unwilling to delegate, including to paralegal and administrative staff, but also to other attorneys.  That means that lawyers end up being chief cook and bottlewasher, rather than focusing on the high-end work (strategy , client engagement), that they get paid th...
Read more

Transfer Portal: Sharing Files Securely is a Piece of Cake Now

Image
If you’re still sharing files with clients, referral sources and other attorneys, via email attachment – or, heaven forfend: fax! – you need to step up your game .  Email is an inherently unsecure technology; so, if you’re sending confidential information via email, you need to secure that information, by encrypting it – at the document level, or at the system level .  But, that takes additional time and effort, and cost s more.   Instead, why not share confidential information through a secure , encrypted platform, th rough which the person who is to receive the information logs into, thereby bypassing the email problem, where that information passes through several servers (some of which may be unencrypted), before reach ing its final destination .  With a client portal, your document stays where it is (safely encrypted), and your recipient comes in to get it.     Now, you can share files and documents via document storage programs in this fashi...
Read more

Hiring Percentage: What is the Law Firm Hit Rate for Bringing on Staff?

Image
Some lawyer s get burned hiring staff, whether it’s legal assistant s , paralegals or other attorneys .  But, just because you miss out once, in trying to hire somebody, doesn’t mean you should give up forever .  There are distinct advantages to bring ing on employees, including increased control over work product + improved revenue generation models.   In my experience, I’ve found that law firms connect on a successful hire (across all employee categories) about 40% of the time .  That may seem like a low number , but it represents about a 50% hit rate, meaning that every other hire should yield a viable staffperson , who’ll stay on between 3-5 years – which is not too bad, in the modern economy.     Putting that into baseball terms, which folks often do when trying to rationalize failure : your hiring batting average as a law firm, is about equivalent to Ted Williams’ 1941 season , when he was the last baseball player to hit .400 over a full seas...
Read more