Outsourcing Legal Intake Call Center

One of the major challenges of law firms is having an intake service that connects with the clients whatever time of the day or night.

Client intake is an important activity for any business, either legal or whatnot. It is the first significant marketing activity to having a lead conversion system that delivers a steady flow of new clients to your firm. The initial contact with a client gives the firm a chance to build rapport and screen unwanted clients due to imminent conflict.

An excellent intake system will be more beneficial for your firm’s bottom line than just other legal marketing campaigns as an alternative. It’s critical that you choose to outsource legal services rather than waste money due to unanswered, unreturned or improperly answered calls.

An intake service is a 24/7 BPO solution to an otherwise burdensome problem. Intake services employ enough staff to offer 24-hour attention (or just after-hours depending on the firm’s needs) including holidays. Law firms can have a live-voice response at the exact time clients make contact. The intake service is commonly outsourced and self-governed so that it takes care of its own employees.

This saves time and money in human resources which is the main reason why it is affordable and profitable. By outsourcing an intake call center, firms can respond to clients exactly when the client makes contact. More importantly, the service allows the law firm to focus on doing the main transactions of their business instead of constantly answering incoming calls.

Through those conversations, intake call centers identify each call’s pertinence and take appropriate action. The call center serves the purpose of integrating efforts across the firm in new areas of practice. Through the outsourced call centers, law firms are able to process new clients, send their documents via email, schedule appointments for hot prospects, tailor their scripts, prioritize qualified leads, authenticate representation, etc.

When choosing an intake service, the factors law firms should consider are:

• Overall strategic goals in hiring a call center

Law firms should consider the main reasons why they employ outsourced intake services such as reducing the costs, ensuring that leads are taken care of or buying cheaper ads during after-hours. Knowing the business goal will make the selection process easier.

• Call center that captures new cases, filters leads and prioritizes cases 

Call centers that offer legal intake often have complex structures. Some call centers capture new cases only, others take calls aside from handling cases. A good call center can design a tailored system that filters out leads, handles high-priority cases, etc. It is important to hire a call center that understands the special needs of law firms. Often, large call centers are structured to handle only non-complex, high volume traffic. On the other hand, mid-sized call centers can be customized to specific requirements of attorneys in general and your firm in particular.

• Sound client intake process

Aside from taking calls, a dedicated call center should also conduct initial screenings and setup meetings with potential clients for the firm’s lawyers. A systematized and efficient process could eliminate confusion for the firm and its clients which, in the long-run, could increase new long-term clients. Improving sound and reproducible practices to routine business activities is the basic step to improve the profitability of a law firm.

• Expertise in coordinating efforts across the firm

A good contact center should also coordinate efforts across the firm especially when it comes to new areas of practice. When a category, for example, has just been created, the call center should provide details the name of the lawyer who is working on a similar transaction for the firm. Ideally, this call center is under marketing or library but not taxation or finance department.

Magellan Solutions is an offshore outsourcing solutions company located in the Philippines. We are contracted to establish, extend and support existing customer contact centers and business processes. Fill out the form below. Contact us!