In today’s fast-paced society, many of your potential clients turn online to find reviews on your law firm. While attorneys may struggle to askclient for those reviews, you’ll find that a lack of reviews is a significant disadvantage when marketing your services online. If you market your law practice online (and who doesn’t these days), there are several key things you need to know about client reviews.
1. Consumers rely on client reviews to compare and choose attorneys.
Online reviews have now become pervasive. Clients expect them, and they will go hunting for them in their effort to choose an effective law firm. As an attorney, it’s important to know how to use these reviews to differentiate your firm from your competitors, promote your practice, and provide potential clients with the information they need to choose you over your competitors.
2. Obtaining reviews gives you a competitive edge in search engine ranking.
Google prioritizes businesses with reviews–especially good ones. If you want to increase your overall visibility, raise your search rankings, and ensure that more potential clients see your firm when they’re searching for a lawyer, encouraging customers to leave reviews is one surefire way to help you meet your goals. The more reviews you have, the more visible your page will become to searchers. Keep in mind, however, that this is more than just a one-time goal: Google also rewards fresh, current reviews, rather than relying on old, stagnant content.
3. Negative reviews aren’t as bad as you think.
Of course you want great reviews from your clients–and chances are, you’re providing the kind of service for your clients that leads you to positive and favorable reviews. Unfortunately, not every review will be five stars. The good news is, less favorable reviews can have benefits, too. 3 and 4-star reviews legitimize all the great 5-star reviews and provide a balanced perspective for potential clients. Reviewers also tend to read negative reviews with a grain of salt, understanding that attorneys are in a rough position and can’t always resolve people’s problems the way the client may like to. Emotions often run hot in legal cases, and perspective clients typically understand that your former clients may have turned to a review to vent when things didn’t go their way.
4. Today’s online reviews are yesterday’s personal referrals.
A generation ago, people relied on personal recommendations from friends and loved ones. Today, they turn to the internet. With social proof to back up online reviews, many people place a great deal of trust in the information other clients have written about businesses, including attorneys and law firms. In fact, 84% of your potential clients consider online reviews just as trustworthy as a personal recommendation.
5. You need to be proactive.
The nature of the legal profession is to resolve disputes. At some point, someone is going to be unhappy with the results. As an attorney, it may be only a matter of time before you have to deal with someone posting an unfavorable review of your firm–and unhappy clients are more likely to go out of their way to do so. Anyone can leave a review of your firm, including the opposition. By engaging happy clients, on the other hand, you can get ahead of the game and ensure that potential clients see glowing recommendations of your business before they come across negative input from an unhappy client.
Your Best Marketing Advantage
Client reviews are crucial to the growth of any business, including your law firm. Reviews present your law practice to future clients, acting as one of your most important promotional tools. You’ve seen the smiles on the faces of your clients when their legal issue has been resolved successfully. They’re glad you were there for them, and they are willing and eager to express their gratitude if you make it easy for them. Your client’s own words about you are your best marketing advantage. Don’t let it go to waste. For help obtaining client reviews for your law practice, call AttorneyConnect to learn how we can help.
