As a criminal defense attorney, responding to your clients' messages and calls around the clock could be challenging. Most of your in-house staff members will spend significant time doing all the necessary legal research, attending scheduled court sessions, and working with clients to prepare defenses to challenge their alleged charges.

As a result, your law firm could fail to adequately provide new or prospective clients with the services and attention they require during their time of need, damaging your reputation and reliability. However, you can avoid this and regain control of your defense law firm and its services by working with an answering service provider.

An answering service will take the challenging work of handling all your clients' calls off your shoulders, increasing your defense law firm's reputation and revenue.

Understanding How a Criminal Defense Law Firm Answering Service Works

With all types of business, a customer's first impression is crucial to its growth. No wonder most businesses, including defense law firms, invest in answering services to boost their customer service experience and make their business outstanding and competitive.

Most reliable law firms partner with a call center with a team of competent call operators who work on shifts to ensure their prospective and existing clients receive round-the-clock assistance on their legal queries.

In short, a call center or answering service ensures your practice is not limited to the usual business hours, and your law firm is available 24/7 throughout the year.

To that end, you could wonder how a call center works to provide your clients with the industry-specific and professional services they need. It is more straightforward than you could imagine as long as you have an experienced answering service in your corner.

Generally, when a client calls your business line, he/she will reach you or your receptionist. If you or your receptionists are not in a position to receive his/her call because it is past work hours or they are busy with other legal work, your answering service call operators can pick it up on your behalf.

Depending on your unique preferences, these messages or phone calls can reach your answering service provider first. Doing this allows the answering service operators or agents to answer or screen the incoming calls and messages to determine if they can wait until the next day when you are available or should be forwarded to you urgently.

A reliable answering service provider understands how to make this process smooth and seamless, making it challenging for your clients to know they are not speaking with your in-house receptionists. Your answering service operators will take time to understand your business objectives and FAQs (frequently asked questions) for the best and most satisfying customer service.

Below are Reasons to Partner With an Answering Service in Your Criminal Defense Law Law Firm

Regardless of your law firm's size, there are several benefits you will enjoy when you partner with a call center or answering service provider. Below are convincing reasons to partner with a call center in your defense law firm:

  1. Reduced Overhead for Your Defense Law Firm

If you want to reduce the overhead or costs of operating your law firm, hiring an answering service is a decision you cannot regret. Partnering with a call center or answering service eliminates the need to employ several receptionists in your firm whom you must pay even during off days or when there is reduced customer traffic in your business.

Additionally, without a call center, you should be ready for the following more costs in your business if you want to give your clients the best services:

  • The cost of training your employees.
  • Your employees' health insurance costs.
  • The cost of purchasing modern office equipment.
  • The cost of renting a spacious room or expanding your existing office space to accommodate new employees.

Fortunately, you can avoid all these unnecessary costs and provide your new and existing clients with top-notch customer service by partnering with a call center in your defense law firm. A law firm answering service has different pricing rates for their services, depending on your needs and preferences.

For example, if you opt to retain an in-house receptionist who takes care of your business’ phone calls during the day, the call center you will decide to work with could offer you after-work hours call management services.

Your prospective call center charges will depend on your preferences, but they are undoubtedly cheaper than hiring in-house receptionists for the same work.

  1. Improved Prioritization in Your Firm

An answering service with experience handling calls from victims of sexual assault or abuse cases can efficiently and effectively work with your staff to improve your business productivity and customer service.

All calls and messages you receive in your law firm communication platforms are critical for the growth of your business. However, as a defense attorney, you already know that some clients' messages and calls are more urgent than others.

For instance, a customer could call your business line to ask basic questions about your practice, and another could call to request immediate legal intervention on an alleged sex crime. While all phone calls from your clients are important, you should know which phone call to prioritize in that situation because one client is facing possible jail time for the alleged charge.

That is where the services of a call center come in handy with their call screening services to ensure all your clients receive the help they need in order of urgency. Before you partner with any answering service provider, you should ensure they understand the importance of case-to-case prioritization in a law firm.

Having an answering service that can filter your incoming clients' calls and messages in their order of importance and urgency allows you or your office team to focus on urgent cases first whenever they are available.

When it comes to any criminal cases, prioritizing your prospective clients' calls in order of urgency can make the difference between losing or winning an alleged charge because the available evidence can fade away with time.

Since your answering service will need time to create and formulate a tailor-made script for responding to your clients' concerns before they commence with their services, you can tell them which phone calls or messages to prioritize. A defense law firm answering service provider can prioritize and categorize your clients' calls depending on the severity of the alleged charge.

For example, a call from a client in police custody for an alleged rape offense requires more urgency and quick intervention than a call from a potential client under investigation for an alleged indecent exposure charge.

  1. Less Interruption and Improved Productivity

One of the most important goals of any business, including a defense law firm, is to maximize profit margins and the rate of business growth. By retaining the services of a call center, it is possible to achieve this goal because the call operators can lessen interruptions among your office staff and allow them to focus on critical matters of your practice.

Although a phone call could take less than a minute to answer, once your office team member stops or pauses matters at hand to answer a call, his/her attention and keenness on that issue will reduce. As a result, this distraction or interruption causes reduced productivity in your business, meaning less revenue and lower overall client satisfaction.

Additionally, receiving a call during a meeting or court hours could seem unprofessional. To avoid this, you should consider partnering with a call center. With a reliable answering service provider or call center at work, you and your office staff can focus on vital law firm duties without fearing or worrying about losing a potential business lead.

  1. Better Communication With Your Clients and Improved Professionalism

All legal issues are sensitive, especially if there are chances that the alleged charge could ruin your reputation, for example, a sex crime. For that reason, defendants are careful and keen when choosing a defense attorney to represent them on their unique alleged charges.

Most clients or defendants have the presumption that a big law firm can provide them with the exceptional services they need. While this is untrue, you would not want to lose any potential clients because he/she assumes you cannot offer the services he/she needs if your law firm is small or you are new in the industry.

How you answer and respond to incoming client calls and messages can speak volumes about your firm's reliability. That is why you need a call center in your defense law firm. When your clients call your business line, an experienced defense law firm answering service can present a positive image, making it difficult for them to determine whether your law firm is large or small.

You can achieve your firm's revenue and reputation quicker than you imagine by ensuring that all potential clients who call your business line are happy with your customer service. The answering service you will hire can work with you to ensure all their call operators are well-trained and knowledgeable about what to expect for the longest time they will work with you.

Whether you are an established law firm or a fledgling start-up, a call center can reinforce your client relationships and maintain the outstanding professional image that your business needs to stay competitive.

  1. Compliance With Available Data Protection Laws

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, legal issues are sensitive, and defendants are careful about who they disclose or discuss information about their charges before the conclusion of the case. Fortunately, you do not have to worry about the issue of data protection and privacy when choosing a dependable call center for your defense law firm.

A reliable law firm answering service provider understands the importance of confidentiality when dealing with or handling legal issues. Therefore, before you make deals with any answering services provider, you should ensure all their call operators are well-trained and informed about the importance of data protection.

  1. Emergency Call Handling

Nothing is more frustrating to a client or defendant than contacting a law firm when they are in trouble with the law and cannot have someone respond to their problem immediately. A dependable answering service understands that an arrest or need for legal services could come at any time, and prompt handling of your clients' calls is vital for the growth of your business.

Generally speaking, prompt handling of your clients' calls boosts your firm's customer service experience and overall client satisfaction, which translates to an improved reputation and increased loyalty to your services.

If your answering service provider offers 24-hour service, you can be confident that all of your clients' concerns expressed in various communication platforms, like emails and the chat box on your website, are being addressed. An experienced law firm answering service operator can make quick and wise decisions on which calls to handle and which to transfer.

If a client's phone call or legal issue cannot wait until the usual business hours, your answering service operator can divert the call to the available staff member. Having reliable answering service operators ready to handle emergency legal calls and messages can give you ample time to rest and recharge before your next day's work duties.

Additionally, you and your office team members will have ample time to spend with their families after work hours or on holidays when everyone wants to spend quality time with their beloved family and friends.

Aside from the call and message handling services, a call center or answering service can be of utmost importance in your defense law firm for the following reasons:

  • An answering service virtual receptionists are multilingual, meaning communication barriers will no longer be an issue in your defense law firm.
  • Your legal answering service virtual receptionists can help you schedule appointments with your prospective and existing clients whenever necessary.
  • Your answering service virtual receptionists can help process your clients' payments without a hassle.

Take Away Notes

If you want to remain competitive and achieve your firm's goals as soon as possible, you should consider partnering with an answering service provider. Partnering with a call center in your law firm can significantly boost your firm's growth in this highly competitive industry where clients or defendants have several options.

Ensure the answering service you will outsource has significant experience in the legal industry, particularly handling phone calls from victims of sexual abuse and related offenses.