1. Start with Riverhead’s actual service boundary
Your firm may serve Riverhead CDP, other parts of Suffolk County or clients elsewhere in New York. Those are different geographic decisions. The Census record identifies Riverhead as a CDP in Suffolk County; it does not show where your callers live, what matters they have or how many calls your firm receives. Before evaluating an answering system, separate calls from Riverhead, calls from other Suffolk County communities and calls from outside the county. Also separate current clients, potential new clients and other callers.
Recommended approach
Review a representative period of call records by caller geography when that information is lawfully and reliably available, call outcome, practice area and urgency. Do not use the population estimate as a forecast. Decide which callers the system should identify, what your team should receive after a call and which geographic distinctions matter to your intake decisions.
