Practice Management

If you do not read Duct Tape Marketing, you should. Although it is not a law blog, it covers a lot of issues that can be applied to the practice of law. The blog recently covered The 5 Deadly Sins of Voicemail. I have got to admit that I have gotten lazy and have been guilty of these sins. But, all of us need for voicemail to be effective. Briefly stated, the 5 sin of voicemail are:

1.    No reason for the call. How many of us have done this or received calls like this. Especially as a lawyer who has a ton of calls after returning from Court, I will place those that do not tell me what they want to the end.

2.    No value presented. When you leave a message get the recipients attention by mentioning something of value. Point them to an event, a free resource, or information that demonstrates the reason for returning the call. Opposing counsel will call my office and not even mention the case on which they are calling. I do not know if they are selling something or wanting to offer me money.

3.    No reference for call. If you are an attorney looking for free advice or you are wanting to possibly refer a case, mention the connection of how you know the caller. Let the attorney know the common ground on which the call is based, and suggest so and so thought you should call. It is hard to ignore a referral.

4.    No suggested call back plan. Phone tag is a cruel form of voice mail torture and can be minimized by suggesting when you are going to try to call back or suggesting when the recipient can catch you. You can also suggest all the better ways, such as email, that you might be reached. This is particularly helpful when trying to move something forward without the ability to meet on the same clock.

5.    Rapid fire phone number. My goodness, I hate this. The number of people who will leave long messages and then get to the phone number part and speed up like they?re all of a sudden out of time. So now I have to replay the message three times in order to jot down the number. Slow down when leaving your number and say it twice.