Shamieh, Shamieh & Ternieden

Was I skeptical that AI could do all of those things? Of course. My staff has come to me and said this is the best thing that you have done, implementing Reflekt. What I can tell you is that the impact has been immeasurable.

My name is Ghassan Shamieh. I'm the managing partner and owner of Shamieh, Shamieh & Ternieden. We're an immigration law firm based out of San Francisco. Our firm solely handles immigration cases. We do a lot of deportation defense, so we go into court and help people in front of a judge who may be facing deportation.

Handling calls before implementing Reflekt was a mess. To be completely honest with you, that was the biggest complaint from the team. We have a team of about 15 legal staff, and when they were in a meeting with a client, or working on an application, or preparing somebody to face a judge, they'd be interrupted by the phones, because the phones rang on everybody's phone.

Implementing AI to replace humans, I was certainly a little skeptical. Is this system going to be able to convert potential clients into booked consultations? I didn't want to eliminate the entire human interaction. I wanted to alleviate, not eliminate, the pressure from the team. By having Reflekt meet those requirements, like being able to book appointments, it alleviates a lot of the pressure from the team.

Before implementing Reflekt in my office, it was almost like sales calls, because a lot of the people who are calling are vulnerable, scared, and have been burned by other immigration attorneys before. They're looking for guidance. You have to build that trust over the phone to get them to book a consultation, to trust that this is a reputable office they can come and talk to about their immigration situation.

My staff has come to me and said this is the best thing that you have done, implementing Reflekt. And I'm not just saying that. They truly mean it, because the number of phone calls they get per day is far less. Now the calls are routed and organized so that whatever call a legal assistant gets on their desk, they know it's relevant to them, and when they pick up, they're not wasting time.

We have a very multilingual staff: Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Cantonese, and French speakers, so we cover a wide array of languages. That matters in immigration, because you are dealing with people from many countries and regions. Every single call is answered. Not a single call is missed. Before Reflekt, our phone hours were 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. With Reflekt, it is 24/7, Monday to Sunday, all the time.

For me, the experience has been tremendous. I have not received any complaints from clients. Many, if not most, of my clients have said, “I thought I was talking to a real person.” What's really nice is that you can tell the system what tone and approach you want it to take, and it adapts to the tenor of the conversation it's having with the caller. Its ability to mimic human interaction has far surpassed my expectations.

The impression people get when they call us is very important. To date, Reflekt has done a tremendous job of carrying the image, the confidence, and the quality of service we want our clients to know we have. Reflekt Legal has been able to do all that, and I couldn't be happier.

The system has the flexibility to be programmed to say, “If somebody is calling from ICE detention, don't route it to the AI. Route it to a human immediately.”

What I can tell you is that the impact has been immeasurable, in such a great way. Staff satisfaction: incredibly higher since Reflekt was implemented. Client satisfaction: fantastic. Complaints from clients and staff: almost zero. Consultations booked: higher. The whole firm is running smoother and better as a result.