Some law firms have gone to an automated answering system for incoming calls during normal business hours. The caller is instructed to punch numbers to reach various people within the firm. Often you only get that person’s voicemail. This is one of the poorest examples of how to market your law practice that I can possibly think of – well, there might be a few others – but this is right up there. You should alwyas have a real person answer your firm’s telephone during the work day. Remember, we are in the “personal” services business.
I got to thinking about this misguided practice as a result of seeing Tom Mighell‘s post a couple of days ago where he refers to a find-a-human page that exists on Intuit’s web site. The page helps you cut through the automated system for a number of banks, credit card, and insurance companies among others. Although the listing is pretty limited at this point, the fun part is that you can add companies according to Intuit and tell your fellow humans how to get around impersonal automated systems you have encountered and beat.