There used to be a time where reviews did not play such a vital role for law firms (at least online reviews didn’t). All you needed to get a consistent flow of clients were more of things like word of mouth, recommendations, and a solid reputation. But, what can we say; the world is ever-changing.
Now, in these times of mind-blowing advancements, reviews for a law firm matter more than before. Here are some stats to give you some perspective:
- 24% of people say they will not hire a lawyer who has less than an average of five-star reviews.
- 84% of people say they will not hire a lawyer who has less than an average of four-star reviews.
- Only a small 8.54% of people say they won’t be concerned about reviews when hiring a lawyer.
We could go on and on with the stats but they will all prove the same point – reviews are vital to the success of law firms.
The downside to all of this is that the whole business of reviews can be both tricky and frustrating. In fact, you could be one of these right now:
- You have zero reviews.
- You have too many negative reviews, strong visibility, and spend a lot of money trying to decrease the effects of these negative reviews.
- You have imbalanced reviews such as reviews on one review site but not on the other.
- You have positive reviews but not enough.
- You have negative reviews from a large number of needy, insatiable, wrong clients.
These are all issues that can be solved with the same thing – a large number of positive reviews in the right places.
What you should look out for
It’s not easy to be a lawyer and expect to reel in five-star reviews by the thousands. Lawyers face a unique challenge of hardly being able to please everyone even when they think they have done a great service. The client won’t tell you they think otherwise. You should look out for these two barriers as they influence your review game.
- Ethics– As a lawyer, your reviews (responses included) should be free from misleading or non-verifiable statements. They should remain clear and honest. This can be controlled from the review request you send.
- Privacy concerns– Not all clients should or would be willing to leave a review. Most times, it has to do with the case you handled for them and in such situations, you should exercise caution and respect the client’s privacy.
Tips to get reviews for your law firm
- Make sure you have a profile on all or most of the review sites.
- Ask happy clients to leave a nice review for your firm.
- Follow-up with emails or messages that are clear, persuasive, and friendly.
- You can point your clients to the platform you would prefer they leave a review.
- Assign someone to respond to these reviews.
- Share your positive reviews to wherever your potential clients are.
- Earn more reviews for larger platforms than smaller ones.
