Customer Experience 
A call center for lawyers can be a saving grace. Law firms often find themselves swamped with calls from potential and existing clients requesting consultations, booking appointments, submitting critical information, and asking urgent questions. Administrative work can bog down a practice, drastically reducing productivity in small and medium-sized firms.
In recent years, small law firms have spent more time practicing than previously, but they have also spent more time completing administrative tasks in the same period. Translation: Attorneys are working harder and need call center solutions to reduce their administrative burden.
Read on to discover how call center solutions can benefit law firms and the key features lawyers should look for.
How a Call Center for Lawyers Can Help Your Firm
Call center software typically offers tools to help businesses manage inbound and potentially outbound calls. It features call answering, virtual receptionists, and skill-based routing. The software also typically includes call analytics and may be connected to a VoIP solution.
Whether you choose to work with a call center for legal answering services or rely on in-house receptionists, call center software can offer the following benefits.
1. Improves client intake
A call center for lawyers can direct callers to dedicated client intake specialists, which may include call answering services. This speeds up the lead qualification process and ensures timely responses for callers, reducing the chance of losing potential clients.
In many cases, this is a cost-effective solution that can pay for itself.
2. Enhances client communication
Legal matters can be (or feel as if they are) high-stakes, regardless of your field of practice. To Improve client satisfaction and trust, use call center solutions that direct their calls and critical information to the right specialist to ensure each inquiry is handled promptly, professionally, and efficiently.
Building trust can be difficult, but these law firm marketing tips can help. Spoiler alert: Having a strong phone system is key to building positive client relationships.
3. Streamlines operations
Certain tasks, like routing calls to the right attorney or scheduling appointments, can take a significant amount of time and typically aren’t billable. Call center automation features can free up staff for higher-value work, increasing overall productivity and revenue.
4. Ensures compliance
Law firms must adhere strictly to legal requirements to protect client confidentiality, including standard disclosures and careful but secure record-keeping. This may consist of dedicated recording solutions for phone calls. Specialized contact center solutions can help ensure compliance and safeguard customer data.
5. Supports flexible work arrangements
Call center software can enable attorneys to handle calls and collaborate seamlessly with clients and internal staff, regardless of their location. Staff can work from their home office without missing a beat, offering the firm more flexibility and an improved work-life balance.
6. Offers bilingual support
If your law firm offers bilingual services to diverse audiences, you can use call center software to route callers to the appropriate person who can help them. If you have a potential client who speaks Spanish, the interactive voice response (IVR) menu can deliver them directly to a specialist who speaks fluently. This can build trust and improve client satisfaction.
Top Call Center Features for Lawyers
When choosing call center software, law firms, and attorneys will have specific needs to consider to best serve their clients, handle sensitive and confidential information effectively, and ensure compliance with all federal and industry requirements. These are key features you should look for.
Lead qualification and routing
Automated call routing can direct clients based on their particular needs and issues. Large firms with multiple specialties can use routing to connect callers to specific departments, for instance, to family law instead of a personal injury attorney.
You can also ensure new potential clients are sent directly to intake specialists for lead qualification. Quickly connecting potential clients with the right attorney or team can increase conversion rates and create a professional first impression for every incoming call.
Dialed Number Identification Service
Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) identifies which phone number was dialed, allowing firms to assign specific lines according to specialty, funnel stage, or campaign. This allows your firm to track marketing effectiveness while ensuring clients are connected to the appropriate team for their legal issues.
Call recording
Automated call recording software allows your team to document client interactions for quality assurance, compliance, and evidence purposes. This provides a reliable record of client conversations, allowing attorneys to review details, meet regulatory requirements, and train their staff effectively.
To preserve confidentiality, it’s crucial to choose a platform that offers flexible and customizable call recording rules. Your call center software should offer the option to automatically record calls while maintaining the ability to pause recording while obtaining sensitive client information.
Answering services and after-hours support
Virtual receptionists or automated systems can handle calls outside of business hours, providing round-the-clock support for your clients. This provides clients and leads with options to reach a live agent or leave a detailed message, allowing you to handle inbound calls and reduce missed opportunities.
You can configure call center software to send clients to a voicemail or answering service during set hours of the day, giving you ultimate control over where calls go and when.
Mandatory disclosures and compliance
Prerecorded messages, IVR greetings, and call scripts ensure that mandatory disclosures, including call recording disclosures, are consistently communicated to clients. This helps firms adhere to legal and ethical obligations while protecting against liability risks.
Legal intake services, for example, may provide disclosures to new clients that notify them that the call will be recorded and encrypted.
Unified communications
You can leverage seamless call transfers to attorneys or other staff members using unified communication tools, like video conferencing, chat, or mobile apps. Some clients may feel more comfortable discussing matters on a video call, while others may prefer to text the office for important updates about appointments.
This can facilitate instant collaboration and make it easier for clients to reach their attorneys quickly and remotely.
Bear in mind that contact center software often offers omnichannel support, while call center software may prioritize voice, video, and SMS messaging features. The former may offer support for platforms like email, social media messaging, and live chat in addition to client class.
Integrated appointment scheduling
Automatically scheduled consultations or follow-ups during calls allow you to integrate data with your law practice’s CRM and calendar. This streamlines the client intake process, improving efficiency and reducing your office assistants’ and attorneys’ administrative workload. This can improve the provider and client relationships and the onboarding process.
Call analytics and reporting
Call center software should provide detailed analytics. Track essential call metrics like volume, duration, and the number of missed calls. This can provide invaluable insights into your firm’s patterns, allowing you to allocate the appropriate resources, processes, and training based on identified opportunities for improvement.
Why Nextiva Is the Best Solution for Attorneys and Law Firms
Attorneys and law firms considering contact center solutions should look for solutions designed with the legal industry in mind. Nextiva offers dedicated solutions for law practices, offering the following benefits.
Streamlines client communication
Manage calls, emails, chats, and video conferences in a unified platform, keeping all interactions organized and accessible. Whether you rely on answering services or an in-house team is essential.
Protects confidentiality
Secure call recording and HIPAA-compliant encryption safeguard client data and meet legal standards for privacy. If you outsource to legal call center services, ensure those agents receive training. Still, you can rest assured that our dedicated solutions offer specialized features to keep your legal practice compliant.
Offers effortless call routing
Use intelligent routing and DNIS to connect clients directly to the right attorney or department, saving time and improving first impressions. You can use this information with our advanced call analytics to see which marketing campaigns are effective, which departments receive the highest number of incoming calls, and how effective your current call paths are.
Ensures that you never miss a call
Virtual receptionist services and after-hours solutions ensure every client inquiry or lead is captured, even when you’re unavailable. Use Nextiva’s customizable call routing software to direct call traffic at any hour of the day.
Dobin Law Group, for example, used Nextiva to maintain exceptional call quality and create reliable call-handling processes. They saw positive results in about a week.
“Frankly, for me, it was a great upgrade from my prior provider in terms of usability, in terms of the app, and consistent pricing. There were a lot of good things. I used Nextiva for about a week and realized that the call quality was good, [and] the call handling was good. Having the integration with Nextiva seemed to make a lot of sense.”
– Marc S. Dobin
Simplifies case management integration
Sync client interactions seamlessly with your practice management software for a complete, real-time view of every case. This can help all team members prepare for potential cases and serve clients to the best of their ability throughout their journey.
Provides flexibility for your firm’s growth
Nextiva scales effortlessly from small to large firms, allowing your practice to add features as your needs evolve.
Need to add lines to dedicated intake specialists? That’s an option. You can also add features like Nextiva’s vFAX to receive client documents securely.
West Coast Trial Lawyers did exactly this, leveraging 33 new lines of service and additional features, like Nextiva’s auto-attendants, digital faxing, and call recording, to improve timely responses to their clients.
“Our office is completely paperless, so unlike traditional law firms, we don’t have paper files or a fax machine. Faxing is as easy as sending an email with Nextiva vFAX. We fax documents from clients, doctor’s offices, and insurance companies back and forth all day, so it really helps our office stay paperless.”
– Imahn Nadim
Scale Your Law Office with Nextiva Contact Center
Nextiva’s award-winning contact center solution ensures that your team can adopt the platform quickly without a steep learning curve. If you need to set up advanced workflows, we offer 24/7 support, professional services, and the option to receive customized onboarding support.
You can count on exceptional customer service to resolve technical issues quickly so you can focus on serving your clients.
Discover how Nextiva’s law firm contact center solution can benefit your practice today.
Centralize all client conversations.
Every conversation matters, whether it’s a call, text, or a reply to an online review. Exceed client expectations.
