subject: The key to marketing is the folks who answer your phone [print this page] Staff Training Staff Training
Your front end person and staff can make or break your practice. You have less then five minutes to make an impression and win that client poor telephone answering skills will lose that client in a minute. There are 100's of lawyers competing for the same market. Why should they wait for you?
How confident are you in your staff's skills, abilities and performance? Is it time for a staff assessment to identify who's operating at maximum capacity and who isn't?
Does your front end person have a script for responding to callers. Is her job to say "Please hold I will give you their voice mail."
Never underestimate how much your callers and referring attorneys judge you by how your staff treats them from the first phone call to their most recent appointment.
You may need some analytical guidance to dramatically raise your practice's retainer rate.
Seek out tailored programs to meet the customized needs of your practice. Whether it's role-playing, phone skills training, and individualized counseling with staff members who need special coaching, modification in their approach and telephone answering skills, trainers can meet your individual goals and objectives for building a winning team. They need to exude warmth and personal faith in you. Depending on your field of law your callers are in a serious emotional state.
This may be their first experience with a legal problem. They may be angry, in pain and afraid for their future. You must be able to hit their hot button and fast.
Staff training must be able to help identify the problems with your office systems and processes.
Your staff must learn how to make the right impression during a clients "defining moment," and the entire process from that first phone call until they are in front of you must be followed and analyzed by a relable professional.
Utilizing a variety of internal marketing strategies, your practice should be diagnosed for your particular situation, and an ACTION PLAN developed with your staff to enforce ongoing, consistent initiatives for generating clients and referrals. You must be more interested in the ones you lose then the ones you retain. You must design an exit questionaire. The most important question is would you refer your friends and associates to us? A practice that is more then 50% referrals is self sustaining and more profitable
The key to marketing is the folks who answer your phone
