Across the country, an increasing number of law firms — from solo practitioners and smaller partnerships, to large multi-practice areas and multi-site enterprises — are making the switch from a conventional landline phone system, to an advanced and innovative hosted business cloud phone system.
And since lawyers as a breed are trained to be highly skeptical — which is a good thing! — it’s not surprising that the reasons that they’re making the switch has nothing to do with marketing hype, and everything to do with pragmatic advantages and benefits. Below are the 3 most important:
1. Dramatically Lower Costs
While each law firm is unique, it’s not uncommon to save anywhere from 30% to over 50% a year in telecommunications costs after switching to a hosted business cloud phone system. This is because there is no expensive on-premise PBX to buy, maintain and upgrade, and both long distance and user-to-user calls are free.
What’s more, adding new numbers or extensions is simple and affordable. Scaling down is also just as seamless, and law firms don’t get stuck paying thousands of dollars a year for lines that they no longer need.
2. Enhance Client Communications
While effective client communication is important in every sector and industry, it’s essential in the legal field — because time is always of the essence, and virtually all messages are a priority. With a hosted business cloud phone system lawyers can:
- Pick up all calls from their smartphone, anywhere in the world.
- Transfer calls to any other phone, including a landline.
- Route voicemails to their inbox.
- Launch video calls with clients to meet face-to-face, but without having to leave the office.
- Hold conference calls to bring in other members of the team (e.g. researchers, investigators, etc.).
- Easily create customized auto-attendant greetings to keep clients up-to-date on their availability (“Hi, I’m currently on a flight heading back to my office and expect to be there at 3:00pm this afternoon. Please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you before the end of the day. If your call is urgent please press zero and speak with my associate who is in the office all day.”)
3. Improve Billing Accuracy
Lawyers sell their expertise, which means that they need to ensure that all of the time they spend communicating with a client is billed accordingly — no more and no less. A hosted business cloud phone system automatically tracks all client communication details, including call start, end, duration, length, incoming number and more. Plus, law firms can integrate their hosted business cloud phone system with billing and accounting systems to streamline administration and ensure accuracy.