Nothing wastes time like a wasted phone call. Especially when that phone call lands you in a voice mailbox and the game of attorney-client phone tag is on.

Best practice for lawyers has always dictated that a missed call from a client be returned the same day. If not the same day, certainly within 24 hours of the call.

But how much time do you waste on missed return calls each day. How much time do you waste being interrupted with a call that has nothing to do with the case you’re working on? Calls like that force you to stop your train of thought, possibly go grab a file that was nowhere around and then get in the frame of mind to handle the call. All the while losing track of the last matter you were working on.

To save yourself at least 30 minutes in a day, set aside a time block in the afternoon when you can go down a list of gathered messages from the day and knock them out one after the other. To increase the efficiency of the return calls, make sure your secretary or paralegal explains to the initial caller that the call will be returned during the time you have set aside for your return calls and that the client needs to give a number where they will be at that time. Establishing the fact that the call will be returned within a time block is the key to increased efficiency.

Knowing the number where the client can be reached at a certain time of day can increase your chances of speaking with the client on the first go around and eliminate the horrible phone tag game that can go on for days. Never ask a client “At what number can you be reached?”. Always add the time factor like “At what number can you be reached between 4:00 and 4:30 PM today?”. Adding the time factor puts the burden on the client to be available at a time certain and actually makes for a happier client because the client knows when the call is coming and the client doesn’t waste time wondering when and if the call will be returned.

When viewing a matter in GoMatters, all contact numbers associated with contacts assigned to the matter are shown under the Matter Contacts tab. Seeing all known numbers for a contact assigned to a case allows you to bounce from number to number in seconds. If a call to one number is not successful, save yourself valuable time and bounce to the other number without fumbling through files.

Your staff members using GoMatters can add phone message return requests to matters as tasks throughout the day without disturbing you. You can pick off the messages as they appear in your task list or you can follow the time block rule outlined above and return all your calls in your time block reserved for that purpose. If your staff has recorded your message return requests as matter tasks, you can increase your efficiency by moving down the task list and viewing each task matter with all contact information in seconds.