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Tom’s Tech Tips

Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Attention! Step Away From the Keyboard and Pick Up Your Phone

Some days I love email. Other days, I believe it represents the end of intelligent life on earth. Email, like texting, allows us to communicate in real time without the hassle of actually speaking to another person and therein lies the rub.

Recently though, I (and everyone else on the email exchange here at the LegalNurse.com) witnessed a conversation that shouldn’t have been conducted via email. Let me tell you about it.

A meeting was scheduled here at the Institute. It’s a recurring meeting so the dates are selected far in advance and a calendar notice is sent to all attendees. One of the participants is an outside consultant without access to the company’s internal calendar. Let’s call him Bjorn to protect his identity.

Bjorn ran into a scheduling conflict and wanted to change the date of the meeting so he sent an email (1) to the meeting organizer. Let’s call her Lisa to protect her identity. Bjorn included all the other meeting participants and asked to reschedule to another day that week without proposing an actual date. Lisa sent an email (2) back to Bjorn (including all the participants) that she’d be out of the office that week but didn’t suggest an alternative date. Bjorn sent Lisa back another email (3) (including everyone) stating that he could do it any other time but the scheduled week. Lisa returned another email (4) (including everyone) asking whether Bjorn could meet on another day during the week he said he was out. Bjorn suggested another date to which Lisa replied she was unavailable (and we all saw both those emails (5 and 6)). Bjorn then suggested (7) (including everyone) three dates which conflicted with everyone else’s dates (because many of the participants were in Atlanta teaching the CLNC® Certification Seminar and NACLNC® 2-Day Apprenticeship). Lisa then replied (8) (including everyone) that Bjorn’s been consulting with us long enough to know to check our website for seminar dates for conflicts before proposing meeting dates. Before Bjorn could reply to the last email (8) (and include everyone), Lisa proposed another date (9) (including everyone) and asked if it would work. Bjorn replied (10) (including everyone) that it would to which Lisa replied with a thank you (11) (including everyone) and Bjorn replied with a “no problem” (12) (including everyone).

Once they settled on a date, we all received a Microsoft® Outlook® meeting request (13) with the new date. This generated six separate email meeting acceptances (which we all got) (14-19) and one (20) cancelling the prior meeting.

If you’re exhausted from reading about the email exchange, think about the fact that no fewer than seven people were involved in the exchange. This means that a grand total of 140 emails were distributed and read (or deleted) by the parties who were included. I don’t know how you handle email, but I believe that 20 emails to reschedule one meeting is a little on the extreme side.

My point here, and it’s not just on top of my head, is that if Bjorn had called Lisa when he originally needed to reschedule (or if Lisa had called Bjorn), they both could have looked at their calendars and rescheduled the meeting at once – rather than in an email exchange that extended over three days. Think of the time this would have saved all the involved parties.

Now, think about the implications for your practice as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. If you need to schedule or reschedule a meeting with an attorney-client or attorney-prospect, email is normally the way you’d do it right? Maybe it won’t be after reading today’s blog.

A quick phone call to an attorney allows you to reschedule quickly and smoothly. Even attorneys don’t like to say “no” over the phone or in person. I’ll quickly delete or turn down an email invitation (unless it’s Vickie) but when the sender calls and talks to me, I find it much harder to do so. In other words, while email would seem a simpler method for a CLNC® consultant to communicate with an attorney, telephone calls still have a place in today’s society.

If you get the attorney’s voicemail, leave a message with the issue and give him a convenient time to call back when you know you’ll be available. Savvy Certified Legal Nurse Consultants also know that phone calls retie the connection – giving you a chance to ask about his family, other cases and just to remind them that you’re out there.

So, the next time you get ready to send out an email, think about it first. Then put down the device and reach for your phone instead. You’ll find it to be a much more satisfying and efficient experience.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.

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