Running a solicitors is a very full on job, we know! Managing staff, trying to get new clients and making sure everything runs smoothly – we know, it’s a lot of work. We have spotted that frequently one thing often gets neglected – it’s communication and it’s one of the most crucial things your solicitors office needs to succeed. If you look at any successful organisation, you’ll notice they’re great communicators in one way or another. To guarantee the long-term success of your solicitors office, it’s important you make great communication a priority.
You’ll be glad to hear that the Yo Telecom phone system for professional services will help make your communication great and as a result will help you increase the success of your solicitor’s office!
1. See All Missed Calls and Call Them Back – Increasing Bookings and Revenue
Unanswered or missed calls and engaged tones don’t leave the best impressions in a client’s mind – to say the least – and a lot of people get frustrated and upset by engaged tones. To make the matters worse, your clients are now just a Google search away from finding an alternative solution (your competition). If you lose just one client from a missed call, it can equate to potentially thousands of pounds lost over the client’s lifetime.
However, there is hope. There is a way to see all of your missed calls the instant they happen! Enabling you to call them back. Returning missed calls shows your clients such a high level of service, that not only will they be impressed, but they’re also very likely to use your services! The feature that does this is called call logging. It logs and displays the phone number (and/or names of clients) along with the time and date they’ve called you. It works exactly like the call log on your mobile phone, alerting you of the missed call, so you can take action and turn a potential missed opportunity into a booking.
2. Improve The Communication Skills of Your Staff
Once you get a new enquiry into your solicitors office, you need to ensure that the quality of your staff’s communication is very high.
“High quality communication implies a high level of service.” – Journal of Services Marketing.
“70% of people are willing to spend more with a business they believe offers excellent service.” – Survey conducted by American Express.
Imagine a client is calling to enquire about getting legal help. The client will likely be expecting to have his questions answered in a friendly and professional manner and if he likes what he hears and your receptionist is in control of the call, the result should be a booking of an appointment. If your staff’s communication does not meet or exceed the expectation of the client, (eg. questions not answered correctly, lots of “umming and erring”, or saying “the person you need to speak to isn’t here, can you call back?”) he or she will likely form an unhelpful impression of your solicitors office and your potential new client will end up calling one of your competitors instead.
This is where call recording becomes extremely valuable. It enables you to review any communication your staff have had, and then you can use the recordings to guide your team to better communicate about your products & It enables you to review any interactions your staff have had with clients. You can then use the recordings as part of staff training to help see what the strengths and weaknesses of your staff are and how you can improve communication. Without call recording, you won’t be able to monitor the strengths and weaknesses of your communication, leaving you stuck in the dark and making it harder to improve.
3. Save Time When Existing Clients Phone You With Client Name Display™
You probably use a legal management software which contains a database of all your clients. The Yo Telecom phone system has the ability of instantly matching your client’s phone number to their record in your software which will display their name before you pick up the phone. This will save you having to ask for names, or even spellings. Plus it means you can greet your existing clients by their name which shows them an excellent level of service which they will appreciate.
4. Get More Emergency Bookings With a Professional Out-of-Hours Voicemail
A great way to increase your revenue is to start offering emergency appointments to your clients. Say a potential client leaves you a message on a Sunday morning, while your office is closed. Often with traditional phone systems you won’t find out until it’s too late and your client has found somewhere else.
With our Professional Out-of-Hours Voicemail, you can;
- Instantly get all your voicemail messages emailed to you – enabling you to take action right away.
- You can give clients the option to press a button to be connected to an out-of-hours solicitor (in the hours you are willing to provide this service). The message would look like:
“Thanks for calling [your solicitors office name], we are now closed. Our regular opening hours are [insert opening hours]. If you are in need of an emergency appointment, please press 1 now, alternatively leave a message after the tone and we will get back to you as soon as we can.”
Overall, this keeps clients happy and helps you service more clients!
5. Promote Services to Clients While They are on Hold
Occasionally, you will need to put clients on hold. It’s best that you keep waiting times to a minimum as it can become frustrating. When your clients are on hold, you should ensure that they don’t have to listen to tedious music or even worse – silence! Over 85% of callers prefer on hold messages over silence. – Cellular Marketing Magazine
Hold times are a great opportunity for you to promote and educate clients on the services that you offer. People are more likely to show an interest in a product or service if they know what it’s about and its benefits. Yo Telecom’s on hold marketing messages are tailored to the goals of your solicitors office and they’re expertly scripted to “hit the spot” to get client’s to enquire further.
6. Say Goodbye to the Dreaded Engaged Tone Once and for All
Traditional analogue lines can only make or receive one call at any given time. So when you’re busy on the phone, your line will be engaged. This means clients will be abruptly cut off by an engaged tone. Leaving them with a poor impression of your solicitors. Not only is it frustrating for the client, who is often calling to make an appointment, but it’s also frustrating for you as you don’t want to be throwing opportunities in the bin.
With the Yo Telecom phone system you can choose the right amount of inbound lines available on your main phone number. For smaller offices this might be two, but it could be as many as 6+. So instead of your clients hearing engaged tones while you’re busy, they’ll hear a professional message letting them know you’re busy on all your phones and will be with them soon! You can even give clients the option to press 1 and leave a message if they’d prefer.
3 Step Plan to Increase the Success of Your Solicitors Office
1. Book a Demo
Book in for a FREE demo of our phone systems by calling us on 02382 146115.
2. Sign up for the Option that Suits the Needs of Your Solicitors Office
One of our specialist consultants will come to your solicitors office and discuss all of your options until we have come up with the perfect solution that meets your requirements.
3. Let us Take Care of a Hassle Free Installation & Training
Your delivery and installation date will be booked on a day that suits you.
We’ll take care of the whole switch over and will train you to make the most of all of the features on your new phone system!
Conclusion
Investing in great communications leads to greater success and happier clients.
The combined improvements that are a result of just these 6 points can add hundreds of thousands of pounds to the yearly revenue of a solicitors. Plus, result in clients that are happier due to simple and helpful communication.
If you’d like to know more about anything discussed in this article please call us on 02382 146115 or email [email protected]!
