Your Best Public Relations Tool — the Telephone
By Jim Calloway, Director
OBA Management Assistance Program

"I’m sorry but the lawyer is on another line right now.""I’m sure your phone call will be returned as soon as possible.""I didn’t get much of anything done today because I was on the phone all day long."

"Would you mind holding, please?"

Lawyers and phones. You cannot even imagine a law office without a phone system. This month we are going to discuss telephones in the law office. We are going to talk about old-fashioned office phone procedures that are perhaps more important now than ever in the days of instantaneous electronic communication.OBA members have our permission to photocopy this article and distribute it to all employees in your office. But perhaps even a more positive step would be to use this article as a springboard to draft your own customized office phone procedures policy for your office.

Many law firms lack office procedure manuals or have manuals that are sadly out of date. If you do not have a manual, this is a good place to start. If you do have one, here is a good opportunity to review and update it. This section probably will only be one page or two pages at the most, but it will give your staff, your future employees, and perhaps even future temporary employees valuable information about how your law firm should operate.The voice of your law practice

Who speaks for the law firm? The lawyer in a solo practice or the managing partner in a larger firm, correct? Well, no. While the lawyer may be the spokesperson in a legal or corporate sense, the person answering the phone is the voice of the law firm to the public. For discussion purposes we will call this person the receptionist, even though we understand not all law firms have dedicated receptionists and often several people share telephone answering duties.Some may be inclined to dismiss the voice of the law firm statement as obvious and unimportant. But in fact understanding the implications of this simple observation are worthy of some extended contemplation. A potential new client typically contacts the firm by telephone. The person answering the phone is where they receive their first impression of your law practice. A lawyer may spend quality time at a social event visiting with a potential new client. When it appears that the person may need your firm’s services, the lawyer hands over a business card, which will be hopefully used to then telephone the law firm. Clients have different matters handled in different ways, but with rare exceptions they will all talk to your receptionist at some point. Opposing counsel may make judgments about your law firm based on the way the receptionist handles a call.It has been mentioned before, but cannot be mentioned too often, that your receptionist is the department head of the Department of First Impressions in your law firm. It is also true that the receptionist may be one of the lowest paid, least-trained, least-appreciated and most junior employees of the firm. Make certain that your receptionist is respected, trained and understands her duties. Having clear instructions is the main reason why a written telephone policy is important for a law firm.

It begins with answering the phone.

Answering the phone — "Loffice Keni Elpya?"

A lot of law firms answer the phone "Law office. Can I help you?" My law firm did that for some time. But that always struck me as too generic. After all, you would think it was strange if you called a local business and they answered "Bank" or "Insurance company." The better practice is to answer with the law firm or lawyer’s name. I recognize there may be reasons for not doing that. For example, the fourth, fifth and sixth named partners may object to answering the phone using only the first two lawyer’s names or it may be that the law firm’s name is the linguistic equivalent of "She sells seashells by the sea shore."But for lawyers, our brand name is either our name or our law firm name. Major corporations spend millions of dollars creating brand name awareness. It seems that a few repetitions of the lawyer’s or law firm’s name would help create more long term recall of your name as well. It also may serve as a time saver. The phrase "law office" can sometimes be run together a bit causing some callers to say "who is this?" Answering with "Good morning. Attorney Ron Jones office. How may we help you?" is clear and definite.Another reason that some offices use a generic telephone greeting is that several independent lawyers share an office suite and a phone line. It may be that lawyers move in and out on a fairly regular basis. Lawyers may be concerned that a liability claim of implied partnership might be made if independent lawyer’s names are grouped together while answering the phone. This is not an unreasonable concern. But certainly clear written fee agreements outlining responsibility are key for preventing these types of claims.It is not my position to tell your law firm how it should answer the phone. It is my position that you should think about it, have a meeting if necessary and determine how your phone will be answered. Then put it in writing, just in case you find yourself training a new receptionist next month.As the heading suggests, it is important to speak slowly and clearly when answering the phone, or when making an outgoing call for that matter.Law offices are busy places. Often the person answering the phone may be trying to complete copying a brief or some other task on a tight deadline. It is very easy to translate that frantic breathlessness into a breathless phone voice. The entire point of a telephone call is communication. Speaking too quickly will usually hamper rather than expedite that process. Take a deep breath when you answer the phone and smile. Although it is difficult to explain scientifically, your phone voice will improve and be more positive if you smile while talking on the phone. A confident and friendly voice reassures the caller and pre-disposes them to have confidence in your law firm.

I consulted with several specialists and the consensus is that an incoming business call needs to be answered before it rings for the fourth time. This is certainly difficult when the receptionist is on the phone with a chatty client, but the goal in the office ought to be always answer the phone before it rings four times. People do not like being put on hold, it is true. But it is more disconcerting for the phone to ring and ring, letting the client wonder if the law firm is still in business at all.

Attitude is everything

Nancy Byerly Jones, a law office consultant from North Carolina says "Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?"Just as a pleasant telephone voice sets a positive tone for the communication, grumpy, terse or unpleasant vocal tones detract from effective communication.A positive "can-do" attitude can help with many anxious situations, such as when the client believes he must talk with the lawyer immediately and the lawyer is in court or out of town. Truthfulness and candor are important. If a client calls in the morning and is told a lawyer is in court when it is not true, the lawyer might casually mention later where he or she actually was. The client would distrust the lawyer’s staff thereafter.This does not mean you have to disclose too much information. It is appropriate to simply and politely say that the lawyer is out of the office. If pressed for information, it is appropriate to say that you do not know exactly where the lawyer is or that you are not authorized to tell.The receptionist should understand that law firms deal with people who are often angry, under stress or in difficult situations. The staff should be instructed that they should not be rude to a caller, no matter how unpleasant they may be. Handling oneself in a professional, calm, cool and business-like manner is one of the true marks of being a professional.That does not mean that one has to take abuse. When a caller becomes abusive, vulgar or threatening, it is appropriate to announce that you have work to do and must hang up now. Then do so.Another area that should be considered is how information is phrased. I remember calling a lawyer’s office and his very friendly secretary said, with a chuckle in her voice, "Oh, he hasn’t made it in yet. Can I take a message?" I couldn’t help but glance at the clock and notice it was 9:45 a.m. Later the lawyer happened to mention to me that he had been working on a difficult brief and so he got up very early and spent the morning working on the brief at home where there would be no interruptions. The secretary knew this. While attempting to be conversational and friendly, she unknowingly left the impression that the lawyer had not shown up at work as expected or perhaps was late often. She knew the lawyer was hard at work, and I am certain that she did not mean to give a negative impression, but a client could have been concerned by the way she conveyed the message. There would not have been that impression with a more general response like, "He is not is the office right now. Would you like to leave a message?"Some people like more formality than others. In smaller close-knit communities, there is certainly more informality and familiarity. In fact, the response of "he hasn’t made it in yet" may have different connotations depending on whether the lawyer is semi-retired and well known to be taking it easier or whether the lawyer is known to have a drinking problem. A business client calling the lawyer in a larger firm might be severely put off by being told that the lawyer is out of the office picking up a few things for his wife at the grocery store. In a small town where most everyone is assumed to know that the lawyer’s wife had broken her leg, the same message may connote chivalry and responsibility.

The lawyer can consider local clientele and practice style in determining how much information should be given out in these situations and how the language should be phrased.

Voice mail

People hate voice mail, correct? No. What many people hate is having their telephone call answered by an automated answering service. I am of the old school that likes to have a live human being answering the phone at the law office. I do understand that many solo lawyers no longer employ full time staff and that many respected law firms now have automated the answering of incoming telephone calls (e.g. "If you would like to speak to Attorney Jones, please press one.") That of course is your business decision.But almost everyone likes the idea of leaving voice mail messages as an option and you should consider this capability if you do not have it. "May I take a message or would you like Mr. Jones' voice mail?" empowers the client and gives them options. And the client who refuses to leave detailed information to a staff person may be quite willing to give a detailed voice mail message, knowing only the attorney will listen to it.

Commercial answering services are a bit more problematic for lawyers. Although they give good value and provide the human touch when you are out of the office, a client may blurt out confidential facts, unaware that they are not really talking with your office staff. Some advance measures need to be taken to ensure client confidence is not violated in this situation. Voice mail presents none of these problems.

But the lawyer hasn’t returned my phone call!

Lawyers need telephone policies as well. The biggest single client complaint is about lawyers failing to return phone calls.Certainly a large part of this springs from a different perception between lawyers and clients. Many consumer clients simply cannot comprehend the number of phone messages that a lawyer might receive in a given day. There are times in every lawyer’s life when the press of business forces a lawyer into triage on returning telephone calls, returning those with immediate needs first. Trying to do this is made more frustrating because so many clients refuse to leave messages, saying "Just have her call me."But having said (and lived) all of that, the legal profession is a client service profession. The client may not be able to judge the quality of your legal work, but they can clearly understand whether and how quickly their phone call was returned. The client’s perception of this seemingly small issue colors the entire attorney-client relationship, from how well your bills from fees are paid to how much trust the client places in your advice to whether the client will refer others to you in the future.You must have a commitment to returning phone calls. It is hard for all of us. This is especially true because so many times a returned phone call is unsuccessful, resulting in just leaving a message and changing who is "it" in the game of telephone tag. E-mail is superior in this regard because the communication takes place without the need for the parties to communicate at the same time.Setting up a law firm call return policy, such as returning all client telephone calls with 24 hours and returning calls labeled as emergencies that same day, is fairly easy. Complying with the policy at all times is exceedingly challenging. But it is important to have a policy. Otherwise low priority calls may slip between the cracks and you may find yourself explaining why you did not return a client’s call for three days.A set time limit empowers your staff to assist you as well. If a call is not going to be returned by you within the set time period due to unexpected developments, they know that they need to return the call and at least inform the client there will be a delay. Perhaps the client can tell them some more information. Unfortunately, many clients will not consider a staff person returning the telephone as adequate, but at least they will be informed.The lawyer should also guard against being too rushed while returning telephone calls. It is almost as frustrating as not having your phone call returned when the lawyer calls back and answers the question in hurried, clipped tones. It may be that you have 38 messages to return and less than an hour to do it, but your client will only have this one communication with you that day and, if you seem like you are too busy to talk with them, they may get the impression that you are too busy to adequately handle their case or do not care about them. Take the advice you have given your staff, slow down, take a deep breath and listen to your client.And, of course, when someone takes a message that they know cannot be returned promptly, it is always important to communicate that right then. "The attorney will not be in the office the rest of the day, so he cannot return your call until tomorrow."So, having read this far, why not take a few minutes to examine or institute telephone policies. You will want to include directions on how the phone will be answered, reminders to speak slowly and clearly, the maximum number of times the phone should be allowed to ring, how much information should be given out when the lawyer is not in the office, and other areas of concern to you.

Some may still question the practicality or wisdom of having written policies for such things as telephone procedures. But as the immortal Yogi Berra said about planning and procedures, "You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there."

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal April 7, 2001 - Vol. 72; No.11