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6 Reasons To Love Back Office Betties (That Happen To Be Why Our Competition Hates Us)

Reasons to Love Back Office Betties Virtual Receptionists

There’s a lot to love about Back Office Betties… unless you’re one of our competitors. We’ve been criticized for many of the unique things we do in our business, but those are the exact reasons that small law firms love us. Let’s take a look at a few of them!

Back Office Betties’ Receptionists Work From Home (Even Outside Of A Pandemic)

Working from home has been proven to increase employee morale, productivity, and performance. All of our receptionists have their own quiet, private office spaces eliminating distractions, background noises, and the infamous soul-crushing call center environment. This enables our receptionists to feel and work like receptionists, not phone operators.

Companies that support remote work have a 25% lower employee turnover rate than companies that don’t, and 45% of remote workers have been in the same position for five years or more. Low turnover and longevity in the workplace create a level of expertise that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

Some answering services will claim that it’s not possible to build camaraderie when teams are working remotely, but one of our most common anecdotes from new employees is how much they love the team environment and feel involved in the company.

Quality Assurance

Our receptionists have high standards to attain that many other services might not be able to live up to. We monitor every call taken and regularly meet with our receptionists to review their work and ensure that they meet their performance goals. Being a boutique service enables us to have interpersonal relationships with each receptionist and be invested in their performance.

Not only are our receptionists specialized in legal intake, but our receptionists are also specialized in your firm!

Each law firm that we work with has a small number of receptionists assigned to them, and all of our receptionists complete a training course about your firm’s operations before taking a single call for you. These factors allow our receptionists to become familiar and comfortable with your operations and feel like a part of your team.

Your clients will never be able to tell that they aren’t sitting at the front desk in your office!

Exceptional Employee Benefits

We offer excellent benefits as well as competitive pay and performance bonuses. Attracting and keeping the best talent is always a priority! We incorporate fun perks like wellness days, wish-granting, and team building events into our company culture. We provide ongoing training, professional development, and encourage our employees to be resourceful and have a say in the way we do things.

Many companies will do the minimum and provide the cheapest benefits they can get away with, but fostering relationships with our employees is a priority that helps us attract and maintain the best talent in the industry.

We Send Your Messages in Real-Time

Our receptionists send out each message in real-time immediately upon ending the call.

You won’t be left waiting for hours until 15 messages have stacked before they are sent out to you. This is a corner that other services cut to ensure their receptionists will never have a moment of downtime between calls.

Sending messages immediately takes a bit longer, but we know it’s important for you to get them in real-time and without mistakes or inaccuracies.

We Take One Call at a Time

We guarantee that your client will never be placed on hold in the middle of their call for our receptionist to take and place another call on hold.

Other services will place your call on hold multiple times because they take 3-5 calls at once. This may get each call answered within their advertised time, but is that what you envisioned when you were told how quickly your calls would be answered?

When receptionists are bouncing back and forth between calls, it’s easy to get information muddled and make mistakes. Unfortunately, other answering services are willing to take that hit to their quality of service to save a buck.

At Betties, each call gets answered within 4 rings and has our receptionists’ full and undivided attention from start to finish.

Customized Call Handling

When our receptionists answer your calls, they’ll use a script we’ve customized just for your firm.

Most answering services have limited customization (if any at all!). It takes time and staffing for us to set up customized call handling, but we are more than willing to use our resources for everything that will give your firm and your clients a better experience.

Customized scripts allow our receptionists to fully intake new clients and avoid the generic service that will leave your clients feeling like they’ve reached a call center and not your office.

 

To learn more about the difference between Back Office Betties and other answering services, request a call with us today.

Your Law Firm Is Losing Money By Missing This One Critical Step

Triage your law firm's clients | Back Office Betties

 

How much time do you spend on billable work?

According to Clio, lawyers record only 2.5 billable hours per day on average. Yikes.

You could be earning more than double if you stopped doing so many non-billable tasks.

Your time is valuable! Treat it that way and watch the returns roll in.

We know that administrative work can take up a lot of time, and client intake is one of the worst offenders. So what can you do?

Hire someone to triage your clients.

What Does It Mean To Triage My Law Firm’s Clients?

triage

[trēˈäZH]
NOUN
1. (in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.
VERB
1. assign degrees of urgency to (wounded or ill patients).

In this case, your callers are the patients. Treat them like they’re trying to get a diagnosis and prescription that will make their ailments disappear.

Their call is the waiting room, your receptionist is the triage nurse, and the diagnosis and prescription come from your expertise after they’ve made it back to the exam room.

How Can Triaging My Clients Help Grow My Law Firm?

  • Stop wasting time on leads that aren’t a good fit
  • Streamline your intakes and increase scalability
  • Effectively instill confidence in your clients
  • Use your time on billable work, not administrative tasks

 

Stop Wasting Time On Leads That Aren’t A Good Fit

Your time is best spent on people you know you can help.

Many times, a caller will be looking for help in an area you don’t serve or they can’t afford your fee. When the caller isn’t a right fit for you, you’re wasting your time and theirs.

To make the most of your (valuable) time, you should know that they fit into your ideal client demographic. Likewise, you should know that your expertise is not a waste of their time or money.

Potential clients don’t always know the nature of their case, and it very well may take some prodding (time!) to get all the information needed to determine it. Often enough, that prodding can be done by a legal receptionist or paralegal who can walk them through specific questions that get to the bottom of their needs.

Once your leads make it past these questions, you’ll know that your time spent on a consultation has the potential to be mutually beneficial.

Streamlined And Scalable Intakes

Your clients’ first impression of you is on the phone, so it’s important to get your intake process right.

Making mistakes in the way you handle new leads is much easier than you may think. Did you know that 61% of law firms forget to ask the client’s name during the initial conversation? Not only that, but 72% forget to ask for their phone number!

Missing those vital pieces of information is a fast way to lose a lead and, in turn, lose money.

However, when a professional legal intake specialist is there to answer that first call, you can guarantee each and every lead will start the intake process and that vital information will be captured.

Once you’ve set your process and determined who will handle potential new client calls, things become more simple and streamlined. This is easier on your callers (they’ll know what to expect every time they call) and easier on you (hello newfound time!).

Keep in mind, too, that simplifying this process with an intake professional is scalable because you are not being called away from your most important work and have room to keep adding new clients to your calendar.

Effectively Instill Confidence In Your Clients

When you go to a medical appointment, it would be pretty strange to be greeted by the doctor sitting at the reception desk, wouldn’t it? We’ve been conditioned to view doctors as important and hard to reach because they’re so busy and in-demand.

Your callers should feel that same way about you! You’re the one that’s going to save them, but first, the triage nurse (intake specialist) needs to gather all of their information and prep them for their appointment.

When you show up to that appointment, you’re able to skip the time-intensive initial questions and spend more time offering true value and expertise.

All of this works together to instill confidence in your clients because 1. your firm presents itself professionally and 2. they view you as busy and important, so they’re honored to have you helping them.

Plus, there is no risk of confusing back and forth, complications, or missed communications because the steps to getting help are simplified and organized.

Grow Your Law Firm And Make More Money

Wouldn’t hiring someone to do my client intakes just cost me money?

Definitely not!

The reality is, your billable rate is much higher than the cost of outsourcing someone to do your intakes. When you spend your time on administrative work like answering the phones, those calls are costing you the hundreds that your time is actually worth.

Consider how much time you spend triaging clients, completing intake paperwork, and the back and forth that comes with it… how many billable hours are you wasting each day? How much money does that amount to?

Let’s do a little bit of math – Say your billable rate is $250 per hour. Say your average intake call is 15 minutes. Each time you do your own intake call, you’re spending $62.50 on that one call when you could have MADE $62.50.

Now say that you’re taking 6 intake calls in one day – that’s a loss of $375.

Your time is more valuable than $20 an hour, so stop doing these $20 an hour tasks.

Spend your time on what makes you money. Outsource what doesn’t. Then sit back and watch as your calendar fills up with more paid appointments because you opened up the time to accommodate them.

Overall, a streamlined intake process leads to your clients having a good experience, leaving stellar reviews, and recommending you to friends and family. This is an investment you will absolutely see a return on!

 

Interested in other ways you can help free up your billable time and make more money in your law firm? Download our Money-Making Automations Guide here.

Troubles With Google Voice? Here’s What We Recommend Instead

Trouble with Google Voice Free Phone Services

We understand the attractiveness of the free version of Google Voice, but is it really benefitting your law firm? Let’s dive into the facts.

Who Is Using The Free Version Of Google Voice?

The free version of Google Voice has continued to increase in popularity among small businesses. It’s easy to understand why: Small business owners need to save money where they can and will always be on the lookout for ways to do so. In fact, the majority of the companies that use this version of Google Voice have less than fifty employees.

Google Voice Is Not Meant To Be Used For Business

Unfortunately, the free version of Google Voice simply isn’t intended for business use. In fact, Google actually changed the name of this version to include, “For personal use”.

When you consider all of the known issues and the frustration this service has caused business owners and administrative staff, it makes sense that they are dissuading businesses from utilizing the service. Though, perhaps the most concerning aspect of this for businesses is the fact that the quality cannot be guaranteed. When you’re running a small business like a law firm, you need reliability. Google Voice simply doesn’t provide that.

There Is No Customer Support

The only support offered to users of the free Google Voice is a list of commonly asked questions and community forums. Run into an issue and need tech support? You’ll be left hoping that someone else has publicly solved that same problem on a forum in a way you’re capable of accomplishing by yourself.

Do you really want the operations of your business reliant on a “fingers crossed” situation?

Call Forwarding Is Tricky And Known To Not Always Work Properly

The most common complaint with Google Voice is that call forwarding simply stops working out of nowhere, sending your calls straight to voicemail.

The initial call from a potential new client is crucial and can make or break their trust in your law firm.

If you were trying to find a lawyer and had a list of numbers to call in front of you, would you really waste your time waiting around to see if someone gets that voicemail and returns your call? Not if another firm answers and can get your process started right away.

This is where that lack of technical support can really cause some issues.

Here’s the scenario: It’s the middle of your workday. You’re busy and working on time-sensitive cases. After a while, you realize all your calls have been going straight to your voicemail.

What can you do? Spend the rest of your workday on Google’s community help forums? Lose all of your potential new clients for the rest of the day? Neither of those is ideal, so why chance putting yourself in that situation in the first place?

Your Receptionist Only Has So Much Control Over Your Calls

There are a couple of things to consider when using Google Voice with a virtual receptionist service such as Back Office Betties:

Google Voice is designed to quickly locate a human for a live answer. If the call is not answered within a few seconds, it then forwards to Google Voicemail. Unfortunately, this means that if a call comes into our system during a high-volume time and rings more than a couple of times, the call will route to Google Voicemail.

Not only does this take the call out of the hands of the professionals you’re paying to WOW your callers, but it’s also sending messages to yet another voicemail box that you’ll need to check.

Many of our clients do use the free version of Google Voice in conjunction with our services successfully, but the fact that some law firms have issues is enough for us to work out some alternative suggestions for your law firm.

Keep in mind, the Betties team will always do our best to troubleshoot anything within our power. We can track a call once it’s entered our system and your receptionist team has successfully answered. However, if the issue of Google Voice sending the call to Google Voicemail arises, we may not be able to offer a full resolution to the problem.

We Recommend Taking A Look At These Other Providers

You might be thinking that sure, there are some drawbacks, but doesn’t the fact that it’s free make up for that? Not really.

If you want to grow your law firm, client experience is everything. When it comes to phone services, saving money now might lose you business later.

There’s a saying that goes “If you buy quality, you’ll only cry once.” While we don’t expect your phone service provider to be a big enough ticket to have you crying, it will absolutely help you avoid crying every time you miss a potential client’s call due to Google Voice acting up!

Phone Service Providers That We Have Had Positive Experiences With:

 

RingCentral

With an annual contract, RingCentral’s Standard plan is $24.99/user/month. This includes 24/7 support, quality-of-service reports, integrations with popular applications, unlimited audio conferencing, and internet fax, among others. Take a look at their solutions for small businesses.

Dialpad

Dialpad boasts serving some of the most innovative companies like TED, Uber, and WeWork. Their Standard plan is $15.00/user/month with an annual contract. This includes unlimited calling, SMS and MMS, G Suite & Office integrations, among others. Take a look at their small business solutions.

8×8

8×8 has a special page on their site for legal solutions. They have mobile and desktop apps, enterprise-grade security, and 14 countries in their unlimited telephony calling zone under their Standard plan, which costs $24.00/user/month with an annual subscription.

Vonage

Now serving companies as large as Glassdoor and Allstate, their original business model catered to families and small businesses. Vonage uses a pay for what you use by the minute/message pricing system. Outbound calls start at $0.0139/minute. Some features include, 24/7 customer support, call analytics and reporting, integration with popular applications, among others.

Grasshopper

Made for small businesses, Grasshopper includes mobile and desktop apps, incoming call control, virtual fax, voicemail transcription, detailed call reports, and more with all of their plans. Their Solo plan with 1 phone number and 3 extensions is $26.00/month with an annual contract.

Nextiva

Rated the Best Business Phone Service in 2020 by U.S. News, Nextiva offers unlimited calling, texting, and faxing worldwide, 24/7 support, unlimited conference calls, and video conferencing, among others. Their Professional plan is priced at $31.95/user/month for 1-5 users with an annual agreement, and costs are lowered with longer agreements and a higher number of users.

 

All of the above were featured in either The Best Small Business VoIP Providers of 2020 from GetVoIP or Best Business Phone Systems of 2020 from U.S. News and many of our clients have success in using them.

 

We are here to ensure all your calls are answered – don’t let your phone provider sabotage you! If you have any questions about forwarding calls to Back Office Betties or ensuring that your current call process is suitable for your law firm, give our Growth Solutions Strategist a call at 800-958-8591.

What Your Law Firm’s Clients Are Saying Behind Your Back

Improve Your Law Firm Client Experience

We’re not going to beat around the bush because we care about you. But the following is pretty alarming and it’s important to know.

The number one bar complaint is lack of communication.

When you type ‘my lawyer’ into google, one of the first search items to pops up is ‘my lawyer is not communicating with me’.

So, what do you think your clients are saying about you behind your back?

 

“My attorney is the worst communicator, I have no clue what’s going on with my case!”

“My attorney never answers my call, and when he does, he’s not even friendly.”

“I could never recommend an attorney who’s impossible to reach. I’m spending too much money to have no clue what’s going on with my case.”

 

Those aren’t real quotes, but they sure could be. Take some time to check out other attorneys’ reviews to see if similar statements stand out to you.

 

Filevine shares some hard-hitting figures, “When the American Bar Association released their Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims 2008-2011, the numbers spoke for themselves. Only 10% of malpractice claims came from poor application of the law, with the remaining claims resulting from poor communications. That’s roughly 90% of legal malpractice stemming from poor communication – let that sink in”.

So why can’t attorneys communicate with their clients? And what does good client communication look like?

Here are 7 ways to improve your client’s experience with your law firm:

 

1. Start off strong.

Before you even get that first call, your potential clients are already evaluating you. If a potential client finds their way to your website and doesn’t see the information they’re looking for, they’ll move on to the next search result. Know what information potential clients are looking for, and make sure it’s prominently featured on your website.

2. Set and meet expectations.

Clients are always calling to get updates on their cases. The situation they are in could be the most stressful time in their life. If your client is sitting by the phone each day waiting for your call and not knowing when it might come, that’s a sign of poor communication.

Let your client know when they will hear from you! If you’re waiting on paperwork to come in, let your client know that you will be in touch with them next Friday for an update. When they get that simple email on Friday stating that you’re still waiting on that paperwork, they’ll know what’s going on. They knew when they would hear from you, and they knew the status of their case when they did.

You may think of an update being needed when something happens, but your client will go crazy waiting and not knowing. An update to your client is regular communication even if it’s just to say, “No news yet.”

3. Use layman’s terms!

What sounds like communication to you might not sound like communication to your client. Legal terminology and technical language are second nature to you, but it’s likely that your client won’t be able to absorb the information that they need. This leaves them walking away with little new information and possibly increased confusion surrounding their case. When so many terms get thrown into the conversation, your client might feel their intelligence is being brought into question if they need to stop and ask you what each one means.

You might feel like you’re wasting time explaining simple things, but your clients will be willing to spend more time with an attorney who they can understand.

4. Hire a virtual receptionist.

It’s important that you are easy to get a hold of. One of the greatest challenges of practicing law is keeping up with client contact. You can’t sacrifice other aspects of your work to be available for each phone call… but voicemail can quickly kill a client’s experience. For current clients, there is nothing worse than leaving messages and having to call again (and maybe leave another message) to see if their message was received.

Positive communication and client experience should begin on the phone. To do that, friendly and knowledgeable receptionists are a must. When a potential client calls, they experience your law firm’s communication for the first time. There is no one better to leave a good first impression than someone who specializes in doing so. Keep in mind, nothing is better at leaving a bad first impression than callers reaching your voicemail.

5. Care about your clients.

Your clients are likely experiencing a pretty rough time… they need to know that you care about their case, and frankly, about them. Be empathetic. It’s just another day in the life for you, but it could be the worst day in their life for them. This can be as simple as getting in the habit of using a person’s name three times when you’re speaking with them on the phoneto show that you’re truly listening.

Aside from the most important thing (getting results), clients want to feel taken care of. They want to know their attorney will really take care of them and won’t add to their stress. When you ensure you’re doing this, your clients will be quick to refer you to others.

6. Streamline the experience.

Simplicity is the most important aspect here.

Develop a simplified intake process that can be used consistently ensuring nothing gets missed or will require unnecessary additional effort. Make sure your website is clear and easy to navigate. Let your clients know the best way to contact you so that you will actually receive the message.

One of the most important factors in whether or not a client will refer you to a friend is how easy the process was for them.

7. Get feedback.

The best way to know how you can improve is to get information from the source. Law firms vary, and you will likely have a few things specific to your firm that you can change or alter to improve client experience. Clio shares some advice on getting good feedback from clients.

 

If this post resonated with you and you’re interested in improving your law firm’s client experience, request a call with our Growth Solutions Strategist.  They will help you come up with a plan specific to your law firm’s needs.
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Take Your Small Law Firm to the Next Level

Take Your Law Firm to the Next Level

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Our newsletter shares expert advice & practical articles to elevate your law firm’s success.

BettieGram Newsletter Snippit
Take Your Small Law Firm to the Next Level

Take Your Law Firm to the Next Level

Subscribe to BettieGram

Our newsletter shares expert advice & practical articles to elevate your law firm’s success.