May 11, 2007 | Posted By Patrick J. Lamb | 0 Comments | print this article

Voicemail--Useful Tool Or Devil's Folly?

Tom Collins at morepartnerincome has a most interesting post on telephones and the use of voicemail.  Tom's post picks up on an article by Dan Pinnington in Law Practice.  Tom picks up on this advice from Pinnington:

  1. Open with your name and title so the caller is sure they reached the correct mail box.

  2. Update the message daily to include details of your schedule.

  3. Indicate whether you’ll be checking voice mail or when you will be back in the office.

  4. Always give the caller an option to transfer to a live person.

  5. Encourage the caller to leave a detailed message.

  6. Let the caller know when they can expect their call to be returned—after noon today, within 24 hours by the next day, etc.

I have to take issue with some of this advice.  I never include details of my schedule.  Clients are not concerned with your work for others--they want you to do your work for them.  If I said "I'm in a meeting today", some would not stay on the line long enough to hear that I would check messages hourly.  Or they might think their issue is not as important as my meeting, trial, etc.  Same rationale goes for saying when you'll check voicemail.  If I am not able to check my voicemail several times an hour, my secretary is monitoring my voicemail and will let me know by email to my blackberry that a client has called.  Lastly, I do not believe in announcing when calls will be returned because the time is different depending on who you are.  Client calls are returned within minutes if possible.  Vendor calls or calls from opposing counsel might be longer.  Reporter calls also are returned immediately if at all possible.  But cold calls from guys selling their favorite stocks are never returned, so I won't create an expectation that I will get back to them.

The last issue is the most important--do you have calls received during business hours go automatically into voicemail or do you have your assistant screen calls and give the caller the opportunity to leave a message or not?  Personal preferences on this issue differ.  Here's why I have my assistant screen my calls:  If the call is from a client or a prospect, my assistant will email me so I can respond immediately (unless I am in court in which case she determines whether a call at the end of the trial day is adequate or whether someone else can handle the call).  But one thing we have found is that my assistant is able to answer a fair number of the incoming questions or provide the information the client is seeking.  She not only saves me time but incurs a lot of goodwill by getting clients the information they need on the spot.

The bottom line is not a right vs wrong answer but rather this--make sure your methods of handling incoming calls are well thought out rather than an after-thought.

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