Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Rjon Robins had a good article on his How to Make it Rain site concerning a telephone policy called the "Sun Down Rule," that was promoted as the way a lawyers office should return client phone calls.

In his words, it goes like this: “If you want to make your clients happy, be sure to return their telephone calls before the sun goes down.” He says that the lawyers that have used this as their strategy for returning calls have had all sorts of problems from this way of doing it.

Here's how he explains it once the client is told that the attorney will return their call before the sun goes down:

"At 11:00 your client’s spouse asks if s/he would like to join them for lunch. Of course, the answer is “no.” “Because I am waiting for my lawyer to call me back, before the sun goes down.” At 1:00 after eating at home alone, your client’s son or daughter asks for a ride but is turned down because the client is waiting for their lawyer to call, you guessed it, “before the sun goes down.”

"At this point, the client is beginning to wonder whether their lawyer is really going to call or not so they call your office to make sure you got the message. With this being only the second call of the day the client is still relatively relaxed and polite, but they won’t be when they make their next call in a couple of hours after being tethered to the phone all day."

His advice is that it is much better to devise a policy of scheduling telephone appointments at a specific time. Once that is done, than it must be treated the same as an office appointment.

He also offers that all the information concerning the specifics of the call should be written down so that it can be gone over and the call can be prepared for.

The result has been that everyone, including the clients are much happier and satisfied when business is done in this way.

Obviously this is specifically in connection with businesses that include appointments as part of their model. I've been a sales manager for a large company before, and can testify that this is a much better way of doing things, than the keep-the-people-locked-at-home way of doing things. The longer the day goes on, their frustration and anger builds and builds as one thing after another is dropped because they're waiting for a call.

Has this been a problem in your office?