Smith.ai

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

In addition to PPC advertising and Search Optimization, in March of 2020 we began providing website chat to help drive new prospective clients to engage with our client's family law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

Our client was already making substantial investments with search optimization and PPC advertising and was hesitant to take on new recurring costs. The free trial and easy to install chat software made Smith.AI's services much easier to demonstrate their value.

What were your goals for this project?

Initially, we wanted to show that we could drive more prospective law firm clients to the business but it turned out to be a real eye-opener about how the firm wasn't addressing the evening and weekend questions they could get when visitors to their website were ready to talk about their problems.

SOLUTION

How did you select Smith.ai?

We were looking for a low-cost chat solution that could also connect to our client's CLIO billing and client service.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The project was a dream to implement. In total we spent about four hours configuring the service, working with the law firm's staff to develop around 200 most commonly asked questions to load into the Smith.AI chat system. Then we added this new communication channel to their new lead pipeline processes. From there we monitor the questions that come in each month and ad any answers the chat AI was not able to answer.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, web developer (hardly needed IMO), and law firm manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The law firm is averaging over 50 additional prospective client engagements a month. Primarily late night and weekend inquiries. Not only does this show that the firm is interested in helping answer questions but we have tracked the results and they are impressive: - a 70% consultation bookings from chat inquiries - an 8% new client sign-up rate from chat initiated consultations

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There was minimum interaction because they really go out of their way to make the process clear and easy to implement. The services website backend has lots of tooltips and how-to guides to help you along the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Smith.AI understands this is a service and one that just needs to work. There is little you will need to be successful other than follow their hand-to-glove setup process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at the moment though we are encouraging our law firm client to upgrade to the human answered reception services to help firm website visitors to book appointments at night and weekends when the office is closed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a criminal defense practice in Central Texas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

I hired Smith.ai for receptionist services with my firm. This included screening calls, transcribing messages to email, and returning calls from clients if necessary.

What were your goals for this project?

My goal was to alleviate the pressures of answering phone calls throughout the day as a solo practitioner.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected Smith based upon their custom pricing, services offered, and responsiveness of management to my needs.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involves fielding and screening potential new clients as well as taking messages for current clients.

What was the team composition?

The team seems to be rotating but they also have Spanish speakers on staff which is crucial in my location and practice area.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Smith's associates rarely make mistakes screening calls. In the off chance that they do, they remedy it immediately.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I can't say enough good things about Smith. They've helped take a huge burden off my shoulders and keep me organized.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I've found most impressive that they are constantly adapting and adding new services/features. This is especially true because I've been with them for 4 years and have seen their evolution. Their growth and evolution have not gotten in the way of customer service. I never feel forgotten about or ignored.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Occasionally calls are improperly screened (meaning they are referred elsewhere). I'd say this is 1/100 times.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Partner at a small law firm with 3 attorneys and 4 support staff.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

Needed after-hours and overflow call services for our law firm and our clients and new prospective clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Provide clients and prospective clients the ability to talk to a live person, with knowledge of our business and practice areas, after normal business hours; to give a more personal feel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral from a tech company we use for our website and blog spot, Tiny Frog Technologies -- highly recommend them as well.

Describe the project in detail.

Smith.ia provides us phone coverage 24/7 for our clients and prospective clients. Live person answering our phones 24/7 with a detailed email message from the call. Very effective.

What was the team composition?

Smith.ia has dedicated teams that picks up our call beyond our normal business hours 24/7. Clients like the idea of scheduling appointments at all hours of the night and weekends -- prospective client like talking to a real person as well at any time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Senior Account Rep called me on a Sunday, yes a Sunday!, to walk me thru how to make the changes I needed but could not figure out how to do in their self service client site. Unexpected but very happy about it, great service. Very positive feedback from my client as to professionalism on Smith.ia telephone calls. Smith.ia moved to 24/7 phone coverage. Smith.ia Reps knowledgable about the legal services we offer and those we do not.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Incredibly effective; in fact, I wrote a panicked email over the weekend that was outside Smith.ai's normal business hours. I needed to change some call routing on the fly over a weekend. I figured I'd have to wait until Monday morning but a Smith.ai Senior Account Rep called me on a Sunday, yes a Sunday!, to walk me thru how to make the changes I needed. It was her day off and she was heading to a family cookout! Now that's service! We are very happy with Smith.ai.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their service, cost, and ease of use impressed us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Frankly, none come to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Attorney of a compassionate and dedicated Texas family, criminal, and car wreck law firm that cares deeply about Austin and San Antonio’s communities and the people living in them. We are dedicated to providing each case with the quality attention it deserves. We are professional, accessible, and prepared.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

I hired Smith.ai to serve as a virtual receptionist for my law firm to help with overflow calls.

What were your goals for this project?

The project is ongoing. I desire to answer calls from potential new clients 24/7 and to have outstanding customer service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I heard about this company from colleagues who used their service. I also compared this company to other answering services.

Describe the project in detail.

The project is ongoing. I desire to answer calls from potential new clients 24/7 and to have outstanding customer service.

What was the team composition?

They have multiple staff members who are available to assist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Smith.ai helps with my firm's customer service and intake process. We never miss a call because of them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They assigned me an account manager who is very knowledgeable and helpful.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Smith.ai is very professional and thorough.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the attorney/owner of a small law firm, Law Office of Jeanette Mora, P.A. in the Central Florida region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

Virtual Receptionist Services

What were your goals for this project?

Reduce calls to me directly, increase consultations on the calendar and have more efficient time management.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They answer all my calls, no call is ever missed. They schedule consultations on my calendar and forward messages to my email with pertinent relevant details.

Describe the project in detail.

Virtual receptionist services - answer calls, take messages, send messages to the attorney, schedule consultations, etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within a week my business efficiency has greatly improved.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective and very communicative.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their professionalism set them apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a law firm in Austin, Texas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

I hired Smith.ai for call reception services, and intake help for potential customers.

What were your goals for this project?

To have consistency for clients, to make sure all calls were being answered, and to weed out non-customers before scheduling potential quality leads for consultations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I did several trials with reception companies, had many phone calls, conducted research, and did price comparisons. After a 7 day trial with Smith.ai, I decided to give them my business.

Describe the project in detail.

Smith.ai takes on over 100 calls from potential and existing customers per month for my law firm. They just switched to 24 hour phone service, and when they are on the calls, they follow detailed notes of instructions I have provided for them to follow when talking with and choosing to reject, schedule or transfer the call. They are very detailed, and consistent, and they make my business look good.

What was the team composition?

There are countless people on the other side of this, they have a pool of employees that answer phones. I think naturally, their team has grown over time, because my phones are always getting answered, despite my call volume doubling over time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Aside from the above (doubling of my call volume with no issues for Smith.ai), I have seen many improvements and features added to the service over the years, like 24 hour call answering, chat boxes, intake services, etc.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Highly. The services are linked together from their computer system to mine, and its a seamless integration!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their desire to continue improving services and work with customers to make plans that fit impressed us

Are there any areas for improvement?

On occasion, the calls are answered after several rings, but this is a very minor issue, considering the massive benefits I am receiving.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a solo defense attorney at my own law office.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

Virtual telephone reception.

What were your goals for this project?

Competent, affordable answering service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A colleague referred me. They seemed affordable and flexible without a long-term commitment.

Describe the project in detail.

I pay them to answer incoming calls. They take messages and/or forward the calls.

What was the team composition?

Smith.ai has various personnel who answer the calls for me.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I've been with Smith.ai for about a year now and I'm really impressed with them. I have been a solo attorney for nearly 20 years and never trusted anyone to answer my phones but me. But after missing some new client calls over the years, I got a recommendation to try Smith.ai.

First of all, the set up was very easy. I had someone from Smith.ai that personally worked with me directly to tailor everything about how the calls are answered, whether they are forwarded and even what exactly to say to the caller depending on whether they were new clients, returning clients, attorneys, courts, telemarketers, etc.

They can do the set-up meeting in-person, virtual or over the phone. They can also access my calendar to set-up meetings for me if I want them to. Also, they can adjust their forwarding and answering depending the day, time, weekends, holidays, etc. Things can even be adjusted on the fly by email, call, or even text. Really flexible and convenient. I've also been really impressed with the quality of the answering.

The person forwarding the call to me is polite, professional and well-spoken and gets the message across effectively. They will even relay a message back to the caller if I can't take a call. Then they immediately email or text me the caller's information including name, phone number, email address, message, etc., depending on what I ask them to get from the caller.

Any time I've had to make changes or had questions, they immediately respond to me by phone and/or email. Finally, they are extremely affordable for an answering service. I have attorney colleagues that pay much more for less personal and professional service.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very easy to reach them by phone or email. They respond quickly if I can't reach them directly by phone or email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have personal and direct service tailored to my specific demands for handling incoming callers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

On rare occasion when they have a heavy call volume, it takes several minutes to get the email and text with the callers information. That's not much to complain about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of small financial planning practice. One of my struggles was making sure prospect phone calls were answers and appointments were set. I was worried that I was losing out on appointments from new prospects not leaving a voicemail.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

My primary concern was making sure my phone is always answered.

What were your goals for this project?

My goal was to increase new business by making more appointments out of the incoming calls my firm receives. I do not receive a lot of inbound calls and losing new prospects to voicemail is not an option.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I did Google searches and asked for referrals. I went with Smith.AI because I felt their pricing was the most beneficial for my small company that does not receive a lot of calls each month.

Describe the project in detail.

I have coverage during my working hours, plus evenings and weekends. Smith.ai answers call schedules appointments, and even makes outbound calls when I need them to. They also filter out sales call which is very helpful by not taking me away from important work. This is especially important because I know I am not missing out on business when I cannot answer the phone.

What was the team composition?

I do not know how many people they have, but there is never a complaint.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Smith.ai has consistently scheduled appointments and been professional with everyone calling. Most callers do not even know they are a virtual assistant.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow has been better than expected. All calls are logged directly into my CRM where I have automatic workflos set up for followup.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I most love that my clients do not even realize they are a virtual company until I mention it. It's awesome that they treat my clients that great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The biggest complaint I had was the lack of a dashboard, but recently they have added a dashboard for me to see my statistics.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own and operate a recording studio in Saint Paul, MN.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

Call answering services.

What were your goals for this project?

Until now, most of our phone calls went unanswered because we didn't have the resources available. I work one-on-one with customers most of the time, so I can't answer the phone regularly. I needed a service that could reliably answer calls for our studio so that we weren't missing out on potential projects.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I spent several days interviewing various call answering companies and selected Smith.Ai based on their pricing, their professionalism, and the fact that they include a basic chatbot for free!

Describe the project in detail.

They're able to book appointments for our customers, schedule consultations for leads, and answer the basic questions that almost everyone asks when they call.

What was the team composition?

From what I understand, they have a network of receptionists that each work from a dedicated home office. When our customers call, the call logs show many different receptionist names. I'm not sure how large their team is. However, they all seem very well trained.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since hiring them, we haven't missed a single call during Smith.Ai's operating hours (which is most of the day). It's amazing! They integrated their system with our CRM and now we see a short summary of every single call right on each customer's profile so we can pick up the conversation right where it left off.

Now we're capturing at least twice as many leads as we would have previously, and their professionalism is astounding! I even posed as a customer one time and called our studio to see how they would handle some difficult questions. The receptionist didn't have answers for everything (which I expected), but she was honest with me and even treated me with a better customer service attitude than I would have treated a caller.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Incredible. Their info flows right into our CRM so we don't miss anything. When I need changes to the call handling workflow, I email them the requested changes, and they promptly adjust.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I want to stress how outstanding their professionalism is. Their receptionists are trained to answer calls for law firms, so their professionalism far exceeds the standard that our industry requires. However, I love the first impression that we give now.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The best part about all of this is that I know that I don't have to worry about answering the phone any more. I feel at-ease knowing that the Smith.Ai team is going to handle it well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an attorney and the founding member. Our main practice area is Personal Injury including, motor vehicle and pedestrian accidents, slip and fall accidents, premises liability, negligent security, animal bites, and wrongful death.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smith.ai?

We needed professional support to answer our phone calls during office hours so that we would no longer miss calls and new leads, and did not have to hire a full time receptionist.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted callers to be able to speak to a live person so that we would not miss calls and new leads where the callers would hang up and not leave a voicemail.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I first reached out to my colleagues on various legal industry listservs. Smith.ai came very highly recommended by my colleagues. I then researched each vendor on their website and then reached out to Smith.ai via their website.

Describe the project in detail.

Our phones are now answered by the virtual receptionist during our office hours 8 am - 6 pm. The receptionist takes basic information, such as name, address, and phone number, takes a message, transcribes the message and I am sent an email and a text message with the details. Instead of paying a full time receptionist upwards of $25,000 per year, for my call volume, I am only paying $3,000 per year for the virtual receptionist.

What was the team composition?

They have a staff that rotates by call so there are no dedicated staff designated for my business, but while I would prefer to have dedicated staff, I have not noticed any drawbacks to the rotation, and no clients or colleagues have ever commented or complained.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Having my phones answered saves me an enormous amount of time and the best part is that I no longer have to worry about missing calls from clients or missing calls from new leads.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I have a dedicated account manager that I meet with quarterly. But any requests that I have that come up are handled by the support staff. They normally respond to my emails/texts within a few minutes, but not more than an hour.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

This is a very professional company that works hard to satisfy its clients needs. They are always willing to initiate changes to my instructions and these requests can usually be handled simply by sending an email which is another huge time saver for me.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are doing a great job. I only wish they integrated with my practice management software, MyCase. But that's not a deal breaker for me.