Want your legal practice to operate more smoothly?
Small law firms are at a crossroads. They require enterprise-grade security and professionalism… but not an enterprise-level budget to match.
Luckily, there’s a happy medium.
Professional email hosting services allow small law firms to have their cake and eat it too. Your legal practice can compete with big firm resources while keeping client data secure.
It’s also easier to set up than you think.
Here’s everything we’ll cover:
- Why Legal Practices Should Use Professional Email
- The Real Costs of Using Free Email
- Important features to look for
- How to Select the Right Email Hosting Provider
- How to Set Up Email Hosting
Why Legal Practices Should Use Professional Email
Spoiler alert: …a Gmail or Yahoo email address isn’t it.
Clients pick up on these things. When you want your clients to trust you with their lives, first impressions are important.
But there’s a much more pressing reason.
Legal practices deal with sensitive data every day. From client records and case documents to confidential emails, you have a lot of important information flowing through your inbox. In fact, according to research by Embroker, up to 40% of law firms will experience a cyber security breach.
Yikes.
Professional email hosting services were made to help with these exact problems. By taking advantage of the email hosting Singapore providers offer, law firms receive enterprise level encryption, spam filtering, and security measures that free services don’t offer.
Here are a few more to consider:
- Client confidentiality is required by law
- Data breaches can ruin your firm’s reputation in an instant
- Regulatory compliance means you have to handle data correctly
Free email services weren’t built with lawyers in mind.
The Real Cost of Using Free Email
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Legal professionals get lured in by free email because who doesn’t love free things? But the catch is these “free” services come at many hidden costs.
You’ll quickly run out of storage. Emails will be deleted or lost.
You’ll experience downtimes. You might miss important client emails.
You’ll have no customer support. Issues will take longer to fix.
…Did we mention security risks?
According to ABA statistics, law firms account for 29% of businesses who’ve suffered a security breach. What’s more, nearly 50% of breaches were made through email.
Free email services usually don’t provide:
- Encryption on email attachments
- Sophisticated spam and phishing filters
- Professional email addresses (@yourdomain.com)
- Reliable customer support
- Compliance you need for legal industry regulations
When that “free” email account causes a data breach or costs you a client, it’s no longer free.
Features You Shouldn’t Live Without
Professional email providers aren’t all created equal.
When searching for the perfect email provider for your small law firm, keep these features in mind. Your time and client information depend on it.
Must-have Security Features
When trusting an email host with client data, security should be your number one concern. Ensure your host has:
- SSL / TLS encryption
- Two-factor authentication
- Anti-virus and anti-malware scanning
- Automated backups
Domain & Branding Features
Something as simple as custom email addresses can make your firm more professional.
Imagine receiving an email from @yourfirmname.com. It immediately sets your firm apart from clients who email you from their @gmail.com address.
Most professional email hosting providers include:
- Custom domain names
- Email aliases
- Professional email signatures
- Custom webmail interfaces
Productivity and Collaboration Features
Top-notch email service providers do more than send messages.
Many include calendaring, contact management, task tracking and more. Small legal teams can benefit greatly from these integrations that keep everything in one place.
Look for providers with document collaboration features. You can keep case files and contracts in your inbox securely with your email provider.
Reliable Uptime and Support
Email interruptions should never happen.
Make sure your provider offers 99.9% uptime (or better) and 24/7 customer support. When your paralegal needs a question answered during a case, you’ll want to know someone can help.
How to Choose Which Email Hosting Provider is Right For You
Now it’s time to get down to business.
While there are many email hosting options to choose from, picking the right one can be daunting. Here are some questions to ask that can help narrow your search.
Consider these questions:
- Does the provider have any security certifications or audits?
- Where is client data stored and backed up?
- What is the uptime guarantee?
- Does the provider offer customer support 24/7?
- Can the email hosting service scale with your firm?
Price will play a factor… but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor.
Go with the cheapest option and you’ll likely regret it when security is compromised or customer service is nonexistent when you need them. We recommend balancing price with value and features.
Here are a few red flags to avoid:
- Hosts that don’t offer encryption as a standard feature
- Vague data storage policies
- Lack of customer support or contact channels
- No references from other law firms
A little research now can save you a headache down the road.
Setting Up Email Hosting Services
Ready to dive in?
Switching to professional email hosting is easier than you think. Many email hosting companies even offer migration services to transfer existing emails, contacts, calendars etc. over for you.
The process to set up email hosting is typically:
- Select your hosting provider.
- Register your domain or transfer it to your host.
- Create user accounts for your team.
- Migrate any existing data.
- Configure security permissions.
- Train your team.
Depending on the size of your firm, you can expect to set this up in a weekend.
Timing is everything though. Be sure to let your team know about the change ahead of time. Carve out a few hours for everyone to learn the new system and test it out.
Here a few tips to improve productivity once you get started:
- Create team calendars to track cases.
- Set up email templates for common responses.
- Enable automatic archiving for emails and compliance.
- Enable mobile-access for lawyers in the field.
Wrapping it all up
Professional email hosting does more than allow you to get a custom email address.
While having a custom email address will allow you to appear more professional, services provide valuable security features that small law firms need. Not to mention the productivity options that allow your team to work smarter.
To sum everything up:
- Free email services aren’t safe enough for lawyers
- A professional email address allows you to appear more professional
- Look for security, domain, and customer support features
- Setting up email hosting is quick and easy
Professional email hosting is just the foundation your small law firm needs to start operating more efficiently. Want to take your firm to the next level? Implementing a practice management software will help you operate like the big firms.
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