“Hi this is Lee Rosen. It’s Thursday and I’ll be in the office all day today. If you’d like to leave a message please do so at the tone. If you’d like to speak to the receptionist please press zero. Thanks for calling.”
That’s, more or less, the message you’ll hear on my voice mail anytime you call. That message stays the same whether I’m working from the Raleigh office, Charlotte office, home office, coffee shop or on vacation. I don’t change it when I’m at a CLE program or the courthouse. I don’t vary the message except in extreme circumstances when I, or someone on our staff, really can’t check the messages.
The last thing I want is for a client or, more importantly, a prospective client to call and feel that I’m unavailable. I want them to know that, one way or another, I’ll make sure their problem gets solved.
With this message the prospective client always assumes that I’m available. Whether I’m available or not I can listen to the message, return the call or forward it to someone else to return the call. Usually, I’m able to return the call myself via my cell phone regardless of where I might be spending the day.
I can understand someone feeling a need to cut themselves off from the office and be on vacation. I respect that and think that it’s an important part of renewing yourself so that you can keep doing this work. I wouldn’t, however, want to lose out on potential business as a result of a vacation. If you really need to disconnect, then go ahead and have someone else screen the calls for you and only contact you as you direct.
With my current system I’m able to be certain that any prospective client calling leaves a message and I can decide how to deal with it once I’ve had a chance to hear it. I certainly don’t want to mislead someone into thinking that I’ll be more available than I actually am. But, I also don’t want a client to get the impression that I can’t find a solution for their problem. Therefore, I make sure that I have a system in place for dealing with whatever messages come in to my voice mail.
