The Voice of Empathy: How Adrienna Becker Crafts Client Journeys

Hope: One of my best friends was working as an attorney at the firm, and she loved the atmosphere. The small but growing business was a really big draw for me. Seemed like the best of both worlds.

Hope: I look through the call report from the previous working day to identify issues from the day before, answer incoming calls, and coordinate covering all the leads that come in with my team. We also help send out fee agreements to people wanting to hire. When we get that document back we set them up in our system for the legal team and collect the initial retainer.

Hope: The job has changed a lot since I started. I like that I’m listened to whenever I bring up ways to improve what we do, and how that can integrate better with the different departments.  At the end of the day, we all want to work towards a common goal. Intake isn’t the most flashy job, but the other departments always make me feel like a vital and respected member of the company.

I honestly feel like my work is valued and my opinion matters and that has made all the difference. It’s why I’ve worked here for five years, and it’s why I could see myself working here for another five—or more. Maybe one day I’ll outgrow my role, and all my supervisors and bosses have made it clear that they’d love for me to continue growing as the company does.

Hope: I just take each call at a time. The call that’s ringing to me directly will always be the top priority. From there, leads are next important because those are people who have reached out to us and are eager to talk to an attorney. We want to get them talking to someone as quickly as possible.

Hope: Right now our team is growing. We just brought on two new intake members, so It’s been a new challenge trying to figure out a streamlined way to split up the work with a larger group (leads as they come in, etc.) The way we’re working through that is to have a rotation. We’ve started to communicate almost like a sports team. “I got this lead. Next will be @NAME.” So that there’s never any confusion about who should be doing what when new things come in.

Hope: Like anything practice and routine are the best way for consistency. It can be a little too easy to get jaded or numb to things when you hear about these terrible circumstances every day. I aspire to use the same sympathetic tone and listening skills with each call so that it becomes routine to the point where I don’t think about it. We all have days where we’re just exhausted and might feel like we’re going through the motions. I’ve had days where I feel checked out, but because my muscle memory to prioritize compassion is so strong I’ve had the person on the other line say to me “I’ve been calling people all day, and you’ve been the sweetest person I’ve talked to. Thank you so much for listening.”  It honestly shocks me, because I might not have necessarily felt engaged, but that repetition and routine were still ringing clear for them. Direct comments like that make me realize how important it is to constantly strive for compassion and connection. It’s so important to make a conscious effort when you can so those days where you just can’t it still shines through.

Hope: Making someone’s day just a little bit brighter when they feel like they’re at their lowest and no one else will listen to them.

Hope: We try not to gatekeep. We’ve been told it’s not our job to filter (the attorneys will do that), so the only parameters we check are if the call falls under our service list and is family law. Having said that we do use our best judgment. If someone calls and they’re cursing and rude or clearly under the influence we might decide that’s not someone we want to pass on to an attorney.

Hope: If someone calls in and they’re looking for someone to help with say their landlord. We’d say, “We do family law here, like divorce, custody, and adoption. It sounds like you might need someone who handles tenet law for that.” We do our best to nudge them in the right direction if we can, but I’m always upfront and tell them that I’m not an attorney and wouldn’t be able to say for sure. They’re usually happy to recieve any direction we can provide.

Hope: The biggest collaboration is getting the fee agreement signed and the retainer paid. Once those two things happen, they have officially become a client. It’s very important to keep the attorney informed about any issues that may arise. For instance, if the fee agreement gets signed incorrectly and we have to send it back out, or we discover they want to use a 3^rd party payer for part or all of the payment, we might need to send multiple documents to them to sign—or if the payment declines when we try to run it. At every step we message the attorney and make a clear note about where we are in the process, and if we hit any issues.