Balance and Tone in Automated Responses
Whether it is your voicemail greeting, email auto-response, or automatically appended disclaimers, have you reviewed these messages for tone and customer-centricity? Are you using online calendars to schedule meetings? You may be trying to increase immediate responses and let people know how you communicate, but the tone may deliver a message you do not intend. Re-read your responses and think about how you can improve them.
Voicemail Greetings
Keep your voicemail greeting short and friendly. Try not to leave too many instructions or lengthy information that a person would desperately have to grab a pen and paper to jot down. Think about how the message sounds. For instance, saying “I’m away from the office and I will return your call at my earliest convenience” makes the message about you. Try “I’m away from the office and I will return your call as soon as possible”. Slight changes can make an enormous difference in the tone and customer service approach to a short message. Voicemail remains a delicate balance if this Miss Manners column from 2009 is any indication.
Email Disclaimers
Lawyers still use lengthy email disclaimers that are appended to every outbound message. However, are they effective? If the disclaimer is supposed to protect against the creation of an attorney-client relationship, remind recipients that the email is confidential and to notify the sender if it was received by an unintended party, disclaim liability for any viruses transmitted by the email, or remind the recipient of duties under the tax law, should all of these disclaimers be included on every outbound email? If you have a disclaimer about confidentiality at the bottom of the message the recipient will necessarily have to read the entire message BEFORE she realizes her “duties” not to read it if it was sent in error. If the email doesn’t use a formal letter approach: “Dear John Smith”, how would a recipient know whether it was intentionally sent to him or not? Way back in 2012 an attorney writing for the Wall Street Journal likened email disclaimers to the modern equivalent of mattress tags – “… has anyone ever been arrested for tearing them off?”
Rethink how you use and when you use disclaimers. You can leverage the subject line by appending information that the recipient will see even before opening the email. For instance, you can add [Confidential to John Smith] in the subject. Yes, it will take a little longer to write but reduces the need to have a lengthy disclaimer. You may still add the disclaimer in the email footer but make it short and in plain language. Do you really need any of the following words in your disclaimer: thereto, herein, hereby, thereof?
If you use disclaimers, consider adding them based on the context of the message and use them intentionally (not on every single email). There are several ways to make this effort easy, using email templates, QuickParts, QuickSteps, signature blocks and more. Review your disclaimers for plain language and whether they are still appropriate (for instance, do you need that Circular 230 disclaimer?). You can also take affirmative steps to reduce the risk of sending an email to the wrong person.
Email Auto-Responses
More and more attorneys are managing their time by using automated messages set to reply to someone who emails them. However, with a blanket approach every single email they receive gets an auto-response, whether it is appropriate or not. Many times, these responses are intended to let the sender know how quickly they may expect a response. If you go into detail about how busy you are, how you manage your day by checking and responding to email only at certain times, that people other than clients or potential clients can expect significant delays in response, and other information you are setting a tone implying your time may be more valuable than the senders. While these messages may help create realistic expectations, they may be off-putting.
Consider brief and targeted auto-responses instead. You can set up an auto-response to emails that are generated from a “contact us” form for potential clients on your website with rules and templates. You can leverage Microsoft Outlook out of office replies to target your response to people in the firm, outside of the firm, and even send specific messages to people who are or are not in your contacts list. If you use auto responses, consider how they will read in multiple situations. If you ask a fellow attorney for some help and she emails you and receives an email auto-response suggesting that since she isn’t a client or potential client there will be a significant delay in response your use of blanket automation may create unintended consequences.
Online Scheduling Tools
Calendly, Accuity, Bookings, and comparable products can be extremely helpful for attorneys. They help reduce the back-and-forth negotiations on availability and automatically create meetings on all participants’ electronic calendars. These tools free up your time and that of your team. However, there is a delicate balance in using these tools for convenience and how you express that desire to make it apparent to your meeting attendees. How you phrase your request to book time on your calendar is remarkably important.
While many people like convenience, some feel like you are more concerned with managing your time than theirs. For instance, a recent Twitter post suggesting that “Calendly etiquette is the most raw/naked display of social capital dynamics in business”, sparked many lengthy discussions both for and against the use and convenience of this type of tool. Turns out people have some strong feelings about being asked to use an online scheduling tool ranging from: “a Calendly link can feel very ‘I’d like to speak to you. Please schedule that for me.’” to “I don’t want to waste time with back-and-forth, or with a professional that can’t make the small effort to set up a scheduling service.” You can’t please everyone but how you introduce the request to use your online scheduling tool is extremely important.
You may consider not using the link at all with some people and with others use language that provides some options like “Find a time that works with your schedule here: https://calendly.com/yourname or let me know some times that work for you.”
Conclusion
Attorneys have many ways to communicate. Sometimes the plethora of communications tools creates noise, confusion, and undue stress. Using technology to help manage the back and forth is essential. However, consider how your message may be perceived and fine tune the automation so that the response is appropriate, customer centric, and targeted.