Ella Nelson, Business Development Manager – Legal, Moneypenny
Law firms miss 15 percent of all calls – a figure that often doubles during the summer months as departments are under-resourced while staff are on leave – according to research from leading communications provider, Moneypenny.
Moneypenny, which provides telephone answering, switchboard and live chat services to more than 950 law firms, is urging legal practice managers and senior leadership teams to put proper summer continuity plans in place to avoid compromising customer care and professionalism or firms’ ability to service clients and win new business.
Ella Nelson, Business Development Manager – Legal, at Moneypenny said: “We know that calls to our law firm clients increase during the holiday period and in some cases double. There’s often a misconception that voicemail can ‘pick up the slack’ and stop enquiries from clients and prospects falling through the net, but this is incorrect. Our own research has shown that 69 percent of callers who are answered by voicemail just hang up, which is costing legal firms business.
“As one in ten telephone calls to law firms is a brand-new enquiry, unanswered or mis-managed calls are wasted opportunities that these firms just won’t get again. Quite simply, a potential client getting through to a voicemail instead of a person is like tearing up money. It’s akin to walking into a shop with no one at the till.”
Telephone answering services can help busy law firms handle high volumes of calls and varied caller needs, ensure professional responses in real-time and tackle the most common holiday-cover challenges such as: messages being taken incorrectly or never making it to the intended recipient; frazzled employees dealing with continuous interruption as they ‘chip in’ to answer phones, expensive and unfamiliar temporary staff making mistakes and poor staff hand-overs leading to confusion and unhappy clients and colleagues.
Ella added: “Voicemail is not an adequate solution for a 21st century business and it’s certainly not what today’s increasingly savvy customers want or expect from their legal partners. Nor is it realistic to expect other employees to solve seasonal staffing challenges without it impacting productivity and professional standards.”
Photo thanks to Ginger Pixie Photography
