How to get more online reviews for your law firm.
You need online reviews for your law firm.
Period.
The most trusted form of advertising is by a personal recommendation. So, the anchor of your marketing strategy is to create clients so pleased with your work that they would become an advocate for you, recommending you to their network.
But what if you could increase that client’s personal sphere of influence exponentially to include anyone on the planet who is looking for your services?
In a 2014 survey of consumers, 88% reported that they trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation. So you truly can increase your rate of referrals by an enormous amount just by getting more online reviews for your law firm.
So, the real question is: How do you get more online reviews for your law firm?
You ask for them.
It’s a simple solution that is not so easy to remember unless it becomes part of the narrative for your clients. Let us explain.
When a potential client calls your office, you probably have a system in place to qualify their case and to introduce them to your practice. It could be a phone call or a schedule of emails, but you have a system of contact that you maintain with clients and potential clients. If so, this is a perfect opportunity to implement a point to initiate a request for an online review. (And if not, you need to contact us to help you begin to maximize referral opportunities from your clients.)
Let the client know early on how important referrals are to you.
It could be a simple survey to find out where the client heard about you (so you could reward a referring champion). It might be a brief mention in a conversation that your goal is to serve them well and earn a 5-star review from them. Or you could encourage them to offer you feedback during the process to make sure they know that their thoughts and opinions are important to you.
Don’t forget!
To remind clients to review your law firm online. Yes, you would hope that at the end of the process that every client would be so pleased with your service that they would run home and type out the world’s best online review. But the truth is, no matter what the outcome of their trial, people’s lives get busy. And people forget to do things they had the best intentions to do.
And so, you need to remind them that you are eagerly awaiting their online review of their business. Be specific when you ask for a review. What websites would you like them to submit their review to? Is a star rating enough, or would you prefer they leave a bit of feedback about their experience with you?
Google and Avvo.com are two great places to request online reviews for attorneys. These are places where your potential clients will be looking already, so you will be making their decision to contact you even easier.
What if you get a bad review?
Is it still worth asking for reviews with the potential to receive a bad review? It is absolutely worth the time investment for your business!
Many small businesses are hesitant to ask for online reviews because of the thought of receiving a bad review online for the world to see. As long as you are running a credible business that cares about your clients and you are doing a quality job, you will receive more good reviews than bad.
But there could always be a bad review. So what do you do if you actually receive that dreaded single star?
You greet it with a smile. Negative reviews are always handled best with a friendly tone and polite explanation of the unresolved issue. One study reports that 71% of customers changed their opinion of a brand after seeing a response to a negative review. It is definitely in your best interest to respond, and to respond positively.
Plus, you get the opportunity to publicly halt a negative word about you in its tracks. Old-fashioned word of mouth referrals left you at the mercy of the conversation, but now you have a voice in the referral conversation, too. A bad review is a blessing in disguise.
If you are considering asking for online reviews for your law firm but haven’t in the past because of some reservations mentioned above, we hope that this article has helped calm some of those fears. Our hope is that you see your business from referrals explode in coming months because you dared to ask for referrals from your clients.
If you aren’t sure how to incorporate asking for referrals in your client relationship, just ask. We are experts at getting referrals that will get your phone ringing.
Source: https://moz.com/ugc/the-insane-power-of-online-reviews-for-local-businesses
