Established in 2000, Moneypenny is the world’s market leader for telephone answering, live chat, outsourced switchboard and customer contact solutions. Moneypenny handles more than 2 million legal calls and chats each year for hundreds of legal firms in the UK, including 80 of the Top 200, thanks to its dedicated team of legal receptionists.
Communication is key for law firms and in a busy marketplace, first impressions are crucial. The way inbound enquiries are answered gives clues as to a firm’s values, priorities and approach to service. Whether it’s dealing with existing clients, handling new business enquiries or speaking with other professional service providers, the human, friendly touch is vital.
For firms striving to offer the very best standards in client care, it’s imperative to recognise that it all starts with quality communications. Handling enquiries quickly, efficiently and professionally supports firms to improve service, revenues and reputation.
Why Moneypenny?
The demand for legal services continues to grow, competition within the marketplace is strong and consumer behaviour is ever-changing. This has created a perfect storm within the industry and demonstrated outsourced support to be more valuable than ever.
For many years, Moneypenny has been the first choice for law firms when it comes to outsourced communications. With over a decade working within the legal sector, no other provider has the experience, access to skilled individuals or innovative technology to match the level of sophistication and cost savings delivered to firms of all sizes.
How do we help firms?
Meet changing needs and expectations
In a 24/7 age, people no longer feel the constraints of traditional 9-5 office hours and will research and reach out to law firms at all times of day and night – particularly since the pandemic. Clients and prospects know what they want and if they don’t get it, will find another firm that can deliver. Through our technology, we empower firms to offer a consistent 24/7 service using clients’ preferred channels – without having to worry about meeting these demands with in-house resources.
Quality, professionalism and consistency
Tardy responses to enquiries are among the regular gripes levied at law firms, but they don’t need to be. Our telephone answering and live chat solutions guarantee consistency and a high-quality experience, smoothing out the bumps that occur when front-of-house teams are busy elsewhere and calls are redirected to other departments.
Protect the front-of-house experience
Reception and front-of-house teams work incredibly hard. They typically handle the switchboard and greet people – two tasks that can be at odds with each other. By outsourcing switchboard handling, even if just at peak times, our clients’ front-of-house teams are freed up to give the warm and personable face-to-face welcomes that give visitors a positive first experience. This also prevents calls from being diverted to busy fee earners in other departments, which compromises professionalism and client care.
Make digital presence work harder
Our research tells us that just over two-thirds of law firms (66%) are not doing enough to present a strong brand image online and almost half (44%) do not articulate how they are different to other firms – and we’re here to help.
A well-timed live chat pop-up helps to turn website visitors into potential new clients at any hour of the day. Enquirers tend to offer more personal information through live chat than any other communication channel, which helps our clients to improve understanding and nurture prospects through the sales cycle.
Demand for live chat has increased by 115% post-pandemic and 30% of consumers now expect to see a chat facility on your site. Plus, as 46% of chats occur outside the 9-5, the volume of potential business via this channel is hugely valuable. Live chat makes it easy to provide 24/7 client care, meet changing demands and make your website work harder too.
Seamless integrations
A growing number of our legal clients are investing in wider technologies to support operations – particularly since the pandemic. Our solutions integrate seamlessly with other software to automate the technology and save clients even more time.
The full suite of integrations we offer means our team can get a clear view of lawyers’ working days, and log calls and appointments into firms’ systems. Our integrations include Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack and legal-specific tools such as Perfect Portal.
How do we keep a finger on the pulse of the sector?
Every member of our 95-strong specialist legal team has a deep-rooted knowledge of the industry – many have worked in law firms themselves. We understand the challenges faced by legal practices and how to represent clients’ brands appropriately – whether that’s handling sensitive and complex topics, dealing with frustrated or stressed individuals, or helping answer common questions.
Externally, we have official partnerships and close relationships with several key industry thought leaders and organisations, including the national and various regional law societies, LawNet, the British Legal Technology Forum, Conscious Solutions and the Law Firm Marketing Club. These relationships ensure we’re kept abreast of sector changes, challenges and opportunities, and allow us to adapt our offering to suit the changing needs of those operating within it.
We regularly attend and host events and webinars for legal businesses, and our experts are invited to speak on panels on topics such as client service and adoption of technology within law firms. Moneypenny also invests in independent external research with organisations including Censuswide, YouGov and insight6. This allows us to create reports that help benchmark changing consumer behaviour and deliver meaningful insight to both clients and the wider industry.
Our recent Global Customer Call Trends Report explored why calls to law firms demand more attention than ever, with data revealing the UK public is spending more time on calls to businesses than three years ago.
Despite the growing reliance on digital channels, the phone is the favourite method of contacting a business for over a quarter of businesses. Crucially though, data reveals that the nature of business calls has changed. According to the survey, 64% of respondents spend longer on the phone with businesses, demonstrating that inbound calls to law firms should be treated as more of a priority than they were three years ago. It also revealed that call handlers are likely to face more urgent, complex and sensitive queries and must be prepared to deliver the appropriate level of care and consideration.
Our head of legal sector, Bernadette Bennett, explains: ‘Insights like these ensure we continue to offer added value to the sector alongside our best-in-class technology. The demand for quality legal services continues to grow and firms must consider resource. The optimum solution is to have a dedicated resource for all inbound enquiries – be that in-house or via an outsourced partner – so that calls and messages don’t disturb fee-earners needlessly, and clients and prospects receive the best experience.
‘If there aren’t enough people available, overflow support from an outsourced provider can take the pressure off and offer consistency in the level of service provided – improving both first impressions and overall reputation. We’re dedicated to helping law firms not only operate smoothly but shape their strategies, scaling with them and future-proofing their success for years to come.’
For more information about how Moneypenny can support your law firm, visit www.moneypenny.com/uk/legal-answering-services/