A virtual receptionist for law firms that knows the matter before it answers

A person who answers for dozens of businesses from a script, usually billed per call or per minute, with an email or a text as the record. This is an answering service under another name, and the guide on AI receptionist versus answering service sets out how the cost changes as the calls do.

A receptionist employed or contracted to your firm alone, working from home, on a salary or a retainer. The best version of this is a good receptionist. It is also the most expensive, it covers the hours one person can, and the firm still has to work out what happens to the calls at 7pm.

LEX Phone is this kind, and the software is QRYSTEL intelligenceQRYSTELintelligence. It answers in the firm's name, works from the firm's services, hours and rules, and files the record itself. It is automated, and it says so to every caller. What follows is what it has to do to earn the word receptionist rather than just the word virtual.

Not the fourth ring, not voicemail after six. The greeting carries your firm's name, the hours and services are yours, and the caller is told at the start that the call is transcribed. It picks up at 2am and it picks up when three people ring at once.

A number match greets an existing client by name. A new caller is asked what the call is about, in plain words, and the answer decides what happens next. Nothing about a matter is discussed with anyone whose identity has not been verified.

In Screen mode, cold callers, lead sellers and wrong numbers stop at the desk and never ring your phone. They are not filed, because a record of a marketing call is clutter on a matter. Genuine callers go through.

A receptionist at a desk says "it's Priya Sharma about Friday's hearing" before transferring. LEX Phone puts the contact, the matter and the last thing they said to you on your screen before you answer, and in Screen mode adds a one-line summary of what this call is about.

A consult goes into the Smokeball calendar linked to the matter, if you allow bookings. Otherwise the receptionist takes a call back time that suits the caller, and it becomes a task on the matter for the lawyer responsible, due in the business days you choose.

This is the part a front desk rarely does well, because the phone is ringing again. Every call becomes a summary and a transcript on the matter in Smokeball, or in your SharePoint library under the contact, with Clio in development. The note is written by the time you look at your phone.