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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. Great Legal Marketing and Accessibility Are Not Compatible Many lawyers pride themselves on being available 24 hours a day, seven days per week for clients and prospective clients to call them. If you are one of those lawyers, this is your wake-up call. Being available all the time is not perceived as excellent service. It is perceived as a desperate attempt to get any client possible. In the case of existing clients, it is perceived as doing anything and everything possible to keep the clients you have. Think about it from the client’s perspective: If you are good, one of the best, in your area of practice, you should be busy, very busy. If I call your office and your assistant says: “Mr. Smith has client meetings all day today. Can I schedule an appointment to have him return the call tomorrow?” How does that position you? Think of it this way: You call the heart surgeon to ask a question about your medication and his assistant says: “Hold on, he’s right here” and she hands him the phone. What if he answered the phone himself? A great surgeon spends his time with patients and in surgery. If he has time to a take unscheduled calls he must not be busy. Not busy means not good. If you want to be accessible and if you want to capture the client at their time of greatest need, have SOMEONE answer the phone 24 hours a day but always schedule a return call from the attorney or from the expert (you). I know, I know, the criminal attorneys who read this are shaking their heads. They are saying it is their business to answer those calls in the middle of the night. Maybe. But think about the kind of client placing that call to you. If that person is your ideal client, then fine, take the call. But think about the kind of practice you will have if that is the intake process for the majority of your clients. If you must handle those clients, have a junior attorney field the call and handle the bond hearing. Then you take the case from that point forward. The best attorney only gets up in the middle of the night for a select few clients. The bottom line on accessibility: The best person in any field is also the busiest and also has total command of his schedule. Are you the best? Would you like to be perceived as the best? If so, give some thought to how you manage access to your law firm’s most valuable asset, you. Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/great_legal_marketing_and_accessibility_are_not_compatible/