According to a recent Bright Local study*, 84% of consumers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation and 74% of consumers say that a positive review makes them trust a local business. In today’s digital world, your law firm’s online reputation could determine how successful your practice is.

Consumers are more inclined to leave a review when they have a bad experience as opposed to a good experience. If only a couple of the hundreds or thousands of clients your firm have signed have a bad experience, it does not mean that your law firm doesn’t treat clients well. However, if those few clients are the only ones who review your law firm online then potential clients will think your firm has a bad reputation. So how do you get clients who have a good experience to leave a review?

According to same study mentioned above, 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review if they are asked to. You should find that many of your clients will be more than happy to leave positive reviews about your firm, especially if they received a major settlement from your legal services.

Make sure that your paralegals, attorneys, and intake staff understand the importance of receiving positive online reviews. You could perhaps even setup some sort of a bonus system for employees based on the number and quality of reviews that they get.

Clients won’t go out of their way to leave a review unless they had a negative experience with your law firm; thus, it is important that a client can leave an online review for your firm without much effort. Setup profiles for your company on websites such as Yelp or Avvo to make it easy for your clients to leave a glowing review.

Dealing with Negative Reviews

Law firms and businesses in general will have some unsatisfied clients from time to time—After all, it’s not possible for your firm to pursue every claimant who contacts you, and not every case can be won in court. Occasional negative reviews can be negated by having a timely and thorough response. Ignoring a bad review could signal to clients that you simply don’t care.

Don’t be combative in your response, as it could be off putting to potential clients who are thinking about retaining your firm’s services. Unfortunately, the customer is always correct…even when they are wrong. Stay positive in your response and make sure you convey a sense of caring and a want to improve the quality of the legal services you provide.

Lastly, take the review to heart and try to make improvements so your firm is consistently providing a high quality of service to your clients. Having happy clients is the best long-term strategy to build a positive online reputation and entice potential claimants to choose your legal services over your competitors.

Building a solid online reputation can take some time. At eGenerationMaketing, we have been generating leads for attorneys since 2009. Call us today (617.800.0089) or send us an email to find out how we can help your firm get more clients and help you build a positive online reputation.

* https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey