Automatic Phone Answering: Four Options Compared
Automatic phone answering for business: the four ways to answer when nobody is free, what each one does and does not do, a comparison table, and three questions that tell you which fits.
Marketplace for lawyers • CRM and telephony • Automation
Advocato and SoftWiz, two sides of the same problem
Advocato is a marketplace and directory that brings law firms enquiries from organic search and AI engines. SoftWiz builds what happens after the enquiry lands. Two separate businesses with a shared founder.
A law firm fails at one of two points. Either not enough enquiries come in, or they come in and nobody gets back to them in time.
Those are different problems needing different answers. Advocato addresses the first. SoftWiz addresses the second.
What Advocato is
Advocato is a marketplace and directory of solicitors: where the Israeli public searches, compares and contacts a lawyer directly.
- Over 12,000 solicitors indexed by practice area and region
- Around 85,000 visitors a month looking for legal representation
- A free, permanent basic profile, with premium tiers and paid articles available
- Enquiries go straight to the solicitor, with no intermediary and no commission on the work
- Visibility in Google and in AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, where a growing share of people now ask for a recommendation
It is not case management software and it is not a CRM. It brings the enquiry in; it does not deal with it.
What SoftWiz builds for a law firm
The enquiry has arrived. From here it is a question of process, and this is precisely where most firms lose it.
- An immediate answer, at any hour. An AI voice agent picks up the enquiry that comes in at nine at night, gives the basics, takes the details and passes them on. A legal enquiry left until morning has already rung somebody else
- Routing by practice area. Family, personal injury, property and defamation do not all belong on the same desk. The enquiry is classified and reaches whoever should have it
- Every call logged. CallMarker ties the telephony into the system, so inbound and outbound calls sit against the client record without anyone typing
- Managing enquiries and matters. monday.com or another CRM, built around how the firm actually works rather than around a generic template
- Automatic chasers. An enquiry unanswered for a day raises a flag. It is the simplest thing on this list and it returns the most money
Why the two fit together
An enquiry that arrives and goes unanswered is worth exactly as much as one that never arrived, and it cost more.
A firm that invests in visibility but not in process pays twice: once for the visibility, and again for the leads leaking out of it. The half we build is the half that turns an enquiry into a client.
Who it suits
It suits a firm taking enquiries from several sources that suspects some are slipping, and a firm whose people spend their time on manual logging instead of legal work.
It suits less well a firm with few enquiries that handles all of them properly. There the question is visibility, not systems, and we will say so at the scoping session.
It has no bearing on whether to be on Advocato. That is between you and them, and we are not a party to it.
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FAQ
What’s worth knowing before you start
What is the relationship between Advocato and SoftWiz?
Yonatan Shamam, who founded SoftWiz, is also a partner in Advocato. They are entirely separate businesses: his Advocato partner has no stake in SoftWiz, and SoftWiz has no ownership of Advocato. We spell it out so you know who you are dealing with.
Is Advocato a case management system?
No, and this is a common misreading; this very page described it wrongly for a while. Advocato is a marketplace and directory where the public finds a solicitor. It brings enquiries in; it does not manage them. Managing cases and enquiries is done in something like monday.com or a dedicated CRM, and that is what SoftWiz builds.
What does it cost to appear on Advocato?
A basic profile is free and permanent. There are premium tiers and the option to publish articles for a one-off fee. Advocato's own site carries the details, and it is their business to state them.
We already get enquiries from Advocato. What does SoftWiz add?
The handling. An immediate answer outside office hours, routing to the right solicitor by practice area, the call logged against the client record, and an automatic nudge when nobody has called back. An enquiry that arrives and sits unanswered is worth exactly as much as one that never arrived.
Do we have to be on Advocato to work with SoftWiz?
No, and the two are unconnected. We build systems for firms whose leads come from anywhere: referrals, Google, campaigns or direct enquiries. Advocato is one source among many.
What do you actually build for a law firm?
Usually three things together: a system for managing enquiries and matters on monday.com or another CRM, telephony through CallMarker so every call is logged, and an AI voice agent that answers the enquiries arriving when nobody is at a desk.
Is there an ethical issue in referring leads to a firm?
We do not refer leads and we do not broker work. SoftWiz sells technology services only: scoping, implementation, automation and development. Advertising and client acquisition in the legal sector are governed by the Israel Bar Association's rules, and they are the firm's responsibility rather than ours.
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