Any answering service, human or AI, can answer the phone. What turns that answer into an outcome is knowing who's calling and what to do next.

Your receptionist should know who's calling within the first few seconds, especially after the caller explains why they're calling. When that doesn’t happen, the caller feels it right away: they’re forced to repeat themselves or get stuck in a loop as they're routed to the wrong team. For a court clerk, an insurance adjuster, or opposing counsel, that’s bound to leave a bad impression.

Smith.ai’s receptionists use a taxonomy of who calls a law firm, going beyond new and existing clients to the many other callers who help you win cases and keep the firm running — each caller is handled and routed exactly how your firm needs.

Trained on thousands of law firm calls

Our live agent network of 500+ North American agents, many of them former paralegals and court staff, has answered and triaged all types of callers for over 5,000 firms. That's the expertise behind every caller type built into our solutions.

Smith.ai now offers legal-specific caller types with your AI Receptionist, available for your firm to configure from day one. They're on by default, not a customization you have to request: the four standard types our AI Receptionist has always recognized (potential new client, existing client, sales, and spam) are joined by six more built for law firms. Here's how a law firm might set each one up, though you can configure every caller type to fit how your firm actually works:

Ten caller types in total: four standard, six built for law firms, each one recognized and handled the way your firm decides.

Tailored to your firm

Knowing the caller type only matters if you decide what happens next. Every caller type is on by default, and you configure each one yourself, right in your dashboard:

• Who is it routed to? Route each type to your AI Receptionist or a live agent, with a warm transfer so the caller never has to repeat themselves
• What are they asked? Choose which questions the caller gets asked and which ones are skipped entirely
• What is the outcome of the call? Take a message, schedule an appointment, or transfer to an attorney or team member

You can also add up to three custom fields, labeled however your firm needs them.

No support ticket, no waiting on a custom build. Easily change the caller types you need, and they go live immediately.

Every call matters

A law firm's calls carry real stakes: a court reaching out about a hearing date change, another firm calling about a shared case, an adjuster tied to a claim you're handling. Get any of them wrong, and a call lands in the wrong place, the firm looks unresponsive, and information gets delayed when it matters most.

That's why caller type identification comes built into AI Receptionist, by default. Every one of those calls gets quickly answered and accurately triaged based on your firm’s instructions.

A generic AI answering service treats every call the same. Yours doesn't have to.

Caller Type Identification is now available for all AI Receptionist customers, including those on the Free Plan.

Try it yourself. 25 calls a month, free, full product quality from the first call. Get started with the Free plan. Or connect with our sales team to learn more.