One solicitor, one phone, twenty calls a day
AB Immigration Solicitors is a Scottish regulated firm built around immigration work: visas, settlement, nationality, leave to remain, family reunion and sponsor licences. Unusually for a law firm, almost everything is offered as a fixed-fee package that clients can book and pay for directly on the website.
Alexander runs the firm on his own, and for a long time he answered every call himself. With around twenty calls a day, that meant constant interruptions to the work only he can do: research, drafting and tribunal preparation. Voicemail was no better, since callers rarely left a message worth returning and the ones who did still had to be chased. On top of that, a large share of the calls were never going to become paying clients, being people after free advice rather than a paid service.
Why he chose Cyberstaff
Alexander struggled to find a service that fit. He tried a few options from overseas, but they felt too generic and were not built for a UK law firm. Others he looked at were slow to sign up for, with pricing that was hard to pin down before committing.
Cyberstaff was different. He could register by email and start on a free trial straight away, the pricing was clear, and it worked out cheaper. What sold him was the interface: every call is recorded, and he can see at a glance who called and whether there is real business in the call. It is a world away from a normal answering machine.
A buffer that never clocks off
Every call now goes to the AI Receptionist first. Alexander has kept human transfer switched off on purpose, so the phone never pulls him off a case. The Receptionist greets each caller, works out what they need, and for genuine enquiries sends a link to book an appointment or buy the right fixed-fee package.
Just as importantly, it handles the calls that are not a fit. Where a caller is really only after free advice, the Receptionist stays polite, consistent and clear: this is a paid service, and here is how to book. Alexander reviews the call summaries and follows up on the ones with value, so his attention only goes where it is worth going.
Half the calls, none of the interruptions
Across a typical month, AB Immigration Solicitors takes around 30 to 50 bookings through the website and the Receptionist combined, with roughly half of all calls converting into a booking or a package. For a firm that leans on fixed-fee work, that is a steady flow of the right kind of enquiry, handled without him ever lifting the phone.
The cost comparison is stark. A human receptionist would cost the firm at least £25,000 a year, before cover for holidays and sick days. The AI Receptionist runs for a small fraction of that, around 90% less, and it is on every hour the firm is open. As Alexander sees it, the real return is time: hours handed back to legal research, drafting and preparing for tribunal hearings.