The most important call is the one nobody plans for.
A new client rings once. What happens in the next ninety seconds decides who gets the matter. Here is how that usually goes.
Here's a quick story about a phone call.
Not a big one.
A Tuesday. 10:40am.
You're on your feet in court.
Your phone buzzes in your pocket.
It's a woman you've never spoken to.
Her husband moved out last night.
She's frightened, she's organised, and she's ready to instruct someone today.
She found you on Google.
She also found two other firms.
Your phone rings out.
Voicemail.
She doesn't leave a message.
Nobody does any more.
She rings the next firm on the list.
The caller is gone. You never knew she rang. In Clio's 2019 study, 39% of calls to law firms went to voicemail, while 79% of clients expected a reply within 24 hours.
So you're smart about it. You use an answering service.
Someone picks up after 30 seconds of ringing. Overworked.
They're the 18th caller she answered today.
"Good morning, thanks for calling the firm, how can I help?"
They're reading your name off a card.
They're also answering for a plumber, a dentist and a real estate agency.
She asks if you do parenting matters.
"I'm not sure. I'll pass that on."
A name. A number. Re: family matter.
It lands in your inbox at 10:43.
You read it at 1:15, walking out of court.
You call her back at 1:20.
She's already booked a consult with the second firm.
The caller was handled, not heard. A shared answering service works from a script for dozens of businesses, usually bills per call or per minute, and its record is an email. The intake that wins the matter never happens.
Same Tuesday. Same 10:40. Same woman.
This time your line answers in your firm's name.
It tells her it's automated, and that the call is transcribed.
It asks what she needs. Then the other party's name, so you can run your conflict check.
It knows you do parenting matters, because you told it.
It books her a consult at 2pm, because you allow bookings.
Your phone buzzes once more.
The file note is already on the matter in Smokeball.
At 1:15 you walk out of court and the first call is done.
Properly.
The caller was heard, and it's on the file.
An illustrative scenario, not a client story.
The first call is the most important call in a matter.
It's also the most overlooked.
Missed or outsourced. Those are the two usual options.
Both feel fine on the day.
Both quietly cost you the client who was ready to instruct.
This isn't bad luck. It's the model.
A phone that only works when you're free.
Or a desk that doesn't know your practice.
Change the model and the first call changes with it.
Your number. Your firm's name. Your rules.
If you're free, it rings you. If you're screening, it puts genuine callers through with a one-line briefing. If you're in court, it takes the intake.
And every call ends as a file note on the matter.
Anyway.
Odds are, you know this.
Never too much reminding, though, before the next call you can't take.
Sunil
Sunil Chand, founder, EzyBiz LEX
What's on the line
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