I could see their faces on my screen, but when their mouths moved, I couldn’t hear anything. “Mr. Smith, do you see the icon that looks like a microphone at the bottom of your screen?” I found myself yelling into my microphone, a souped-up version that looks like the prop Larry King used on CNN. We bought these for our attorneys and staff conducting video conferences, because they transmit higher quality sound than the ones built into the cameras.
Mr. Smith, obviously frustrated, looked at his wife, who with a scowl seemed to adjust her settings. She was obviously trying to speak to me, but the sound still wasn’t there.
“AJ!” I yelled for our in-house tech wizard, whose office sits next to mine. He came running into my office. “Can you please call the Smiths and walk them through how to get their sound working correctly?” On their monitor, my clients could obviously see there was now a young man in my office nodding. I didn’t know if they could hear my voice or not, so I kept my speech cleaner than I typically do when frustrated.
Thankfully, over time, those scenes became less frequent, as our client base of retirees adapted to video conferencing. I chuckled with our team over the complaints voiced by a few of our decamillionaires about having to purchase new laptops because their 15-year-old desktop couldn’t support today’s conferencing software.
Then there were other issues. Sanibel Island, Fla., where several of our clients reside, doesn’t exactly have the fastest WiFi speeds, as anyone vacationing there can tell you. “I broke the Zoom…” one sweet widow sobbed when her conference kept cutting out due to that very issue, making her look like a Max Headroom commercial. (Younger professionals reading this—Google it!)
Cloud-Based CRM
Returning to Florida from the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 2020, there were five passengers—total—on the American Airlines Boeing 737. Fortunately, my wife and I had priority boarding. Like everyone else, we had no idea how long or serious the pandemic would be. I never suspected that my firm would implement five years’ worth of new technology during the first 12 months of the pandemic.
And—as you might imagine—our staff loved it! They had to learn how to operate a litany of new software programs while balancing whether to work remotely (and be with their school-aged children 24/7) or come into the office. Yes, our office was open compliments of Governor Ron “What Me Worry?” DeSantis’ best impersonation of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neumann.
Did I mention that during the pandemic we chose to switch our customer relationship management (CRM) software of 17 years? In contrast to the developer’s promises, the migration of files from TimeMatters to our new Microsoft Dynamics platform went about as smoothly as the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill in the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Despite the initial headaches, the CRM eventually delivered as promised, enabling us easily to work from virtually anywhere, which I took advantage of.
If I was going to video conference from my home office, for example, it needed a bit of sprucing up, meaning that the cats’ litter box had to be moved out of the camera’s line of sight. My wife loved having me around our home, so much so that she told me to return into the office. “You can NEVER retire!” she proclaimed after a few days of me working remotely.
The new CRM also enabled me to transform our wonderful mountain retreat home into another stressful venue where I could visit with clients, review their documents and conduct meetings just like I do when I’m at my real office! I could even mediate the ever-increasing conflicts among our firm’s stressed-out staff members using Microsoft Teams. I wonder why they don’t promote that feature more?
Seasonal Residents
Many of our Southwest Florida clients are seasonal, in that they reside somewhere else during the brutal summer months. Typically, that means a lightly scheduled August and September, allowing our team to catch up on files that were tabled for too long.
Our clients’ growing confidence with video conferencing enabled them to visit with us throughout the year! My schedule became packed with appointments taking time that I typically use to edit documents and dictate correspondence. What fun!
Outdoor Signings
Signing wills and trusts during COVID-19 was an adventure. Following CDC guidelines, we conducted signings in our beautiful (and extremely well ventilated) carport behind our office building. For those familiar with Florida summertime weather, booming afternoon thunderstorms darken our skies, complete with numerous flashes of fierce lightning bolts.
Most signings could be scheduled safely in the relatively benign, if not terribly humid, morning weather. One of my law partners made the continuing mistake of scheduling afternoon signings. It became sport to watch him hold down documents while gusty tropical winds threatened to blow them into the next county. It was also fortunate that one client wore Depends when a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree in our parking lot.
For the most part, our clients took it in stride. We did have one middle-aged physician who complained through clenched teeth that she was sweating through her delicate silk blouse. When she saw an older man enter the building, she summoned for me (as my staff was handling her signing) inquiring why he could enter the air-conditioned building but not her, a well-paying client.
I explained that the older man was my 80-year-old widowed father whom I was taking to lunch. To eat outdoors, of course.
Remote Testamentary Signings
Speaking of signings, Florida, along with many other states, passed new laws regulating remote notarizations and testamentary signings. What’s apparently unique about Florida law is that the remote testamentary video documentation requirements are so onerous that, according to our Florida Bar continuing education classes on the subject, not one vendor that conducts and stores the signing videos satisfies all of them. Our malpractice carrier continues to be happy with our decision not to sign testamentary documents remotely.
Webinars and Roundtables
Typically, my office conducts several workshops for our clients, especially those in our client care program. Obviously, COVID-19 protocols prohibited large get-togethers, as ours often number over 250 individuals. Our clients were most upset, by the way, of missing out on the “delicious cookies and pastries” we purchased from Costco. Membership has its privileges.
We became quite adept at conducting video workshops, webinars and more intimate roundtables. These became invaluable for keeping in touch with our client base, adding client value during a difficult time. In all seriousness, one client, whose husband resided in their continuing care retirement community’s memory care unit prohibiting visitors, even spouses, shed tears of appreciation that she was able to interact with us.
Most of our clients’ adult children don’t reside nearby, so a bonus of conducting video meetings enabled us to interact more with them than was usual before the pandemic. Building strong relationships with our clients’ families’ next generation continues to pay dividends, except for one client’s chain-smoking, sailor-mouthed daughter who believes that her parents’ brains have been taken over by aliens. It takes all kinds, doesn’t it? I don’t know what “kind” she is, as that’s above my pay grade.
Video Explanations
Using the software “Loom,” we created video explanations of our estate-planning documents. With this low cost software program, you can record your screen and overlay an audio explanation as you scroll through documents. Initially, we weren’t confident that clients would like to receive video explanations and wondered if they would even watch them.
As it turns out, they did! We found that recording an explanation of a trust, an advanced estate-planning illustration or advance directives cut down the amount of time necessary for review meetings. Plus, the client questions were at a much higher level.
To Vax or Not to Vax…
During this pandemic we learned that there’s a third topic of conversation to avoid besides money and politics—vaccines. How to deal with clients who didn’t intend to vaccinate was the easy question. We either met remotely, or if we were to meet in person, such as at signings, we simply asked the client to wear a hazmat suit. Temperature checks, tubes of hand sanitizer and masks usually did the trick, but for the occasional client who refused to comply, we had one less client to serve.
The more difficult issue we encountered was with certain staff members who felt quite adamant about not immunizing themselves. It was difficult finding a happy medium between those who felt strongly about everyone getting vaccinated and those who felt just the opposite. While I don’t claim to understand or empathize with those who carry strong anti-vax opinions, we’re in a tough labor market, so dismissing someone who was careful, wore masks, agreed to take COVID-19 tests and was otherwise pleasant isn’t something that we wanted to do.
Social Media
During COVID-19, our outreach through social media grew more sophisticated. Creating content is most important here, which I happen to enjoy doing. I learned what it meant to have an “engagement” with a post and learned the difference between how social media vendors define success and how my firm defines it.
As one prime example, we had an experience with a national publishing company that suggested we post articles on their newspapers’ websites. You’re probably familiar with how this works—in between a newspaper’s published articles would be ours, with the words “paid content” above them. We got charged for clicks (called “engagements”). The publishing company was thrilled with the number of engagements we got. As it turns out, we weren’t.
In a short period of time, we ran up a $40,000 bill, from which the only direct interaction with a potential client was a handwritten letter from an inmate at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Fla. seeking counsel to claim the inheritance his sister cheated him out of.
We declined representation.
As coaching programs will tell you, there are no failures, only learning experiences. We learned 40,000 lessons on how not to do social media marketing. An upcoming article I’m writing for this publication is entitled “What I Wish I Knew Before I Hired a Social Media Marketing Agency.” Stay tuned.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my firm’s COVID-19 experience. I’m sure you have some interesting stories to relate as well. Let’s hope we’re done with pandemics for the rest of our careers!