Hiring a reputable legal answering service should be a major priority in terms of outsourcing work for your law firm. After all, incoming calls are the crux of an attorney's business; it's the main way they get new clients. Therefore, your phone answering services need to be professional, reliable and informed on exactly what you do. Here are a few tips on hiring a reputable remote receptionist service:

- Rely on word of mouth: Ask around; there are a number of professions that utilize answering services. You could see how local doctors like their nurse answering services; how local towing companies like working with a live virtual receptionist. There are so many different types of businesses that rely on virtual receptionists in today's 24-hr. business climate that you could find a reputable remote receptionist service on word of mouth alone. You may find that you prefer an attorney answering service to an in-house receptionist. On the other hand, you may find that you prefer the combination of a daytime receptionist and an after-hours live virtual receptionist.

- After locating a live answering service, give them an opportunity to prove their quality and efficiency. Remember, you are the one who is spending money, and you can demand the quality that is promised. Most attorney answering service provides you the opportunity of ceasing activities and services and a cancellation of contract, provided you give a 30 days' notice stating your reasons for the cancellation. However, in most cases, law firms and agencies are highly in favor of outsourcing their call answering, as, they recognize the advantages of having a professionally maintained quality live answering service that can attend their incoming calls 24X7.

- Be clear on your terms and information about your firm: If there is specific information you need from each call, be clear with the attorney answering service from the start. Let them know exactly what you expect from your agreement and ensure that they will be able to fulfill your needs. Virtual receptionists are specially trained to deal with a number of different professions; seek out those that specialize in attorney answering services. This will ensure that your terms are met with the professionalism and expertise that callers would get upon calling your office and speaking with an in-house staffer. If they are required to ascertain specific information from potential clients, let them know exactly what information you require up front. If a virtual receptionist is limited in the information they can give out to callers, refrain from providing more information than the attorney answering service needs. The idea is to have complete control of the situation from the start.

Using a professional attorney answering service can be one of the most beneficial and simple ways to outsource work for your firm. If you utilize the above tips during the hiring process of your live virtual receptionist, you should be able to immediately shift that workload to the answering service and allow your employees to re-focus on new tasks.