The purpuse of this session is to find ways to help you improve your performance and make your job less frustrating/more fun. During this session you will realize that there are many things that need to be implemented in order to succeed.
Introduction
What we are going to learn today can be summarized as follows:
Goals of every call
These points illustrate what you need to do with every call. By remembering
what you need to achieve with every call, your job will be a lot easier.
Call's Six Basic Elements
These 6 steps may sound familiar to you. Well, they should be since you had
to answer questions related to each one of these elements during our first
individual training session.
Introduction: The right start
Note: A positive impression of our service should be achieved within the first 15 - 20 seconds.
It is not only about greeting the right way, but also about projecting the right image. Some people recommend telemarketers and sells men to smile when they answer the phone. It may sound strange to you, but it makes sense since our attitude is different when we smile than when we don't. Try it. you will see the difference.
There is another important point mentioned here. From now own you must be sure to ask the client if he/she contacted us before. This not only will save you time if the information of the client is already in the system, but it will give the client a different impression of our service.
The source call should also be included, especially because we want to know how people found us. You are used to ask this question only to clients that you refer, but we need to keep track of those clients that we don't refer as well.
Overcoming Objections to Providing Information
Most clients won't have a problem providing you with their information, but
once in a while you will talk to somebody who will be a little reluctant or
unwilling to provide you with any information. If you know the client has a
case, but he or she is not willing to provide you with their information, have
a more experience analyst handle the call or transfer it to your supervisor.
Active Listening: A critical skill
Active listening is probably the most important of all the skills that you need to develop. If a caller has to repeat him/herself, he/she will feel or think that you are not paying attention.
Do not make assumptions. listen and ask questions accordingly.
In order to listen properly, you need to be very sure about what you know. The better you know the panels of law, the better you will be able to perform your job. Not only you will safe time, but also the client will get the impression that you really understand his/her problem and know what you are talking about.
Focused questions will help clarify the legal problem and whether the client really needs a lawyer or not. Use the panel of law as a guide, and ask the appropriate follow-up questions. The panels of law do not contain all the answers, but it can give you valuable information and help you pre-screen the calls better.
After asking all the right questions summarize and confirm the main legal
issue. Just tell the client what you understand is the problem and what you
think they want to achieve. If the client agrees with your explanation, you
can determine with certainty whether to refer the client or not. Make sure
you understand what the client wants and what his/her problem is.
Examples: Use Empathy Cues
These simple phrases will make a big difference when you talk to clients.
They will feel that you care and are concern about their situation. By using
these phrases you may also win the client trust, and he/she will feel comfortable
providing you with information and might not think too much about the consultation
fee when you mention it.
Call Standards: All the right things
If you do the right things from the moment you answer the phone to the moment before you talk about the consultation fee, it will be a lot easier to "sell" the referral.
Dead air is uncomfortable or unnecessary silence. Avoid this situation as much as you can.
Something that you need to do every time is to control the call. You are not in control if you allow the client to talk about things that are irrelevant to the case such as personal opinions and emotions. This doesn't mean that you will interrupt the client or ask him/her to stop. You will allow the client to explain the situation (facts) to you, but once you get a good idea about the problem, you need to start asking questions. Keep on asking questions until you have enough information to determine if there is a case or not. Be always polite and remember to use empathy cues.
Providing accurate information about the consultation fee is very important. Remember that the client is paying for the consultation not for the referral.
Another important issue is the attorney's fees. Sometimes you "can tell" if the client has money or not, that is called the perceived ability to pay. Either way, tell the client that the "fee structure" will be in effect after the consultation if they decide to retain the attorney. For instance say: "are you comfortable (or familiar) with the fee structure?" or "let me explain how the fee structure works. the initial consultation is only $35, and then the hourly rates will go into effect."
In most cases you can tell if someone is willing and ready to retain a lawyer by the way they react to you explanation of the fees. Pay attention to their breathing and tone of voice.
Try to ask the right questions and avoid providing your personal opinion or mention any personal experiences since they are for the most part irrelevant to the pre-screening process. In some cases, your personal opinion might be considered as legal advice by the client even if that is not what you are doing.
You can suggest the client to contact someone else, but anything else might fall into legal advice. Remember that we DO NOT provide legal advice.
Do not overwhelm the client with questions. Try to be concise and to the point.
By all means use you common sense and good judgment to determine the potential
of a referral. Do not refer a client if you are not sure about the case. Always
ask your supervisor for assistance. If the case sounds good, but the client
sounds strange, tell them that you will have somebody call them back. If the
other analyst feels the same about the caller, there must be something wrong
with the caller.
Focus on Clients Solutions
Instead of:
Turn a negative into a positive. Show them that you want to help.
Examples: Use Hold Correctly
Conclusion: A Positive Ending
Ask the client to have a pen and pencil ready.
Make sure that you enter all the information required in the Associate. Read back the information to the client as you enter it to make sure that it is accurate. Double-check your spelling before finalizing the referral.
Make sure that the client is happy with the attorney location. As much as you can, refer the attorney located on top of the list, but offer other alternatives if the office location is not the best. Ask: "where would you like the lawyer to be?"
The way you finish the call is as important as the way you start the call. First, never hang-up before the client; it is a common practice to allow the client to hang-up first.
Also, make sure to offer additional help. If there is not a potential case, provide the client with other solutions: "This is what we can do for you. I can transfer you to. this are some of your options. what I can do for you is this." Be careful not to cross the line into providing legal advise.
Finally, wish then well and encourage them to call back. Give them your name
and extension again.
Delivery: It's HOW you say it
Connecting to the client refers to the ability to not only related to their problem, but to demonstrate that you care and you are willing to go an extra mile to assist them.
Do not sound robotic. The fact that you deal with the same issues everyday may cause you to act or speak in a robotic manner.
You cannot change your voice, but you can change your tone, volume and pacing. By changing one or the other, the client can get a better impression of you and our service.
If you don't use inflections, you will be monotone and therefore perceived as disinterested and/or tired. Now, if the inflections are not in the right places then you will probably send the wrong message to the caller. For instance, if you put an inflexion on the last word of a phrase, the client might think that you are asking a question or even worst, that you are unsure about your answer.
Use "please" and "thank you" as much as possible.
If you patiently study the panel of law, after a while you will become very proficient in the art of pre-screening calls and in determining whether a client has a case or not. Although this is a good thing, you may eventually fall into one or two very common categories. Either you will start taking to the client in a patronizing way or you will make assumptions about his/her case. These are very dangerous conducts since they can deter the perception of our company and your performance.
Make sure to always talk at the caller level and ask
all the follow up questions even if you think that you have heard that before.
Avoid Emotive Statements
This is again very important. It has to do with the way you talk to people.
For the most part e motive statements are your personal opinion about something.
Do not give your personal opinion about the case even if the client request
it. You are not a lawyer, and even if you were, we are not allowed to provide
any legal advice. Also, do not forget that everything the caller says is important
to him/her. Do not tell them "that's irrelevant" or "not important".
Special Situation Standards
These standards are, as you probably already know, special situations that
may relate to a specific area of law. These are basically pre-requisites that
need to be met in order to pursue a case. You never mention these facts to
a caller, but you can suggest that they call someone else (court, SSA, etc.)
to find out.
Self-Evaluation Tools
Although we will continue our training sessions as a group and individually, it is important that you keep testing yourself in the regular basis. See if you are meeting all the different standards with every call that you take. After hanging up the phone check if you have forgotten anything. Did you give the client a good impression of our client? Did you refer the client to the right lawyer or agency? Did you pre-screen the call carefully? Did you ask the sourcing question? Etc.
Suggestions & Questions
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