How A Legal Virtual Receptionist Will Help Solo Lawyers Stay On Task

When you’re the only attorney in your firm, it can feel like you have to do everything yourself. From answering the phone and handling billing to doing actual legal work like filing motions and attending court, there are a lot of demands on your time.

With so much to do, it might seem like trying to do everything at once is a good idea. In fact, the opposite is true: focusing on the singular task at hand is a much better strategy for getting work done. Time is your most valuable asset, and studies have shown that multitasking wastes more time than it saves.

That’s why a legal virtual receptionist is an important investment for sole practitioners. They’ll handle distractions for you, freeing you to focus your attention on what needs to be done to keep your firm running smoothly. Here’s how a legal virtual receptionist will help solo lawyers stay on task:

You’ll Stop Getting Interrupted By Constant Phone Calls

You might think that picking up the phone a few times a day for short calls doesn’t waste much time. However, according to this interview in Fast Company, researchers at the University of California - Irvine found that it takes people an average of 23 minutes and fifteen seconds to get back to the task at hand. Even if you’re only fielding five calls in a day, that’s almost two hours of wasted time on average! And there isn’t even a guarantee that those calls will be new leads; they could be existing clients or colleagues.

A legal virtual receptionist will help you reclaim that lost time by answering all your calls for you. If you don’t mind the occasional interruption to speak to a new lead, your virtual receptionist can handle all the other calls that come in and transfer the callers to you that they identify as prospective clients. That way you can secure new clients without losing time to all the other calls that come in.

Of course, an in-office receptionist can do the same thing. However, virtual receptionists are less expensive than in-office staff, and you won’t have to worry about benefits, taxes, and other administrative headaches. And, unlike an in-office receptionist, they’ll be available to answer calls 24/7 (assuming you use Answering Legal of course). Virtual receptionists also have the advantage of making your firm more flexible; you could work from anywhere and be as effective as if you were in your office.

You’ll Never Waste Time Searching For Client Information

Another major drain on your time is disorganization. Picture this: you’re trying to follow up on a client who called your firm earlier in the day. You’ve got plenty of other tasks, but you think this call might only take half an hour at most. You stop whatever it is you were doing, and then realize you don’t have what you need to complete the call. You then spend twenty minutes searching for the information the client left in their message. Multiply that out a few times a day and you’re wasting plenty of time.

Taking the time to organize your office can be a monumental task. A legal virtual receptionist will help you keep client information organized from the moment you receive it. They can perform legal intakes so that new leads feel they’ve already started the process of hiring your firm. Any information collected during the call will be sent to you via text or email, so that everything you need to follow up on your clients will always be in one place.

Your virtual receptionist will take messages from other calls too and send them to you the same way, via text or email. A summary of all your phone calls will be available to you digitally at all times, making it easy to follow up on new clients or existing ones.

Which Answering Service Is The Best Fit For Solo Attorneys?

If you’re looking to hire a legal virtual receptionist, look no further. Answering Legal’s virtual receptionists are highly-trained and answer only for lawyers, so they are experts at capturing new clients. That means they’re exactly what your solo practice needs to keep up with the bigger firms.

Our service has other ways to make sure your solo practice reaches its full potential. Our virtual receptionists are bilingual and available 24/7, giving you a leg up on your competition and allowing you to compete in new local markets. In addition, if you’re investing in local services advertising or Google’s Screened program, our service is optimized to ensure you get the most out of your investment.

Need to make sure you stay on task and get things done? Click here or call 631-400-1111 to sign up for our free trial. For a limited time, we’re offering firms that sign up with our service their first 400 minutes free.