Recently
I wrote an article, "The High Velocity Law Office" that was published
in an ABA newsletter (http://tinyurl.com/7xntx3s),
and a Texas Bar newsletter (http://tinyurl.com/7aarykf). One of the constraints of publishing in those
environments is you cannot endorse a specific product. Of course there are no such constraints here
in blog-land, so what follows is a product endorsement. I have received no remuneration for the
following product endorsement.
If
I had to pick one piece of technology that most lawyers (and mobile
professionals) don't use but should adopt, it is voice mail-to-email. I started using a service called Phonetag
about 4 or 5 years ago. I figured that
by now everyone would have adopted it.
It is baffling to me that this service has not had greater market
penetration than it has. The way it
works is you pay about $10/month (for forty transcribed messages, extra if you go over 40) and have your unanswered phone calls forwarded
to a number assigned to you by PhoneTag.
When the call is routed to that number, your caller hears your
customized message, similar to regular voice mail. and typically you inform callers
that their message will be transcribed, and ask them to speak clearly Phonetag does a very good job of transcribing
messages, and sends you that transcription in the body of an email
message. In that email Phonetag also attaches
what is called a ".WAV" file of the message so that you can listen to
it if you need to. Occasionally I have
to listen to the attached file, but most of the time the transcript is good
enough.
Sometimes,
in time sensitive situations, or during a lull in a business meeting (when attendees are known
to furtively peek at their smartphones for messages), or when you are on the go
and it is not convenient to dial in for your voice mail, it is extremely helpful
to get a transcript of a voice mail message.
If
you don't have Phonetag, and you are looking at ways to increase your
productivity, this one is at the top of my list. www.Phonetag.com
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