Return Phone Calls Means Return Clients

The point of this article is a simple one in this day of recession and declining business.  Return phone calls promptly; if you do this simple task, your clients will be pleased with you and use you for return business.

I am an attorney; I am self-employed now, but I have worked for other attorneys as a paralegal and later as an associate attorney.  I have seen the right way and the wrong way to handle return phone calls and I learned just as much from the two opposite examples I now give you. 

In the wrong example, this boss did not call people back.  The clients got anxious, then irritated, then enraged when he would not call them back to give them updates on their cases.  This boss got grievances filed against him and there was always stress and strife in the office.  When he finally did call the clients back, the calls were always longer since they started with people more upset than they needed to be.   He did not save time (as he intended to) and just got people more upset. 

In the right example, this attorney emptied his voice mail at the end of every day.  He would often stay until 9:00 at night; he never left until he returned every phone call.  The clients were happy that their phone calls were returned; they appreciated the diligence to do so since the calls were returned well into the evening.  This man has more business than he can handle, largely for that reason.

With these two examples, I have established rules for returning phone calls in my office.  They reconcile different interests to make the best use of my time and keep the clients happy and returning to us.  These are the rules:

• Always check the messages at the beginning and the end of the day. -  The messages from the night before should be returned sometime that day.  The messages that you check at the end of the work day should be returned either before you leave or the next morning depending on when you can get in touch with the client and if the matter is time sensitive. 

•   Tell them to call you back at a time is good for you.  When you call someone back, have the file ready.  Be prepared to give that person your undivided attention.  Also, when you call someone back, give them a good time to call you (i.e. a time that you are available and can give that client your full attention).  That way, you give them the best service.

• Use your staff to make some calls back.  Sometimes, people need to talk to me and only me and that is fine.  Other times, people will call me and ask me a question that a staff member can answer (e.g. what is your fax number, how much money to I have to bring to the closing?)  That way, you are servicing your clients’ need for information and saving you time to work on other matters, like writing another article for Triond!  Keep clients informed and they stay clients!