“Please call me back when you have a moment, my number is…” How many of these messages have you left in your professional career?

Almost any professional will tell you that client responsiveness (or lack thereof) can halt the flow of your daily business. In the legal industry, clients who are not responsive can lead to missed paperwork, deadlines, court dates, or a number of other time sensitive matters.

What are some steps to take when you cannot seem to get a call back?

Incentivize the Call Back

Hopefully most of your clients or prospective clients are happy to hear from you. They have retained your services because they believe in your merits. However, if you cannot communicate the value of working with your firm, you may find that return phone calls from both current and prospective clients are few and far between.

1. Add Value in Your Message - Leaving a voicemail can be as casual as “Hey call me back” but this approach does not incentivize your client to return your call. Instead, leave a compelling voicemail that is concise and straightforward:



“Hey Joe, this attorney Finch I have some documents I need you to sign so we can proceed with your case. Please give me a call back at your earliest convenience.”




It might seem simple, but you need to give your client an explicit reason to call you back in a timely manner. Joe probably received many requests or calls throughout his day, how will yours stand out?

2. Mix It Up – You dedicate about 30 minutes in the morning to rapidly call every client who has not yet returned your calls. What’s wrong with this?

Well, your client may have a busy morning, but relatively open afternoon. Because you have stuck to calling at the same time every day, you may be keeping things convenient for you, but simultaneously inconveniencing your client and therefore you are stuck ‘spinning your wheels.’ Try varying the hours in which you reach out to your clients.

3. Set a Deadline – Assuming your client has many other commitments throughout the day, you need to communicate how important returning your call is.

Putting a deadline on when your client needs to take action can easily do this. You’ve added urgency, hopefully making it harder for your client to push back your request in favor of other matters.

Emailing Effectively

In 2013, the total number of worldwide email accounts was around 3.9 billion. This figure is expected to rise to over 4.9 billion accounts by the end of 2017 (The Radicati Group, Inc. Email Statistics Report: 2013-2017 2013).

Given this, it is safe to assume that email communication will become increasingly important for your law firm and its’ interaction with clients. How can you stay relevant in your client’s inbox?

1. Be Concise– Your email is one of many. If you are simply looking to check in with your client during a down time, consider limiting your email to around 2-3 sentences. After all, you are just looking to illicit a response, not inquire about specifics.

If the purpose of your email is to obtain information that is complex, you will want to spell out exactly what questions you need answered. Consider making each major question its own paragraph in your email, perhaps even bolded or italicized to bring specific attention to each issue.

2. Check Your Preferences – Email servers allow you to edit your “Full Name” which will most likely appear, as a bolded name in your client’s inbox. Capturing your client’s first glance is important.

Ask yourself, which appears more appropriate for an attorney, “John Smith” or “john smith”?

You may have just quickly entered your full name when configuring your email account, but now your emails may be getting overlooked as spam that has made it in to the inbox. After all, you might not get the response you’re looking for if your intended recipient cannot identify you.

Getting Your Mail Recognized and Returned

Law firms often mail packets and other materials to their clients, but your local supermarket and pizza chain are also fighting for space in the same mailbox. What are some steps you can take to make your retainer packet more appealing than a discounted large cheese pizza?

1. Colors - Using bright or off colored envelopes will automatically differentiate your postage from the other items in the mailbox. Attention will hopefully lead to action.
2. Track your packet – Depending on where the packet is mailed, you can usually track when the package will arrive in your client’s mailbox. As a piece of paper, that packet is pretty unremarkable. If you can give your client a timely follow up call on the day that your packet should arrive, you’ve just added more urgency to the opening and signing of your packet.
3. Prepaid Postage – Offering to pay for return postage is an easy, relatively inexpensive way to show your client that you are very interested in representing them. In today’s digital world, your client may not even have stamps readily available. If the return envelope you send is pre-stamped, you’ve given your client one less step to complete.

Whether it’s by quickly changing your follow-up emails or including an extra stamp with your retainer package, your firm can radically increase its number of signed cases by taking a few small steps to improve your methods of communication with clients.

Unless your firm is signing 100% of your desired cases, there are always opportunities to increase your signed case volume.