AI receptionist for law firms, accountants and consultants
The first call decides which firm gets the work.
Somebody choosing a lawyer, an auditor or a consultant rings until a firm answers properly, and instructs that one. Belline answers while your people are in meetings, takes the enquiry in the caller's own words, and advises on nothing.
Answers in English.
By city
Where we have written it up.
Each page is about a firm's phone in that city — the week it keeps, the languages on the line and the calls it loses.
Dubai
Since January 2022 the federal public sector has worked Monday to Friday, with the weekend on Saturday and Sunday and a shortened Friday, and most of Dubai's private sector followed it.
Abu Dhabi
Monday to Friday, weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with a short Friday across the public sector.
Sharjah
Sharjah is the outlier.
Why the calls go missing
Nobody is ignoring the phone.
Law firms, accountants and consultants lose calls for reasons that have nothing to do with caring about them.
The hours you can be reached are the hours you are billing
A partner is in a meeting, a hearing, an audit or a client's boardroom for most of the working day, and the associate who might have picked up is sitting in the same room taking the note. A firm small enough to be worth ringing is usually too small to keep somebody beside the phone while all of that is happening.
The enquiry is the asset, and it is the thing being lost
Nothing has been bought yet and there is no relationship to fall back on. A caller deciding who should handle a dispute, a filing or a licence is working down a list of firms, and a line that rings out is simply crossed off before anybody there learns the caller's name.
Whoever answers the question has given advice
Can I own it outright, is this due this month, will that clause hold. A helpful person on the phone wants to answer, and a half-answer to any of those is something the caller will go away and act on. The only safe reply is that somebody qualified will ring back, and it has to survive being asked three different ways.
Deadlines arrive for everybody on the same day
Filing dates, renewals and year-ends are set by a calendar rather than by a client's convenience, so the weeks before one are the weeks every client rings at once. Those are also the weeks the people who could answer have least room to stop, which means demand and capacity move in opposite directions on exactly the same days.
Where it stops
Knowing what not to say is the hard part.
Belline gives no legal, tax, accounting or regulatory advice of any kind, on any call. It does not say whether a deadline applies to a caller, which licence or structure would suit them, whether your firm can act, or what a matter will cost. It takes the enquiry in the caller's own words, with a number, and somebody qualified in your firm answers it.
How it works
Set up from what you already have.
Most of the work is checking what Belline found. You decide when customers reach it.
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Give Belline what you already have
Your website, price list or brochure. It reads them and drafts your services, prices, hours and the questions a firm gets asked every day.
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Check what it found
Fix anything wrong, fill the gaps, and set the rules it must hold. Nothing goes live until you have read it.
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Switch it on
Ring it yourself first. Then forward your line and paste one line of HTML into your website. Customers only reach Belline once you do.
Questions
What operators ask us.
Will it answer a legal or a tax question?
No, and it says so rather than hedging. A caller asking whether they need to file something, whether a clause is enforceable, or how a rule lands on their business is told plainly that Belline cannot advise. The question is written down as they asked it, with a number, for somebody in your firm to answer.
Can it tell a caller whether we are able to act for them?
No. Whether a firm takes a matter on turns on conflicts, scope and capacity, and none of those is something a phone line can check. Belline takes the enquiry and the number and leaves the decision where it belongs.
Will it quote our fees?
Only figures you have written down and fixed. Professional work is usually priced on scope, so Belline describes what you have said you offer, captures what the caller needs in their own words, and leaves the number to the person who will do the work.
Somebody rings about setting up a company. What does it capture?
What they want the business to do, whether they are asking about a free zone or the mainland, where they are based, and a number. It records the question rather than recommending an answer, because which structure suits a business is advice and advice is yours to give.
Will it discuss a matter with an existing client?
No. It takes a message for the person handling it, with what the client said. Belline cannot verify who is on the line, and a reception line confirming that somebody's matter exists is the wrong place for that to be tested.
Does it book the meeting?
It takes what the meeting concerns, when they could come in, and a number. With your calendar connected, Belline checks it and books the time straight in, on the phone, in chat, on WhatsApp and on video. Without one, it takes the request and your team confirms it.
Who can see what was said on a call?
Your team. Each conversation arrives as a summary and a full transcript, so you can read exactly what was asked and exactly what Belline said. Belline does not record the audio of the calls it answers.
Will callers know they are not speaking to somebody at the firm?
If they ask, it says so plainly. It does not borrow a fee earner's name and it does not present itself as a member of your staff.
