When it comes to legal answering services, you may be questioning whether the services you receive are worth the investment. Legal call centers provide many useful services, including 24-7 call support, call forwarding and advanced lead tracking. And while these services certainly impact costs, there are other factors that can determine how much you pay.
Below are some of the other factors that can have an effect on the costs of legal answering services.
1. Training
The best legal intake specialists should be trained to handle the specific types of calls they receive. For example, legal intake specialists will be more effective if they are able to recognize emotions and communicate empathy to callers over the phone. They should also understand perspective taking, which enables them to perceive a situation from the caller’s viewpoint. To help build confidence in your firm, it’s also beneficial for specialists to know legal terminology.
Having access to trained intake specialists increases the value of legal answering services. And at Alert, our specialists undergo rigorous, ongoing training to ensure they are able to serve as an extension of your law firm and provide a high-quality experience for every potential client.
2. Quality
The quality of the services provided will also impact costs. In general, you get what you pay for. If the legal answering service is able to provide a better experience for potential clients, it will likely charge a higher price. Fortunately, receiving high-quality services will help to boost lead conversion rates, which increases your firm’s profitability and return on investment (ROI).
Since 1965, Alert Communications has upheld a high standard of quality for clients. We use practices that enhance your ability to effectively capture and convert leads, such as providing an immediate live response within 15 seconds or less than 3 rings, answering services in English or Spanish, call abandon rates of less than 3 percent, CRM/CMS integration and much more.
3. Data Security
Data security is essential for every law firm. When working with an external organization, such as a legal call center, it is important that your company’s data and information is secure and protected at all times from security breaches or cyber threats.
At Alert Communications, we take cybersecurity very seriously. We stay up-to-date on all of the latest threats to security, and we take proactive steps to address them. We also engage in security-minded employee training, regular network security auditing, updated endpoint protection and more to keep your business data secure.
4. Support
The level of support you receive can also impact the costs of legal answering services. However, it is important to note that support impacts the effectiveness of the services as well. While some legal answering services may provide only one virtual receptionist, for example, Alert provides every client with access to a team of dedicated intake specialists. These specialists are available to provide support any time of day or night to deliver ongoing, top-notch support.
All of the factors above are important to consider when assessing the cost of a legal answering service. At Alert, we have actually noticed a “boomerang effect” with our clients because of pricing. Even if they leave in favor of a service with lower costs, many of them return because they have trouble finding the same quality of service. We also offer a seamless onboarding process, amazing integrations and ongoing training, which simply aren’t available from other providers. Consider all of these factors carefully and choose a partner like Alert that can bring significant value to your firm through high-quality legal answering services.
