If you are a lawyer, you already know that your phone never stops ringing. Either it is a new client who seeks your legal counsel, existing clients seeking an appointment or a case update, or an attorney trying to reach you for a settlement. Handling these requests in a timeline manner is critical to successfully running your firm.
Realistically, it is not possible to answer every call. You are trained to handle cases, build arguments, and work through the complexities of legal work. Most attorneys find they need a legal receptionist who will answer all their calls, respond to queries, and take messages.
While legal receptionists sound like the perfect answer for your emerging legal practice, they can cost quite a lot, both directly and indirectly.
Legal receptionists are costly. Very costly.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, legal receptionists in the United States were paid an average of $23.37 per hour (the 2018 figure this post was written with). If your office is open 5 days a week for 40 hours per week, that means per week, you can expect to pay your legal receptionist $934.80, and per month that equates to at least $3,739.20. Annually, this works out to almost $48,600.
According to a report from MIT, employers will also have to pay for life insurance ($150) and health coverage ($2,000-$3,000 for single persons; $6,000-$7,200 for families – http://www.ahrq.gov). Other benefits could include long-term disability insurance ($250), dental plans ($240-$650), dependent care assistance, tuition reimbursement, and retirement plans. Indirectly, you may have to spend a lot of money on employee support, office supplies, paid vacations, team-building exercises, and even on additional furniture.
These are just a few of the expenses you bear when you hire a legal receptionist. The fact is, you are losing by hiring someone only for 8 hours a day. Depending on your area of practice, your most important calls may come in after hours. Perhaps your current clients will be disappointed and frustrated that their call at 5:01 p.m. went unanswered. Potential clients may simply find another lawyer because you did not pick up their calls.
Our observations reveal that many legal clients often call late in the night or after their own working hours. In other words, you are losing potentially thousands of dollars in business by not being available 24/7 to answer calls.
What is an alternative to legal receptionists?
Unfortunately, having an in-house legal receptionist is not a suitable solution for most lawyers. And while many lawyers try to have their paralegals answering the phones, that’s not what they’re supposed to be focusing on. There is a better way. The answer is a virtual receptionist, also known sometimes as a legal answering service. Abby Connect offers a legal answering service that costs a fraction of what you would spend on an in-house receptionist, for far more coverage than one receptionist could provide.
When you hire our virtual receptionists, you only pay for the minutes allotted to answer your calls. You do not have to pay for their breaks, vacations, and sick leave. You won’t have to invest in any kind of infrastructure or training, as our human receptionists are trained individually on each company they answer for, and have access to fully maintained and frequently upgraded phone technologies & software.
Abby’s plans start at $164 a month for 50 Abby Minutes and run to $1,380 a month for 500, with Enterprise plans on request. One subscription covers both ways Abby answers: a minute with a human receptionist is one Abby Minute, a minute with the AI Receptionist is half an Abby Minute, so AI answering goes twice as far on the same plan. You choose how each call is handled, human, AI or a mix of both, and can change it at any time. Every plan is month to month with a free trial and no setup fee. Current plans are on the pricing page, and the virtual receptionist cost guide compares providers side by side. Any of these is a fraction of what an in-house legal receptionist costs, who is available only during working hours, and the coverage runs 24/7, holidays and weekends included.
A legal answering service like Abby Connect also includes phone answering 24/7, bilingual receptionists, dedicated team of receptionists, a Client Success Manager, real-time call reports with alerts, unlimited voicemail boxes, customized call forwarding and call handling, toll-free business phone number, and years of training in customer service skills and relationship building with clients.
Subscribe to a Phone Answering Service to Save Costs and Grow Your Law Firm
Hiring a legal receptionist isn’t easy. Not only will you spend upwards of $48,000 a year in wages alone, but you will also lose potential clients because they aren’t always able to answer the phone, especially after business hours. This amounts to financial losses, especially if you are just starting out as a lawyer.
The best alternative is to subscribe to a virtual receptionist service specializing in legal answering services. Legal answering services can do everything that in-house receptionists do. Most importantly, they are available 24/7 and cost just a fraction of what you would spend on a full-time employee. It makes sense to get the help you need from a phone answering service that is not only affordable but also from a service that can help you grow your legal practice. Check out Abby Connect’s legal answering services through a 14-day, no-obligation free trial.
