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As we become more location-independent in our lives and practices, lawyers need to remember that they’re still going to have to keep dealing with phone calls. Judges don’t use email as much as one would hope (they’d need to cc: opposing counsel every time they sent a message, which would be a pain), and clients sometimes need to get the “warm and fuzzies” by talking with their lawyer voice-to-voice.
And with telephones comes voice mail hell – phone tag. I call you, you call me back, round and round it goes. And the more time you spend volleying back and forth between voice mail systems, the less productive you are.
So you’ve got to reduce the time spent on messages, right?
How you leave a message impacts your phone tag footprint. Here are four steps to reducing yours – and gaining value time for more productive pursuits:
- Before you pick up the phone to make another call, think about what you want to say when you hit voice mail (and you will).
- Clarify your questions prior to making the call.
- Be prepared to speak immediately (so you don’t waste valuable voice mail time on verbal pauses).
- In your voice mail, state (a) your name; (b) your phone number; (c) your email address; (d) the best means to contact you back; (e) exactly why you’re calling; and (e) what you would like the recipient of the message to do when they respond to your call.
By taking these simple steps you’ll reduce the back-and-forth inherent in voice mail messages, maximize the time you’ve got “on tape,” and start accomplishing more in your office.
Photo courtesy of jypsygen.
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