What if we told you that your law firm has more than one receptionist? It’s not something most have put a lot of thought into because, generally, we like to think of the receptionist as an individual fielding all types of calls, from annoying telemarketing calls to answering questions from prospective clients.
However, most law firms—and maybe yours—are paying for another receptionist without reaping the full benefits. As elusive as it may seem, this receptionist is a front-line worker that works 24 hours a day. This receptionist is your phone system.
Most legal professionals are familiar with the basic features of any phone system, such as call forwarding and voicemail. Though those features are significant, we thought it prudent to share other ways your phone system can extend its duties, assist your human receptionist, and improve overall productivity and call-handling efficiency.
The Power of Two Receptionists
The most crucial aspect of running a successful law firm is a receptionist matching your firm’s personality to answer calls, schedule appointments, take payments, and more. Moreover, your receptionist should have the right tools to become your firm’s most effective front-office coordinator. You must employ your phone system as an additional receptionist to achieve this.
Valuable Reception Features
Here’s a list of some valuable features that can help your law firm.
Simultaneous Fax Handling
If you’re using a fax machine to receive multiple faxes for multiple attorneys, it’s easy to simplify this by utilizing the virtual faxing solution available in the Jaxcom phone system. Our system can process numerous faxes quickly and deliver them via email, or you can view them in the fax viewing portal. In addition, by virtualizing fax, you improve your firm’s paper handling efficiency, considering many government agencies still use fax as a primary part of their workflow.
Advanced Time Modes
Using Time Conditions and Night Mode, your law firm can choose to route calls based on the time of the day or a combination of both. For example, suppose your firm previously activated night mode by pressing a button. You can now benefit from the phone system automatically placing itself into night mode and routing your calls to an answering service, voicemail, cell phone, or any other destination. Furthermore, your human receptionist can perform other end-of-day activities efficiently.
Private Call Lines
Many law firms, particularly those that handle domestic abuse cases, need the ability to have employees call out on a line that won’t trace back to a legal business. With a private call line, a custom button appears on your phone to make and receive untraceable calls. Our support team then assists you in determining how incoming calls to the private line are processed. Popular options include, but are not limited to, a friendly voice message (without stating the firm’s name), a distinctive ring, or infinite ringing.
Video Door System
There is no doubt that safety and security are essential now more than ever. In addition to fielding calls, the receptionist must also intake many visitors, especially during consultation days. With Jaxcom, you can give your receptionist peace of mind with a video doorbell for your law firm. Our phones arrive ready to display video when there’s a visitor at your practice’s location. In addition, the ability to add automatic door locking & unlocking is available.
Virtual Assistant for Extensions
While there are many ways to handle incoming calls to an extension at your law firm, sometimes the caller would prefer other options rather than just leaving a voicemail. With Virtual Assistant, you can play a prerecorded message that gives the caller a menu of options upon calling or being transferred to an extension. These may include transferring back to reception/operator, transferring to another department, etc. The Virtual Assistant can route calls based on availability or during a specific time window.
Endless Opportunities
While we’ve provided a few examples of how we’ve helped law firms to maximize their phone system use, we recognize that each firm has different requirements. Gladly, there is an endless combination of possibilities for customizing the call flow to meet the firm’s individual needs. So whether you want to take advantage of all the available features or just keep it simple, we’ve got you covered.
Evaluating choices for law firm phone systems can get overwhelming with the thousands of options available. That’s why it’s important that your firm partners with communications experts that carry the experience to professionally engage with your law firm. Jaxcom will work with you to implement the best solutions customized specifically for how you do business. Get a free consultation. Contact us today to learn how we can help your firm.
