A gatekeeper is meant to keep unwanted and unimportant calls from distracting and disturbing you during the workday, when you are helping a client or preparing for court. But what if your gatekeeper is keeping the potential clients you want from coming in?
When a potential client calls your office for the first time, he or she will encounter the gatekeeper, who acts as the first impression of your law firm and decides whether to put the call through to a lawyer in the office. Unfortunately, your gatekeeper may not always recognize when a caller is in need and has a potentially lucrative and important case. He or she may not transfer the call. Worse, he or she may put a client on hold and then forget to transfer the call, effectively discouraging that person from calling your office again.
As an attorney, you know exactly when a person’s call is worth listening to, but the person you’ve hired to manage the office phone lines may not. We recommend that you have a conversation with your gatekeeper about which calls to put through and which to deny, specifically. Make sure to periodically check with him or her about the calls that your firm is receiving.