How Call Recording Can Improve Your Law Practice

Working in a law firm means you probably take a lot of important calls on any given day, but if you really needed to, could you recount every call you have received and every detail discussed during these calls?

Whether you need to record for note-taking, dispute resolution, regulatory compliance or training, call recording can benefit your firm. Here are 3 ways how:

1. Avoid Loss of Information

When talking to clients, it is vital to actively listen and note down important information. However, relying on taking notes during a conversation can be disruptive and may result in erroneous or missed details.

Similarly, there may be instances when it is difficult to understand what the client is saying (noisy environment, talking quickly, speaking in a heavy accent, etc). Call recording offers lawyers peace of mind knowing that if necessary they are able to revisit the conversation post-factum and can therefore concentrate entirely on the conversation with their client.

Through call recording, staff can listen back to calls, pick up any missed information and/or clarify any misunderstandings, ensuring that nothing critical has been missed.

2. Protect Your Firm From Complaints

According to the Legal Ombudsman, over 1,600 complaints were filed for failure to advise and failure to follow instructions in 2016.

When a formal complaint does happen, firms can reduce the risk of liability by utilising call recordings to fact-check information and resolve disputes, ideally before they escalate into a lawsuit, saving the firm time and money.

However, many complaints are initially made informally, like a person phoning to say that a minor matter has not been dealt with within a stated timescale. While this person may not be making a formal complaint, they are expressing dissatisfaction about an element of service that they have received. Being able to pick these up on time from the call recordings can help prevent further escalation.

Moreover, the Legal Ombudsman found that 82 percent of clients would choose a lawyer based on the recommendation of friends, family or colleagues. As such, preventing complaints can also result in additional business opportunities.

3. Facilitate Personal Development and Benchmark Best Practices

Call recording is an invaluable tool to improve your team’s performance. For legal assistants tasked with dealing with clients over the phone, the ability to demonstrate empathy, professionalism and an understanding of the legal context behind the call is fundamental for achieving service excellence.

Managers can evaluate employees’ calls and provide constructive feedback on their performance by using call recordings to monitor, evaluate, coach and highlight examples of best practice.

Call-recording solutions can also be used for training new hires on company best practices and on how they are expected to conduct themselves, as well as to bring them up to speed with client cases they have been assigned too.

In Conclusion

From helping firms ensure they don’t miss important information when talking to clients to avoiding complaints and supporting employee development, call recording can offer law firms numerous advantages.