Once upon a time, we went to offices and used landlines to make phone calls. Today, our smartphones are our lifelines. You will communicate more efficiently if you pay attention to one particular setting.
Identify Yourself
Caller ID announces who you are. Call recipients may see a phone number or the name of the cellular service subscriber. Make a test call to a friend or family member, and ask them what shows up as the caller ID.
What do you do when you get a call from a number you don’t recognize? The pervasiveness of phone spam prompts most of us to send the call to voicemail, to be listened to at a later time. But that’s not how you want your calls treated. Avoid telephone tag by perfecting your caller ID.
Change your setting to what you want your call recipient to see. That’s certainly not a series of numerals. It may not be your subscriber name. If everyone calls you Brad, you might not want caller ID to announce your full legal name, William Bradley Pitt.
Google “how to change caller id on [your cellular service provider]” to find out how to make this change.
Here’s the Hack
Consider caller ID as another branding opportunity among your marketing tools. You’re not just Atticus Finch. You’re Attorney Atticus Finch or Atticus Finch Attorney or Finch Law Office or Finch Criminal Law Office or Finch Criminal Lawyer.
You might want to use your firm name. Tracy & Hepburn Arts Law has more marketing oomph than just Tracy & Hepburn. If these are firm-issued phones, management may want to mandate that everyone change their caller ID to a uniform firm identifier. This can also be done through the administrator account for a monthly fee.
When choosing your caller ID, remember the spectrum of people who will see it. Your marketing motto may be “Artie Attorney Got Me More Money,” but that may not be what you want to display when you call in for a remote hearing or to negotiate with opposing counsel.
You might want to give friends and family the heads-up about the change. It took a while for friends to figure out I was Snyder Mediations, but they adapted quickly.
Illustration ©iStockPhoto.com
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