Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

Interestingly that phrase from the kids show, Wonder Pets, came into my home because my wife cares for a 2-year-old little boy once-a-week and apparently he’s a big fan of the show and the jingle has caught on. Yet of course our focus here isn’t Saturday morning television but rather ‘Down-to-Earth advice for Legal Entrepreneurs.’

And how you handle your telephone number and telephone answering is critical. Along with the various ‘office options’ that exist these days, I’d say that the variety of ways to handle your phones was a classic example of something I didn’t know that I didn’t know when I started my Firm some 4+ years ago. And don’t underestimate the importance of the telephone in your law practice because at least in my experience, although the various forms of social networking and your general Internet presence is a key part of your ’sales funnel,’ when it comes times for client to retain attorney that process starts with a telephone call.

Consider 5 of the good/bad/ugly ‘telephone solutions’ that I’ve used and observed in my practice…

1.  The traditional receptionist(s)/legal assistant(s) answers all incoming calls. Likely your best option if you have the personnel to do this. It’s great because this person can serve as a gatekeeper to help you as lawyer be more productive and your receptionist should be able to simply handle many of the purely logistical calls without your needing to give those calls one iota of attention. Plus with the right personality this person or people can be a great sales force for you.

2.  An automated, Internet receptionist. I’ve used this option over the last year or so with this provider, Onebox.com (part of the same company that created eFax.com) at a cost of some $30 per month. I know there was at least one other major player I was considering when I set this up but I can’t recall that alternative off hand. I’ve always used some combination of part-time and contract staff so option #1 has never been viable for me. Here, callers hear an automated greeting that I created and a caller is given a couple different options, one of which is to reach me (Call our office @ 312-629-9900 if you want to hear an example). Then that call to our office number rings to whereever I want it to which currently is my cell phone. My opinion is that this presentation sounds very professional, callers expect companies to use some sort of filtered, automated answering system these days up front, and they still can get to me with only the press of a button.

3.  Cell/Office phone self-answered by you, the lawyer. I generally find this tacky and not productive and wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re answering your telephone, with the rare exceptions, you’re not earning income which is a no, no. Plus I think there’s a bit of a negative perception if “my lawyer answers his own telephone.” And if you do this via a cell phone I definately think there’s a TOO CHEAP factor that hurts you.

4.  Your telephone straight to voicemail. I’m not sure if #3 or #4 is worse and I see a lot of small law firms using some combination of the 2. I don’t think this option has to be that bad IF the voicemail message is friendly, descriptive, and sales-oriented and that messages get returned relatively quickly. Personally, I’ve been less suprised that many firms I call use this option than I’ve been with some of the terrible and almost anonymous messages I hear at lawyer offices.

5.  Virtual office package answering/telephone answering services. What I mean here is where a human being is the first answer of the call but it’s a person with no relationship/knowledge of your firm. So here you’re attempting to make your firm seem professional and larger than it is. Often this is coupled with the virtual office provider’s willingness to forward calls immediately to another location or your cell phone.  This set-up is useful for ‘business image’ building. The only thing I don’t like about it is that this is where many of the virtual office providers like a Regus for example nickle-and-dime you. Any time I got my calls forwarded to my cell phone I was charged for that forward maybe $1 per call which would add $100ish to my tab each month.

Anybody doing anything better/different??

Editor’s Update: I wanted to give a little better “back story” on how/why I got to where I am sitting in option #2 above. So back when I founded my firm in a space-for-services arrangement at 120 S. State Street I bought our current, 312-629-9900, telephone number straight from the phone company and our phone’s were answered by a shared receptionist. Then some 6 months later my firm was relocated to our own office and we ported the phone number as part of that move. At that location for some 3 years we were in option #5. As I stated above, the one aspect of #5 I didn’t like was we were officed in a sort of executive suite where our office lease included receptionists but you have to watch the add-on expenses like forwarded phone calls when I was out of the office and needed calls forwarded. Finally, for the last year or so I’ve been in option #2. For us it’s an effective way to allow for the decentralized nature of 2-3 staff people who don’t work in a single location that costs a reasonable, flat-fee each month.