Should conveyancers be open after 5pm or at weekends?

timmyt

Two points:

1.Is the above important to you, or is it a red herring and a trick to make you think you are getting better service than actually can be delievered - because most lawyers close at 5pm so no business can be transacted anyway - and banks are closed to be able t transfer any money.

2. Would you chose a lawyer who had a website you could see your transaction progress on, or would you think that they are trying to avoid regular personal updates and receipt of your calls by fobbing you off to a remote website?

Feedback from the public is useful.

PasturesNew

1. It's just a marketing ploy .... their conveyancers could easily be in an indian call centre too....

2. I'd be intrigued enough to enquire of their prices, so it is a good marketing USP.

MissMotivation

Feedback from clients is that they are frustrated at not being able to speak to a Solicitor after 5pm, especially if they can't make calls during the day. It's irrelevant whether banks or other Solicitors are open after 5pm and on weekends or not.......your client is paying your wages so you should be available to speak to them when they need to speak to you. How many threads do you see on here from people who need urgent advice and can't get in touch with their Solicitor??

G_M

This is a moneysaving forum - not a market research forum.

If you want to improve your conveyancing business, employ a market research company.

timmyt

G_M wrote: »

This is a moneysaving forum - not a market research forum.

If you want to improve your conveyancing business, employ a market research company.

Thanks for adopting the forum moderator's role GM and controlling content

timmyt

MissMotivation wrote: »

Feedback from clients is that they are frustrated at not being able to speak to a Solicitor after 5pm, especially if they can't make calls during the day. It's irrelevant whether banks or other Solicitors are open after 5pm and on weekends or not.......your client is paying your wages so you should be available to speak to them when they need to speak to you. How many threads do you see on here from people who need urgent advice and can't get in touch with their Solicitor??

bit like doctors, dentists, Council staff, gosh any High Street store.

I suppose we could charge extra for the increased availability - as more hours of employment means higher overheads?

or I guess we could just make the point that they knew the hours when they signed up, and if we see a drop off in business because we are closed we can open up.

or we open up so we offer something our competitors do not....now that could be value for money!

puddy

well this leads into the bigger question of how consumers are treated by companies with regards to deliveries and services.

i am SICK of having to expect a delivery 'any time' (ie, i have ordered something but it will just arrive whenever) or at best 'any time between 7am and 8pm' and it either means more money to deliver on a saturday or i have to take a day off work.

most people in this country who have jobs, generally work 9-5 on weekdays, yes some work shifts, some work nights, some work at weekends, but generally people work in the day on weekdays

so deliveries should be able to be made outside those times, for no extra charge

Jowo_2

1. I'm not bothered if the conveyancing solicitor can't be contacted out of office hour, its more important to me that they don't ignore my communications and respond back in a timely way during office hours. There's certainly work that they can undertake outside of office hours but I don't need to get hold of them at night or weekends. If there is an emergency then the chances are the other parties solicitors, the bank or the council, for example, aren't going to be available then to sort it out.

2. I think an online status checker is a fantastic idea, its a great way of checking progress without wasting time by chasing up to find out where we are in the process. The one I've used before also kept an audit trail of queries I raised and their responses so all information is in one place rather than scattered across voicemail messages and emails and letters.

Fire_Fox

timmyt wrote: »

Thanks for adopting the forum moderator's role GM and controlling content

IMPORTANT! This forum isn't moderated.
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'House Buying, Renting & Selling' is a designated advice board, why are you not using 'Discussion Time' or 'Debate House Prices, the Economy & Recession'??

MissMotivation

timmyt wrote: »

bit like doctors, dentists, Council staff, gosh any High Street store.

I suppose we could charge extra for the increased availability - as more hours of employment means higher overheads?

or I guess we could just make the point that they knew the hours when they signed up, and if we see a drop off in business because we are closed we can open up.

or we open up so we offer something our competitors do not....now that could be value for money!

So regardless of what the public would like, you don't see why you should remain open after 5pm because the local Council staff don't !?!

In a service industry the Companies that succeed are those that listen to what the Customer wants.

You asked a question and didn't like my answer.....fair enough!

timmyt

MissMotivation wrote: »

So regardless of what the public would like, you don't see why you should remain open after 5pm because the local Council staff don't !?!

In a service industry the Companies that succeed are those that listen to what the Customer wants.

You asked a question and didn't like my answer.....fair enough!

just questioning it.

the public surveyed say no real reason to be open after 5pm - well 6pm in our case - as they have lives in the evening and have no call for a lawyer...mostly because we keep them updated during the day like proper lawyers should.

most clients have no trouble emailing during their office time, so outside hours is it going to be that urgent it cannot wait until your lawyer has had their sleep. we give a nominated individual to a client, not a conveyor belt.

otherwise you will end up with a human who will be there on the other end at all hours who says 'the screen says...' which - yes your business should take a whole bunch of blame for this - estate agents have in large part caused by referring out to factory conveyor belt firms in return for big cashback payouts.

not to mention higher charges as more hours of employment are needed.

then again I stay until 7pm and all my clients know, but I never get called as I keep them informed during working hours.