One of the very best things that I did when I set up this law firm, and I did it on day one, was make sure that I do not have a phone sitting here on my desk that has a phone number that is publicly available on my website, that rings with anybody on the internet can call with the expectation that I’m going to pick it up. There’s a number of reasons why this is a good idea. I am typically deep in thought. I’m typically working hard at something, and I’m not really interested in talking to anybody that might have my cell phone number. I need there to be a buffer. And so from the get- go, I’ve always had an answering service. Pick up my phone. People will call and somebody will say Baker Law Group, and they will follow my instructions. And if it is a vendor or somebody trying to sell me something, they get put in the outbox and they never get pushed through.

If it’s a potential client, they are asked certain questions to be screened to see whether it’s a good client or not. If it’s evident that it’s just a different practice area and not somebody that I would ever talk to, these people are politely put in the outbox and they are given suggestions for how they can locate another lawyer. But if it’s any new client that is within the ambit of reasonable possible client for me, my answering service will do data entry. It goes right into my CRM and I immediately get a notification and then I can use systems that I’ve created to begin to bring them along. I can send them forms. I can ask them to give me conflict check information. They fill the forms out, it gets vacuumed up into my system. They give me data about their address and who they are.

And I can spot conflicts and I can avoid getting on the phone with people that I shouldn’t. If it’s other people who are good potential clients, when they type their information in, including the conflict check information, it winds up populating engagement agreements, including advanced waivers of conflicts of interest because I already have the names of the parties who are involved in the matter. So I’m not doing a lot of data entry and there’s a big upside in having somebody else capture all this information and feed it into my CRM for new clients. But if it is someone who identifies as a client of mine on the phone, I’m a current client of Baker Law Group, the answering service immediately tries to transfer them over to my phone. And if I am deep in thought doing something, I can choose to not pick it up and then they are politely handled.

There’s a message that is taken. The answering service has the ability to get them on my calendar at my next availability to send them Zoom links. There’s a lot of instructions. If a judge or a court calls, there’s a different protocol for a potential client versus an existing client. And so it has been a godsend for me because what you’ll find is as soon as you start your own law firm, first of all, all kinds of vendors are going to beat your door down and they’re going to want to talk with you about selling you stuff. If you spend any time on the phone with them, you’re not going to be able to do the things that matter. So it’s a bad idea to pick up the phone and find yourself on the phone with salespeople. And just when you are responsible for the marketing and the operations and the HR and producing the legal work and dealing with younger attorneys and hiring and accounting and bookkeeping and everything that you need to do when you’re sitting in the seat that I’m sitting in right now, time management is very important.

And I am unwilling to have my concentration broken because my phone is ringing and I have no idea who’s on the other line. So generally, my clients don’t get rubbed the wrong way. Generally, there’s a lot of upside for potential clients being handled in a way that allows me to have them screened. And it is so cheap. It costs me roughly per month what one billable hour costs me. And so it’s a no-brainer for me. I mean, this service saves me more than one hour per month, and it frees up my time to focus on the things that are going to move the needle forward. So I think you absolutely need to have a call answering service. Can people tell that it’s an answering service? Yeah, probably. Although I think that if you give them good instructions that are not too complicated and you have a seamless experience, you can minimize that.

And every great while is there a client or an important person that might get rubbed the wrong way by the answering service? Yeah, but my experience is that it’s one in a hundred and I’ve stuck with the same service that I’ve been with for six years and it’s better than any other alternative. I’m definitely not going to just answer my phone for anybody out there that chooses to call me. And every now and again, I will get somebody that I don’t know that might have a negative reaction, that might say, “Oh, I got asked all these questions, all this rig and roll by your answering service.” And I don’t actually say this to them. I’m generally contrite and apologetic, but my internet monologue is, I don’t want to say chuckling, but what I don’t say out loud that I’m thinking is that, “Hey, buddy, this answering service ain’t for you, it’s for me.

” And if one in a hundred or less people gets rubbed wrong by the answering service, but I have freed up 10, 20 hours a month, if I don’t have to have my concentration on something important broken by something that isn’t to me, it is all to the benefit. And so I would urge you to come out of the gate and have somebody else answering your phones, running cover for you. It is almost always the case that when a client or a judge or an important person calls me, it is pushed through to my cell phone. If I choose to not pick up, there is a text message that I get that identifies who the caller is, and I have the option to try to jump onto that call before the answering service is done with them. So it’s all to the positive. And if you’re really going to answer your phone, that’s going to ring on your desk the way that I did for the first 20 years of my law practice, because that’s all I was offered is a phone number that rang on my desk.

At the risk of maybe being a little rough, I don’t think that you’re planning to win because there’s no lawyer who values his or her time that wants to build a serious law firm that is going to be willing to waste five or 10 or 20 hours a month doing what is essentially an administrative function and having their concentration broken. So get over whatever reasons you may have in your head for not wanting to do it. If you’re just getting started and you’re trying to go inexpensive, I still think this is a good spend for you. It shouldn’t cost you more than a billable hour or two of fee to free up five, 10, 20 billable hours a month. Highly recommend having somebody else answer your phone and not having your phone ring on your desk the way that has probably been what you’ve been stuck with for your entire career to this point.