One thing that I tell lawyers all the time is that your phone call should never, under any circumstance ever, go to voicemail. But even if you have an answering service and even if you’re always trying to answer the phone, there are going to be times when the stars align, and the call goes to the dreaded voicemail.
Why You Should Not Let Your Calls Go To Voice Mail
What you have to remember is that the people that are calling your law office because they have a problem. They have a problem that needs a solution, and they want to talk to a lawyer now.
People want instant gratification. Think about Amazon Prime. For me, Amazon Prime is too slow, and that says a lot of people that feel the same way.
Let’s say you don’t answer the phone and the call goes to voicemail. Here’s an example of a voice mail you might have, “Hi, this is Attorney John Smith. I’m not able to take your call right now, but please leave me a message, and we’ll call you back.”
What’s going to happen is that they’re just going to hang up the phone and call the next attorney on their list. What you need to do is give them a reason to leave their information.
That way you can actually get their information, call them back and hopefully get the case. Now, how do you do that?
The One Line That Can Make A Difference
What you do is this: you add a simple line to your voicemail that most people have never really thought about. My partner is the one who taught me this trick about six years ago, back when we first started our business. She started telling all of our clients to do this, and it makes such a huge difference.
What she tells our clients to do and what I tell all lawyers to do now is to say something like this on your voicemail: “Hi, this is Attorney John Smith. I’m not available to take your call right now, but your call is important, and I do want to speak with you. Leave your name, phone number and the best way for me to reach you, and I’ll call you back within fifteen minutes.”
Now, both you and I know that you’re not going to be able to return every phone call within fifteen minutes. It’s just not going to happen.
But the promise of “I am going to return your phone call within a certain period of time” is enough to make most people leave their contact information even if they would have normally hung up.
Then, you can call them back and if they bring up the fact that you’re calling them, simply apologize profusely. But note that you would have never gotten their contact information had you not put that message on there saying I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes. Try and use it on your voicemail, and let me know how it goes.
