I read a post on a family law list serve yesterday asking about “no-shows” or missed appointments. The attorney was wondering why people make an appointment for an initial consultation and then fail to show up. Is it because the consult fee is more than they can afford and they’re embarrassed to say so? Is it because it might be a week before the meeting and they find someone else that’s available immediately? Is it just an inevitable thing that’s going to happen sometimes no matter what you do?

I think the attorney asking the question was on the right track, generally, with the possible causes. Some “no-shows” are the result of the three causes mentioned above. There is, however, in my opinion, a more prevalent cause.

I think the larger cause of “no-shows” is a lack of connection between the prospective client and the firm. For some reason they didn’t feel as if the firm understood them and was willing to help them. They didn’t get a sense that the firm was there for them, heard their story and was poised to solve their problem.

For many years we’ve assigned one person, at a time, to handle all of our initial consultation calls.  These calls are pretty much the only duty assigned to this position. We usually have a  young woman who keeps the job for between one and three years. By the end of her tenure she is usually pretty burned out on listening to upset people.

We’ve tracked conversion rates and cancellation rates for these employees for more than a decade and have analyzed the data carefully. We’ve found that these employees perform very well at the beginning. They are most successful at about three months into the position and then they fade a bit. They generally hold steady until about three months before they leave the position.

We’ve theorized that “burn out” is the biggest factor in the decrease in conversions and increase in cancellations. When they burn out they are less able to be empathetic on the phone. They don’t listen as well as they did when they were new and enthusiastic. They aren’t as willing to let callers drone on and on. They are more likely to cut to the chase, schedule the appointment and get off the phone.

The caller picks up on the employee’s attitude. They feel like they talked to a scheduler rather than to a person committed to helping them solve their problem. They’re more likely to decide not to come for their appointment and to feel like calling to cancel is unnecessary.

I suspect that “burn out” or “busyness” also impact attorneys handling these calls themselves. I suspect that careful tracking would show more n0-shows when an attorney really needs a vacation and when the attorney is on overload with other tasks. To avoid “no-shows” focus on building a connection with the prospective client before the appointment. You’ll still get some missed appointments. But there will be fewer of them.