Virtual Receptionist Ruby Does it Again!

Some companies have an impressive understanding of client service and relations. Ruby Receptionists is one of them. They’re my awesome virtual receptionist.

Previously I’ve written about their cool welcome mug and their welcome back cake. Today’s post is to praise them for helping out another solo.

In a nutshell, a colleague’s mother is in the hospital (please pray for her). He’s a solo attorney, so the emotional toll due to a situation like this will also take a toll on his practice.

A good friend of mine (Deb Matthews) decided to see if Ruby could help out (she’s a …





Fighting the Email Deluge

Are you drowning in email? Join the club. Fortunately, I’ve come up with a system that helps me keep my inbox relatively under control. Some days are better than others, and I’m trying to keep improving. But here are my email thoughts.

Everybody’s got a different method for this battle. Some work, some don’t. But even among productivity gurus, there are different schools of thought that all work in their own way.

Personally, I believe in two things: 1.) inbox zero, and 2.) search. Combined, they make my email manageable.

But before I explain that, are there ways you can eliminate some of …





Virtual Receptionist Ruby Wins Awards

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Ruby Receptionists. These folks do a kick butt job of providing top notch front line customer service as your virtual receptionist.

I recently found out that Ruby won several cool awards. First, they’re on the list of Portland Business Journal’s 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies for 2010. Second, Oregon Business Magazine named Ruby as one of the “100 Best Companies To Work For.” And finally, Ruby was also named as one of the “Best Green Companies To Work For.”

Here’s my take: awards are cool. But actions speak louder than …





Cake in the Mail – from Ruby

I got a cake in the mail today. Life doesn’t get more awesome than that.

It’s from my awesome virtual receptionist: Ruby.

When I first signed up with Ruby, they sent me a cool mug. When I went back to them, I actually wondered if I’d get another mug. 🙂 Seriously, the mugs are cool.

But they outdid themselves by sending a cake. Not just a plain cake with a computer-printed card inside. It’s a custom cake with a handwritten Ruby note card. Impressive.

Here’s the coolest part: They’re in …


Back With Ruby, Virtual Receptionist

My law firm gets a couple dozen (or more!) phone calls every day. Last year I had a virtual receptionist service help me by answering the phones. I wrote about the service, Ruby Receptionists, two different times.

I hired an in-office assistant last fall, and I stopped using Ruby. I thought me and my assistant could just handle the phones ourselves.

Wrong.

From February 1st to February 24, fourteen unique callers got our voicemail and didn’t leave a message. That probably means we lost at least 10 potential clients. A third of them would most likely have retained me for their …


3 Launchy Tricks – Evernote, Google Voice, RTM

If you want to control your computer from your keyboard, check out Launchy. It’s a free keystroke launcher. Here are three ways to supercharge Launchy.

Evernote

I use Evernote for all my note-taking needs. I constantly need to pull up a note that I’ve previously written. With Launchy and Evernote’s Windows scripting, this is now a piece of cake.

To pull up all of your notes that contain a particular string, you execute a command like this:

C:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote3\ENscript.exe /showNotes QUERY

We can plug that into Launchy as a Runner command:

Now you …


My Custom Business Management System

Business have data to manage, documents to produce, and customers to invoice. Law firms are no different.

I run my own traffic defense law firm. It’s a high-volume practice area, which means I have lots of clients at any given time. There are lots of client contracts and invoices going out and coming back from clients.

In April, I wrote that I wanted to integrate my main systems. It’s done now, and this post explains everything.

What I use

I use a number of separate systems. They all do their job very well.

Remember the Milk (to do lists) – API


Simplicity – Why I Deleted My Plaxo Account

How many social networks are you a member of? Personally, I’m on way too many to count.

Do we really need them all? Probably not.

Here’s a quick simplicity challenge for you: pick one social networking site and delete your account.

I just deleted my Plaxo account (here’s how to delete yours). I chose to delete Plaxo because:

1. I rarely logged in. In fact, I only logged in to accept someone’s connection request.

2. I got fed up with all the connection request emails and emails telling me that the requests were …


Amazing Motivation Handbook!

Do you have trouble with motivation? Is it hard to get motivated? What about keeping yourself motivated?

I suck at motivation. I go through spurts where I’m able to get lots done, but then I have dry spells. When I’m not motivated, I just can’t seem to get anything done.

But now I have an awesome tool to light a motivational fire for myself. It’s The Essential Motivation Handbook.

The Essential Motivation Handbook is a new ebook by Leo Babauta and Eric Hamm. If …


How to Alienate Your Vocal Supporters

Update – 4-27-09 – This was apparently a major misunderstanding. Check out my new post: EchoSign Customer Service To The Rescue!

It’s simple: just focus too much on big businesses.

I love EchoSign for e-signing documents. My clients love it too, so that makes me love it even more. I even wrote about EchoSign over at my law firm website. And the EchoSign folks picked up the article on their blog.

But I’m not feeling the love from EchoSign right now. They let me down.

I’ve been a loyal EchoSign user since I discovered their service last summer. I’ve …


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  • About Andrew Flusche

    Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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