Your law firm is on the precipice. You have the potential for big growth and you need to bring on more staff to handle the increased workload. One way for your firm to do this is through hiring, training and waiting for the development of new staff. But is that the best, and only, option for your firm?
Hiring additional staff will not always give you the ability to efficiently handle growth. Often, the best way to manage the increased workload is to outsource tasks that do not result in billable hours.
Below are some of the hurdles that growing law firms must overcome to facilitate growth and their solution.
Obstacles to Growth
Scaling Intake Services
The intake process is when potential clients form their first impression of a law firm, so each intake must be handled with extreme care. For a firm that only wants one or two clients at a time, intake can be done in-house by a single person without taking too much time away from revenue-generating activities.
However, law firms interested in handling many clients at once face a challenge of scalability. It does not make economic sense to hire multiple receptionists solely because more intake is needed. They will need proper training, a full salary and health benefits, and will only be able to perform intake during working hours.
Proper Training
The legal intake process involves a set of skills requiring specific training. If your in-house candidate doesn’t have previous legal experience, they will need to be trained in:
- Legal terminology
- Using the right tone when speaking to clients
- Knowing how to collect relevant information
- Being empathetic and professional
This requires an investment in training that cannot be recovered if the in-house employee leaves.
Costs
A challenge many growing law firms face is candidates who have experience and training typically demand a higher salary. On the other hand, more economical candidates require training in order to provide quality services. As your firm grows even further, the number of people you need to handle intake increases. This diminishes your returns and can actually come to a point where it stunts your firm’s growth.
Contract Services
Intake involves more than just answering the phone.
Legal intake specialists are trained to convert potential clients into actual clients. These specialists, while on the phone with potential clients, can send retainer contracts via text, email or Fed-Ex, making lead follow-through convenient and resulting in more conversions. There is no break in contact and clients stay engaged, leading them to be satisfied and stay with your firm.
Availability
Missed calls mean missed business. Law firms can’t cover their phones 24/7/365. If you handle all of your client intake in-house and only during business hours, you will lose out on leads making their initial call during after-hours, weekends, or holidays.
The Legal Call Center Solution
Traditionally, the solution to growth is to hire new employees. This makes sense for revenue-generating jobs, such as advising clients. But when it comes to legal intake, hiring a full-time employee does not always make sense economically. It means paying a full salary and benefits to have the phone answered during business hours. By taking advantage of a legal call center’s services, quality legal intake is available every hour of every day. With the help of a Utah recruiter, you’ll be able to meet with high-quality candidates with the relevant skill and expertise in your sector.
Legal call centers are equipped with enough intake specialists so shifts can be maintained for constant monitoring. Thanks to this economy of scale, the volume of calls does not lead to diminishing marginal returns.
