The Changing Workplace Landscape

Written by

Amanda

27th September, 2024

Company Culture
Productivity
The Office
Workplace Transformation

Navigating ‘Return To Office’ Real Estate, Facilities, and Employee Well-being

As businesses adapt to the post-pandemic world, the workplace has been transformed. Companies are navigating unprecedented shifts in how and where people work, with real estate, facilities management, and employee well-being taking centre stage. In this article, we take insights from a recent Executive Lunch where we spoke to global workplace leaders, and explored how these changes are impacting organisations, and why flexibility, empathy, and strategic foresight are critical to success.

Flexibility and Behavioural Shifts: A New Era of Office Dynamics
The return to the office isn’t simply about getting people back to their desks. It's about acknowledging the behavioural changes that have emerged from the pandemic. Employees expect flexibility in office spaces, working hours, and company policies. As a result, organisations are rethinking traditional office layouts to create environments that foster collaboration and accommodate a diverse workforce.

Key workplace considerations include:

Flexible office layouts: Companies are creating spaces designed for collaboration, rather than desk and traditional working spaces.
Generational needs: Different generations have varying expectations and requirements of the workplace, and businesses are balancing these differences to improve engagement both in the office and away from it.
Neurodiversity: Office designs are increasingly being tailored to meet the needs of neurodivergent employees, ensuring inclusivity.

A Programme, Project, and Change Manager from a global professional services firm summarised the shift:
"The one key thing to recognise when looking at returning to the office is behaviour change. And we must equip leaders to manage this with empathy and a human approach."

Empathy in Leadership: Managing Hybrid Teams
Leading with empathy has never been more important. As hybrid work becomes the norm, leaders are adopting human-centred approaches, focusing on trust and collaboration. This shift is not just about managing workflows but fostering deeper workplace connections.
By putting empathy at the heart of leadership, companies can ensure that both in-office and remote teams feel valued and connected, bridging the gap between physical and virtual workspaces.

Data-Driven Space Management: Optimising Real Estate
While occupancy levels may have returned to pre-Covid norms, optimising office real estate remains a challenge. The way we use these spaces has fundamentally changed. Companies are increasingly leveraging technology and data to monitor space usage and track attendance. This data-driven approach helps organisations redesign their offices to better support hybrid work models, while also addressing critical issues like data security.

A Global Projects Director at a leading law firm highlights the importance of this approach:
"Including the entire security team to review physical and data security is new territory, and now essential in terms of office planning."

Sustainability and Future-Proofing the Workplace
Sustainability is now a central pillar of workplace strategy. As companies redesign their office spaces, there is a strong focus on reducing carbon footprints and preparing for future trends like artificial intelligence and advanced employee well-being initiatives.

The long-term success of any workplace strategy will depend on how adaptable it is to changing employee needs, emerging technologies, and environmental concerns.

Luis DeSouza, CEO of NFS Technology warns:
"If you develop a workplace strategy around business metrics without taking into account how people’s lives have changed, you will be setting yourselves up to fail."

Insights from Industry Leaders
At our recent Executive Lunch, global transformation and operational leads came together to discuss the evolving workplace landscape. One of the key insights shared was the realisation that while the perception may be that offices aren’t as full as they were pre-pandemic, occupancy statistics tell a different story.

"The perception is that at some point we will get back to pre-pandemic attendance in the office. It feels like there is a way to go, but in reality, we are already there when we look at occupancy stats. What has changed is that we are all working in an entirely different way."
Andrew Try, CEO of ComXo

As companies continue to navigate a ‘return to the office’ with the learnings from the post-pandemic shifts, they must embrace flexibility, lead with empathy, and leverage data to make informed decisions about their office environments. By focusing on sustainability and employee well-being, businesses can create workplaces that not only meet the needs of today but are also ready for the future.

The workplace is no longer just a place to work; it is an ecosystem that reflects the evolving needs of employees, technology, and the world around us. Companies that succeed in this new landscape will be those that prioritise adaptability, inclusivity, make data-informed decisions, and above all have a human-centric approach.

About ComXo
ComXo is a leading provider of outsourced communication and business services, helping companies navigate the complexities of the modern workplace with innovative solutions and industry-leading expertise.

If you’re interested to hear how we support some of the largest global organisations with their workplace transformations, get in touch.

Business continuity isn’t just for cyberattacks.

Written by

Amanda

16th April, 2024

Uncategorized

Why being prepared for the day-to-day matters

No company likes surprises (unless, perhaps, it’s a sudden stock price jump). Which is why it’s important to have strong contingency plans for when things go wrong. According to CityAm, cyberattacks on law firms have risen sharply over the last year, and this will likely continue as hackers recognise the potential value of sensitive client data.

Most law firms have plans in place for worst-case scenarios – a serious client data breach, I.T. system failure, or legal liability. But despite the increase in ransom attacks, these incidents are still (thankfully) not day-to-day occurrences.

However, business continuity is about more than just being prepared for a rare catastrophe. Threats to the continuity of your business operations are usually much smaller, more frequent, and easier to overlook, but their effects add up over time. From a sudden bout of winter sickness to a power-cut to something as seemingly innocuous as a fire alarm, there are multiple scenarios that can render a law firm less able to provide seamless customer service for a short period.

Given that up to 40% of calls to full service law firms are new business enquiries, even short periods of downtime can cost your firm valuable business. Preparing for day-to-day disruption is your best chance of remaining accessible and efficient, both for your existing clients and potential future ones.

Here’s why being prepared for the little things can make a big difference for your firm.

Daily disruptions are easy to overlook

If you asked most partners what their business continuity strategy looks like, chances are their answer would mention cybersecurity, I.T. infrastructure, data recovery, or insurance, and would most likely involve a dedicated working team.

Very few would think about what their firm would do if, for instance, there was a fire alarm in the building. Assuming that the reason for the alarm is somebody burning toast in the office kitchen and not an actual fire, this incident might sound trivial – but there are still business continuity implications to consider.

For example, who is answering your phones in this scenario? Will you be relying on voicemail to pick up any potentially important calls that come in during the half-hour before your teams are allowed back into the building?If so, it might be worth considering if this is the right solution for your firm. According to our research, around 60% of people won’t leave a voicemail if they don’t get through – meaning clients will probably pick up the phone to a competitor instead. The impact is also felt by those employees who are working remotely, where friction and frustration from the disruption can impact their own roles and effectiveness.

And it’s not just fire alarms. Everyday disruption also comes in the form of:

Staff sickness
Staff holidays
Power cuts
Travel chaos
Flooding and Snow days
Facilities incidents
Retirement planning

These are the ongoing small-scale challenges faced by facilities managers and front of house teams as they strive to efficiently resource and deliver great service to clients.

A 2023 BBC analysis of National Rail data showed that nearly half of UK train services were delayed or cancelled in the first half of 2023, with cancellation rates as high as 13%. This means the prospect of front of house teams not making it into the office without disruption is on the increase. Firms simply cannot resource their switchboard in person for every fluctuation and unexpected event, so these everyday challenges are becoming a greater drain across the business.

For these scenarios, an external switchboard provider offers protection against downtime on your phone lines, with automatic failover to pick up calls during disruption – which could be the difference between a new client and a missed opportunity.

Hybrid work creates more demand from remote employees

Nobody could have predicted the pandemic. Many companies were able to adapt quickly to the challenges of remote working, but with hybrid working here to stay, companies must consider whether the hybrid policies they implemented during the pandemic are the most efficient ones for the long term.

With more staff working remotely and choosing flexible office hours, there is a greater demand for remote support for employees. To avoid friction, staff should have access to:

Resources and documentation
Reliable tech support
Secure Wi-Fi or server connections
Data security training
Cybersecurity awareness

One of the benefits of an external switchboard service is that you can minimise the friction of remote working. It’s not just knowing that your phone lines are covered at all times – but also that staff can navigate access to support which can be escalated appropriately and efficiently, that messages are taken and followed up, and that detailed call data is captured so you can plan your hybrid working strategy around your firm’s specific needs.

Accessing your knowledge base

For most law firms, your knowledge base includes client case files, research resources, training materials, contact lists and marketing plans – all the documentation that is essential to the day-to-day and long-term operation of your business. These resources are the beating heart of the firm – without them, it would be simply impossible to conduct business as usual.

A significant part of that knowledge base is the contact information and operational details to keep the firm running.

But if your central contact repository becomes out of date, inaccessible, or the data stored in it becomes compromised, even the most basic of client requests become unmanageable.

However, outsourcing your switchboard to a trusted supplier provides an extra layer of business continuity in the case of disruption. Suppliers such as ComXo will be able to maintain access to all contacts, office connection information and operational resources to allow communication to continue even during emergencies. So you won’t lose any time (or potential new business) due to the disruption.

Maintaining a professional outlook

Even if unforeseen circumstances have affected your ability to carry out certain elements of day-to-day business, it’s important to make sure that customers, suppliers or other parts of the company have confidence in reaching you.

An outsourced switchboard service can be indispensable in this area. With a switchboard outsourcing service like ComXo, you’ll have a team of professional, empathetic call handlers who understand your business, ready to receive 24/7 enquiries, provide updates and information, and reassure your clients.

Looking for a flexible switchboard solution? Here’s how ComXo can help

Our 24-hour switchboard service keeps you up and running when things don’t go to plan, so you can maintain your professional reputation. Our dynamic workplace helplines allow your team to feel supported and confident, while minimising the business disruption risks of the hybrid world.

Why not talk to our team about how we can support your firm to ensure you’re always covered?

Why 9-5 is a thing of the past: the real cost of after-hours voicemail.

Written by

Harris

28th March, 2024

Outsourcing
The Office

The traditional nine-to-five is becoming an “antiquated relic from the past”, according to Forbes. Statutory changes will mean that, from April 2024, workers will have more power to request flexible working allowances from their employer, while the majority of firms that participated in the UK’s four-day week trial have since made the policy permanent. The pandemic has also contributed to a growing expectation for service providers be reachable outside of normal office hours.

Many senior lawyers will likely already know that the working day rarely ends at 5pm sharp, and the line between office hours and downtime is often blurred by the use of Microsoft Teams, email, company WhatsApp groups and other communication channels. But for many firms, important calls (including new business enquiries) continue to come in outside office hours – and our research has recently found that many Top 250 firms still rely on voicemail to handle them.

With generational attitudes to voicemail messages changing, and the legal landscape more competitive than ever, are answerphones, receptionists or in-house switchboards enough to ensure your customers receive an outstanding experience? Here’s why we think that 2024 should be the year that law firms rethink their switchboard solution to keep up with evolving customer needs.

When did you last leave a voicemail?

There’s a common belief that people under the age of 35 strongly dislike using voicemail, and will avoid doing so wherever possible. But it might not only be millennials who have turned their back on voicemail – our in-house research suggests that as many as 60% of people don’t leave a message if the person they’re calling doesn’t pick up the phone.

This can be a problem for law firms. Up to 6% of new business enquiries are made after-hours, and if they end with a voicemail prompt, chances are the caller will pick up the phone to a competitor instead.

This means losing out on an opportunity before you’ve even had the chance to follow it up – which is not ideal for your marketing ROI.

Voicemail doesn’t provide much data

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “This firm doesn’t get that many out-of-hours calls?”.

This is traditional thinking amongst many firms that aren’t using an external switchboard supplier to gather call data. It may sound obvious, but if calls coming in outside of regular business hours aren’t being picked up, they’re probably not being recorded either – meaning that the data is skewed towards the belief that most callers stick to the 9-5.

In a post-pandemic world, customers are more likely than ever to expect longer business hours, or even round-the-clock communication. Outsourced switchboards that pick up calls 24/7 — and capture analytics data – will be able to give you a clearer picture of who’s really calling you when you’re not able to get to the phone (as well as making sure your out-of-hours new business calls don’t go to a competitor instead).

What's the alternative?

There are increasing opportunities within organisations to employ alternative communications options, but not every call can – or should – be a webchat.

“Over the past 12 months, the availability of powerful generative AI tools, especially large language models (LLMs) that can parse and respond to unstructured text or speech, has opened new possibilities for technology in customer care”, according to McKinsey.

Before you commit to an AI solution for customer care, the same article states that “Gen Z customers are 30 to 40 percent more likely to call than millennials, and use the phone as often as baby boomers.”

This paints a more complex picture of the future. With more communications channels available than ever, many of us prefer to use quicker, less personal channels, like email, text, AI assistants or self-serve portals.

But this only holds true when we have to do something small – like pay a bill, chase up a non-urgent enquiry, or request a copy of a document. As seamless as self-service can be, most people still pick up the phone for urgent, complex, difficult or personal issues – and for the legal industry, these kinds of call are the ones that matter most.

Customer experience relies on difficult, sensitive or unusual calls being handled expertly and empathetically, and clients will almost always prefer to phone up and speak to a real person. They won’t try to deal with a difficult situation via email or webchat, and they certainly won’t feel grateful if their call is met with a dial-tone or a perfunctory voicemail message.

However, outsourcing your switchboard to a trusted supplier ensures that your firm is available around the clock. Suppliers such as ComXo provide highly-trained, empathetic and multilingual staff, dedicated to confidently handling client calls with a personal, human touch.

The 9-5 doesn't reflect your clients' lives

Does your client – or a potential new client – have an employment law dispute to discuss? If so, they may not be able to call during normal office hours, when they may be in earshot of their colleagues or their manager. It’s more likely you’ll get a call just after 6pm, or perhaps before 9am, where small windows of time become increasingly important for clients to have a resolution to their call.

Likewise, callers with family-related enquiries may be more likely to contact you on their lunch break, when they have more privacy than the evening hours. For many firms, 12-2pm can be a blind spot in terms of telephone cover – your own staff will likely be taking lunch breaks during these hours, and your cover may not be at full capacity.

As an extra consideration for the marketing teams, being able to make the most of the new business opportunities that come from your marketing spend is crucial for your ROI – so it’s vital to understand why the cover provided by an in-house switchboard might not be meeting evolving customer needs.

One-call resolution is the ideal outcome for customer service

While the service industry has often relied on being reachable beyond traditional office hours, the pandemic has led to a growing sense of expectation that all kinds of companies should be more accessible. This may mean that customers have less patience with businesses that appear to be difficult to reach.

In a world where your gym is open 24/7, packages are delivered to your home late into the evening and most large businesses have customer service coverage outside of traditional hours, client communication expectations have clearly shifted.

For law firms – and especially larger law firms – there is a standard of professionalism to maintain. If customers are paying for premium legal support, they’ll also expect outstanding client communication. Ensuring you have the resources to meet those expectations could give you a competitive advantage, as our research shows that first-call resolution significantly enhances client experience and helps build deeper, longer-lasting relationships with your clients.

Looking for a flexible switchboard solution? Here’s how ComXo can help...

Our 24-hour switchboard service lets you filter cold calls, triage calls according to urgency, direct enquiries to the right people or department, and meet growing customer expectations in a hybrid world.

Why not talk to our team about how we can support your firm.

How to boost your profits-per-partner

Written by

Amanda

3rd October, 2023

Agile Working
Company Culture
Productivity

Profits-per-partner is a crucial metric for success for law firms, as an indicator of financial health, profitability, competitiveness and rate of growth. In order to run an efficient and successful legal practice, it’s important that firms have the ability to focus on achieving optimal PPP. But the onset of hybrid working has made this harder than ever. Most workplaces now use an ecosystem of different communication channels – Slack, Teams, Zoom, email, phone – which means that attention is often fragmented and distractions are frequent.

In addition, remote work has fostered an always-available culture, with employees keen to be seen as visible and productive. Which may sound like a galvanising force in terms of output, but in fact may have the opposite effect - eating into personal time and leaving your team feeling overstretched.

So how can your firm avoid the pitfalls and embrace a work culture that contributes positively to PPP? Here are some useful tips.

Minimise distractions

A study by the University of California found that it takes an average of 25 minutes to refocus after an interruption. Even if the time you spend answering emails and jumping on Zooms doesn’t sound huge in terms of minutes and seconds, the cumulative effects of lost focus add up to a significant amount of squandered productivity over time.

Busy offices are prime environments for in-person interruptions (the same study found workers are distracted every eleven minutes on average.) But working from home comes with plenty of familiar distractions as well: the Amazon driver at the door, the noisy neighbour, perhaps even a needy pet. Once the flow is broken, it’s tough to get back to the task at hand. Giving your team the trust and flexibility to decide how and where they work is a good place to start, along with ensuring your office has plenty of quiet areas for disturbance-free work. Making sure you have a culture that allows them to properly manage time helps too. For example, 32% of people have found themselves thinking “this meeting could have been an email”, according to SurveyMonkey.

Using a dedicated team to handle potential interruptions – for example, an outsourced switchboard service to field your calls – is also a great way to ensure that your team is able to operate at maximum concentration. A responsible, empathetic switchboard team can answer all inbound calls on your behalf and filter them according to urgency, keeping distractions to a minimum.

Streamline your tech stack to beat the ‘toggling tax’

Your team will need to use a variety of programs for their work – productivity tools, scheduling apps, research databases, word processors, document management software, and much more. Harvard Business Review notes the adverse effects of the so-called ‘toggling tax’ - the time and mental energy lost to flicking between different tabs and programs. Even a simple task might require visits to a practice management platform like Clio or Denovo, a storage solution like Dropbox or OneDrive, plus a handful of other apps – DocuSign, Outlook, Word – all to complete one small job.

Because the different platforms all have unique user interfaces, purposes and layouts, the cognitive effect can be significant. The Harvard Business Review calls it “context switching”, and notes: “Psychology and neuroscience have shown that…even switching or toggling between two applications increases the brain’s production of cortisol (the primary stress hormone), slows us down, and makes it harder to focus.” There is no easy way around context-switching in a modern office environment. But making sure your practice’s workflows are as efficient and user-friendly as possible – with modern, intuitive software and integrated I.T. systems – can help lessen the stress.

Prioritise ‘useful hours’ over ‘visible hours’

Equity partners have undoubtedly experienced ‘responsibility-creep’ in the last few years. The need to manage costs, hold onto business, hire associates, develop relationships with clients and stakeholders, and generate billable hours increasingly fall under the aegis of the equity partner, as well as the usual responsibilities of counselling, research, and analysis.

Since the pandemic, there is an additional expectation for senior partners to be ‘visible’ – in other words, to be contactable outside office hours. There has been plenty of discussion about the tendency for hybrid working styles to blur the lines between our personal and professional lives, but for senior partners – who are managing a complex, high-pressure, ever-expanding set of responsibilities – it can have a significant impact on productivity. Partner roles are time-consuming and mentally draining; proper downtime must be available to ensure your team are working at maximum ability. Again, a switchboard outsourcing service can be an ally here – you can rest assured that professional, trained representatives for your firm are available for out-of-hours call handling, so your senior partners don’t feel like they’re always on call.

Keep your equity partners focussed on the most profitable work

Gone are the days when legal professionals could rely on access to secretarial staff to help out with admin and errands. Legal secretaries have been declining since 2001, and research for the Law Society suggests between 13,000 and 35,000 legal roles will be lost in the next decade, with legal secretaries being the hardest hit.

With so many software packages and personal devices to help with self-management – from productivity suites to instant communication to the notes and voice-recording functions on our phones – there is arguably less justification to keep extensive secretarial staff on payroll. But every small errand – from picking up lunch to fielding calls to taking down notes – is time that a partner isn’t spending on specialist work. The more time they’re able to allocate for tasks that can’t be delegated, the more value they provide for the firm. This is where a switchboard can really prove useful – you can protect your partners from responsibility-creep. No more fielding cold calls, responding to progress update requests from clients, or following up on voice messages. Your switchboard team can triage inbound calls according to importance, so your partners are always focussed on chargeable work – not admin.

Looking for a switchboard solution? Here’s how ComXo can help

Why not talk to our team about how we can support your firm to boost productivity.

How to deliver world-class client experiences

Written by

Amanda

3rd October, 2023

Agile Working
Client Experience
Outsourcing

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority there are 9,465 solicitors offices in the UK, of which 71% are incorporated companies or LLPs. The UK legal market is one of the largest in the world, with the majority of prominent global law firms maintaining London offices, alongside prestigious Magic Circle firms.

While there are definitely benefits to being part of an ecosystem of world-class firms – from market stability to regulatory relationships to innovation – it’s undeniable that competition is stiff. Since the rapid digital transformations of the pandemic years, law firms must contend with changing client expectations, the demand for higher productivity and growing competition. In a competitive marketplace, client loyalty isn’t a given – so how can companies make sure clients keep coming back, or better still, that they refer your services to their contacts?

Defining outstanding client experiences

Law firms have a commercial imperative to deliver the best client experience possible. Of course, nobody sets out to provide bad customer experiences – so what are the key factors that define excellent service? How do you make sure you’re keeping clients happy and giving them what they’re looking for?

Here’s a few ways you can be sure you’re delivering the best possible service for your clients.

First impressions matter

Great customer service is all about attention. When new clients walk through the door of your offices, they’re often greeted by a receptionist, and subtly reassured by the professionalism of their surroundings. But how can you replicate that experience in a post-pandemic world, when many first impressions will be via telephone or email? Every point of contact could be your client’s first impression of your practice. You wouldn’t dream of leaving a client waiting in your reception area – nor should they be left on hold for long periods, or being passed around between departments, or having their calls ring out. Attention to every client – whether they contact your business in person, via phone, or by another channel – should be prompt, professional and consistent.

Clear communication

People don’t usually turn to law firms unless they have a problem – something that could be affecting their relationship, their livelihood, their business operations, or even their freedom. Whether your client is a legal department or an individual, it’s important that they receive regular updates, and that any potential issues are flagged in advance. Good business communication is both proactive and reactive, of course – as well as providing updates, you need to be ready to receive and return client calls and emails when they ask for an update. That means ensuring you have enough resource to take calls and return messages. Some legal firms even use outsourced switchboard services to make sure there’s always someone there to pick up the phone, even during busy periods or out of hours.

People value the personal touch

There is a time and a place for self-service portals. Few clients prefer to wait on the phone to find information they could access much more quickly online, or to provide a piece of documentation they could easily upload via your website. In other words, self-service is great for efficiency. But many of your potential clients will be seeking assistance for complex, urgent, or personal matters. Your team must be ready to demonstrate understanding, empathy and professionalism when assisting with difficult cases, and that means ensuring clients can always get through to a real human – someone who can instil a sense of confidence and reassure them of your ongoing support. Leaving them chasing an elusive team member when they need an urgent update is unlikely to leave a favourable impression.

Success can – and should – be measured

When a customer calls you, their experience on the phone can be measured in terms of “call quality”. High-quality calls are polite, professional, prompt, personable, and problem-solving (although every business might have its own KPIs). The quality of calls matters. Historical research suggests that 50% of clients consider “poor communication” a key source of dissatisfaction in their working relationship. Research from the 2019 Legal Trends report bears this out, finding that responsiveness has a “strong impact” on a client’s decision to hire a firm, and that while 79% of clients expect a response within 24 hours, most law firms fall “far below” these expectations. Responsiveness has an impact on a firm’s Net Promoter Score, too. In today’s competitive commercial environment, poor communication standards can easily mean losing a referral, or even a client’s business, to a more attentive competitor.

Your firm can benefit from monitoring the quality of your calls and implementing Service Level Agreements to ensure that customers who try to reach you on the phone always have the best possible experience – getting through to you quickly and receiving a high standard of service when they do.

Setting yourself up for success

Using an outsourced switchboard service to unify communications across your business can benefit you in a number of different ways. From ensuring there’s always a human available when they pick up the phone – even out of hours – to helping you communicate case progress to managing high call-loads professionally and empathetically, the right switchboard solution provides the attention to detail that defines truly outstanding service. In a competitive market – where a missed call could mean another client for your competitor – a central switchboard team that understands your business could be the difference between unsatisfactory and outstanding in your client’s eyes.

How ComXo can help

ComXo are industry-leaders in transformational switchboard and business support services, committed to redefining the switchboard for law firms. With a combination of technology and great people, we aim to help you deliver exceptional experiences during every call and communication you receive. Our 24-hour switchboard service offers industry-leading service-level agreements – 95% of our inbound call traffic is answered within 3 rings. We act as an extension of your team to provide knowledegable, empathetic and professional service from a real human. Ideal for making a perfect first impression.

Talk to our tea m today about how our specialist service can enhance your client experience.

Why call data should be every legal firm’s secret weapon

Written by

Amanda

3rd October, 2023

Data
Outsourcing
Productivity

It’s no secret that LegalTech generates a lot of excitement and conversation for law firms looking to gain a commercial edge in a competitive market. By some estimates, as many as 50% of UK law companies are already using some form of AI, according to Oxford University research. But before you start considering swapping out paralegals for ChatGPT, or another ‘silver bullet’ technology, are you confident you’re making the most of your existing tech – like capturing in-bound call data?

If you want to gather more valuable insights, make better-informed strategic decisions and enhance overall customer experience, you definitely shouldn’t overlook the value of a powerful outsourced switchboard service. The right switchboard technology can help your business identify areas for growth, maximise your efficiency, and generate more leads – as well as ensuring a seamless experience for your callers.

Here’s how to use your call data to your advantage and help stand out in a competitive commercial landscape.

Inbound call data helps YOU make better calls

When making decisions for your business, it goes without saying that you want as much information as possible to help decide the right course of action. The more information you have access to, the more you’re able to focus on the important aspects of strategic decision-making – risk assessment, precedent analysis, resource allocation.

Inbound call data tells you more than you might think: where and when do you field most of your new business calls? How do customers and suppliers feel about contacting your office? How productive are your teams in terms of handling inbound calls? How much of your new business comes from cold calls, versus warm leads or referrals? What’s your overall call volume, and are you staffed for out of hours call handling? (Our data shows that 6.7% of calls to legal firms come in outside of standard office hours.) Data drives decisions, so it’s prudent to harness as much of it as possible.

It also makes measuring your marketing much easier

Offline marketing activity can be difficult to measure. But monitoring your inbound calls can help get a better understanding of your campaign’s ROI. By performing conversion tracking and cost analysis on your call data, you can attain a more granular understanding and more control over your marketing activity, letting you fine-tune your marketing for maximum impact and efficiency.

Phone is still the most popular channel for UK consumers

According to Capterra, the majority of UK customers (42%) generally prefer to get in touch with companies by phone. And while that figure is likely to vary across specialised industries, it does underline the fact that most people, when they have a problem that needs solving, want to speak to a real person about it – often urgently.

Calls may be emotionally complex – for example, a call from a potential client who needs to draft a loved one’s will requires a high level of empathy and understanding from the receiver. Giving customers a positive initial impression of your company – including quickly getting through to a real person – is an important first step. Monitoring and analysing how calls come into your business, how well they’re handled, how often they go to the right place, and how satisfied your clients and customers feel afterwards is vital if you’re going to provide continuous improvement to your customer experience metrics. As well as benefitting your business in other ways, such as…

Helping you prepare for busy periods

Unsurprisingly, most businesses want to be sure that they’re allocating their teams correctly, especially during busy periods when finding spare resource can be difficult. And the modern challenges of remote work and hybrid working have added even more complexity to firms’ resource management ability. Analysing call data helps you clearly understand the ebb and flow of your resource requirements. Especially in larger firms, it can be difficult to co-ordinate resource management across departments without having data to describe fluctuations in demand.

The last thing a business wants is to find that the majority of lead-bearing client calls tend to arrive on, for example, a Thursday afternoon during a weekly team meeting, or that a significant portion of calls come in after 6pm on a Friday, when there are fewer staff to help them. Monitoring your call data to find out who contacts you and when will help you know what to expect and how to prepare for the true volume of calls you receive – and helps guarantee a seamless experience for callers.

Allowing you to break down your time more accurately

How much of your firm’s time is spent paying invoices? Or on the phone to suppliers? Or soliciting new business? You may have a time management system in place already, like Clio or ProLaw, but with hybrid offices making things more complicated, it’s helpful to have as much hard data as possible to underwrite the accuracy of your time-tracking. Inbound call data allows you to get clearer breakdowns of how time is being spent across departments. You can use it to get accurate, granular breakdowns of how your teams operate, in order to encourage efficiency and improve overall time management.

Adapting and adjusting your business strategy

Of course, business strategy must adapt to meet changing customer needs, fluctuations in demand, and shifting market conditions. And inbound data provides various valuable indicators that can help inform the best direction for your strategy. For example, call data allows you to monitor the types of enquiry you’re receiving, and in what volume compared to previous quarters. If you need to reallocate resource, make new hires or even make large decisions such as rebranding or developing a new product or service, your call data can provide a useful bellwether for changing customer demand.

Driving change internally

Organisation-wide changes can be hard to implement, especially for larger firms. Since it requires the buy-in of numerous senior stakeholders, it can be difficult for teams to prove the business value of a proposal in a way that gains real traction. Measuring and analysing your call data can help you source the hard data you need to back up your case – making it easier to present findings to senior management.

Staying on top of potential new business leads

Letting phone calls go to voicemail isn’t just bad customer experience – it’s potentially letting new business leads fall through your fingertips at the same time. Even if you’re diligent about returning messages, potential clients have many options available to them and could easily have contacted a competitor before you have the chance to get back to them. With an outsourced switchboard service you can be confident that someone is on hand at all times to field calls, so you never miss a lead.

How ComXo can help

ComXo are industry-leaders in transformational switchboard and business support services, committed to redefining the switchboard for law firms. With a combination of technology and great people, we aim to help you deliver exceptional experiences during every call and communication you receive. We provide innovative 24-hour switchboard services to deliver outstanding customer experience, as well as automatically monitoring inbound call data to generate detailed strategic intelligence for your business. Switchboard data is the key to unlocking continuous improvement across your whole business – from helping you identify efficiencies to boosting new business to analysing customer experience to giving you the data you need to make informed decisions.