The Client

Breens Solicitors is a well established high street law firm which specialises in residential property conveyancing, commercial property conveyancing, Wills & probate and accident claims.

With offices in Southport and Liverpool they serve clients across the Sefton area of Merseyside.

The Challenge

Breens Solicitors has been working with Face For Business for two years.

We were initially brought in to take over their call answering service after they had a poor experience with another well known telephone answering service.

As a busy law firm dealing in both residential and commercial law, they regularly receive upwards of 100 calls a day from both existing clients, as well as new business calls.

With so many incoming calls to deal with, it had become impossible for their receptionist to handle every call, which is why they’d sought the help of another call answering service following a recommendation.

“The call answering service we originally used was local and had come recommended but we realised we were still missing a lot of calls, so the service wasn’t giving us what we’d hoped”, said Carol Bragg, Director and Practice Manager at Breens Solicitors.

“Missing calls, means missing business. Potential new clients will simply move on to the next law firm if you don’t answer and deal with their enquiry immediately.”

This was presenting a serious commercial challenge, as well as putting their reputation for outstanding customer service at risk.

Working to build a professional, centralised call answering service

After another local solicitor recommended Face For Business, Carol contacted us at around the time the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to impact how people worked.

With staff relocating to work from home, having a centralised phone answering service became a critical business function.

“It was great for us,” added Carol.

“We were working from home and had no receptionist in the building and we couldn’t take calls without that central point of contact. Someone who could take messages and transfer calls to the right people working from home – that’s what Face For Business does for us.”

The initial process of working with Breens Solicitors to integrate our call answering service with their existing processes was quite involved.

We spent a lot of time with the team diving into their business processes, understanding the types of calls and enquiries they dealt with, and the types of customers we’d be answering calls for.

All this information was critical for us so we knew exactly how Breens Solicitors expected certain calls to be answered, and what information they needed to be able to return calls efficiently, without asking clients or prospects to repeat themselves.

We also spent the initial integration understanding how they wanted to deal with call transfers to set up processes so we knew exactly which calls needed to be transferred to which members of the team to create a smooth and efficient process.

“The integration was really important for us,” said Carol, “the customer journey needs to be seamless, especially with new business because those calls always go to a particular person in the firm.

“So from someone looking at our website or reading a Google review to calling us, it’s vital that calls are answered correctly and they get through to the right person rather than being sent around the houses.

“It gives them confidence and ensures we’re always dealing with clients correctly.”

The results

The immediate results for Breens Solicitors was that they were able to answer every call that came through to the business’ central office, despite everyone working from home.

By retaining a centralised business number they continued to have a single point of contact, while our call answering service ensured messages were taken accurately and passed to the right people, or that calls were transferred immediately, and seamlessly to the right team members.

Since they returned to the office, at least partially, we’ve continued to work with Breens Solicitors and their receptionists to provide an overflow call answering service, ensuring any calls they’re unable to handle in-house are still picked up and answered professionally.

This has ensured Breens Solicitors don’t miss any new business calls and are providing a reliable, professional service to clients.

Carol added: “Face For Business played a big role in keeping us going initially during the pandemic and now they’re still there for us to help cover those periods in the day when we have an influx of calls.

“It’s just the nature of the business that we receive multiple calls at the same time, and our receptionists simply can’t answer every call that comes in so it’s good to have that support.

“Before Face For Business, with our previous call answering provider, we were missing so many calls, which meant we were missing so much business and I don’t think we’d realised it at first.

“With Face For Business we’re not having that problem anymore and we know that all the calls we get are being dealt with either by our own receptionist or by Face For Business as an extension of our team.

“You can see the big difference it’s made too, not just in terms of the calls being answered, but in the extra time it’s giving our teams to work for clients when they’re not worried about missing phone calls.”