All my friends know how much I hate the phone. It’s impossible to get me when you call, and if you’re lucky enough to connect it’s tough as heck to keep me from ending the conversation.
Why? Dunno, it’s just not my thing. Email I can handle. Faxes, letters, audio and video chat, Twitter, Facebook . . . I can get into those modes of conversation. But the phone just seems so antiquated as to be counterproductive.
So I did a little test. I stopped answering my phone. Period. I let it go to voice mail and turned off the ringer so it wouldn’t bug me.
I decided that I’d return all phone calls twice a day – 10:00am and 3:00pm. Nobody would be at lunch, and by those times I could use a break from whatever else I was working on at the time. Perfect.
So I recorded a nice message and told my clients about my policy. I figured I could go back to the old way if everyone rebelled.
Funny thing happened on the way, though – nobody made a peep about it.
At first people would call a bunch of times in a row, hoping to trick me into picking up the phone. Or they’d call the extension reserved for court personnel (they go to my cell phone) or new clients (I sometimes take new client phone calls just to keep my finger on the pulse of things).
Each time they would be told politely that I would call them back at the next time slot. And eventually they fell in line.
Then the oddest thing happened. My new client consultation booking rate started to rise. My no-show level plummeted. Seems that people kinda like the notion of getting some face time with the scarcest lawyer in town.
So I got gusty. Reckless, even. I raised my fees by 10%. Just to see what would happen. Again, I figured I could roll back the fees if client volume dropped by too much.
Didn’t go down. Not one bit.
Now I could do into all this stuff about productivity, getting more work done in less time and all that. But this was a lot better – I was actually making more money because I was less available. A hot commodity, the one everyone wants. I was the Fendi bag women spend $20,000 for, and then only after being on a waiting list for 6 months.
I don’t believe for a moment that you should do this. It’s a gutsy move (as I mentioned), and one that takes a supreme amount of confidence in what you do. But if you do it right, it could make you a significant amount of money.
Jay:
Similar story. I run a small dynamic practice. I had come off of Total bankruptcy in 2007 and was sure that if I didn’t have a live person answering my phones my practice would die. I was spending $1000-$1500 a month on answering services. They did a good job, but I was getting killed on repeat calls from already retained clients. In the last month I had service, one client called me repetitively for a total of over $500 of a $900 bill for services that month.
For financial reasons I had to drop the service. I was using Vonage, but now I used their transcription service of .25 per call. I was sure my practice was dead.
I had no problems. None. In fact, it generally improved things. It definitely improved things. People left messages. No problem. I’m sure I lose a few PAPs here and there…but whatever…I’m not paying $1500 a month, and I’m not going crazy on calls.
I still call new calls back immediately, I’m not brave enough to stop doing that, but calling everyone back at 10:00 and 3:00? I’m already doing that to an extent.
Jay:
Similar story. I run a small dynamic practice. I had come off of Total bankruptcy in 2007 and was sure that if I didn't have a live person answering my phones my practice would die. I was spending $1000-$1500 a month on answering services. They did a good job, but I was getting killed on repeat calls from already retained clients. In the last month I had service, one client called me repetitively for a total of over $500 of a $900 bill for services that month.
For financial reasons I had to drop the service. I was using Vonage, but now I used their transcription service of .25 per call. I was sure my practice was dead.
I had no problems. None. In fact, it generally improved things. It definitely improved things. People left messages. No problem. I'm sure I lose a few PAPs here and there…but whatever…I'm not paying $1500 a month, and I'm not going crazy on calls.
I still call new calls back immediately, I'm not brave enough to stop doing that, but calling everyone back at 10:00 and 3:00? I'm already doing that to an extent.
God point, Anerio. So long as the client knows when to expect a return call, you increase the comfort level. In addition, you can be proactive when speaking with clients rather than responding in a defensive manner (“Let me get the file . . . hmmmm . . . OK, let’s see what we’ve got here . . . “)
God point, Anerio. So long as the client knows when to expect a return call, you increase the comfort level. In addition, you can be proactive when speaking with clients rather than responding in a defensive manner ("Let me get the file . . . hmmmm . . . OK, let's see what we've got here . . . ")
Love you blog, Jay.
Your post reminds me of a story about the famous infomercial writer, Colleen Szot. By changing the closing line of an infomercial from "operators are standing by" to "if operators are busy, please keep trying" she dramatically increased response rate.
The perception that there is such demand for something or someone that you might miss out if you don't claim your spot is a powerful marketing tool.
Love you blog, Jay.
Your post reminds me of a story about the famous infomercial writer, Colleen Szot. By changing the closing line of an infomercial from “operators are standing by” to “if operators are busy, please keep trying” she dramatically increased response rate.
The perception that there is such demand for something or someone that you might miss out if you don’t claim your spot is a powerful marketing tool.
Kenneth, thanks for the comment. Scarcity is a powerful marketing tool – but only if it's real. If you're going to take on all comers yet you use scarcity marketing, it's not genuine. You'll be found out, and when that happens your credibility is shot.
Kenneth, thanks for the comment. Scarcity is a powerful marketing tool – but only if it’s real. If you’re going to take on all comers yet you use scarcity marketing, it’s not genuine. You’ll be found out, and when that happens your credibility is shot.