Webinar: You’ve Got Online Reviews — Now What?
You’ve reached out to clients asking them to post reviews of your firm online. You’ve taken feedback from clients who commented on areas where you could improve and used it to make your practice even better. You’re doing the work, and you have the reviews, so now what? During our August 5 webinar, led by product manager at Martindale Hubbell, Brian Veeder, we discussed how to use these reviews to your advantage and how to continue getting them.
How many reviews are enough? The answer isn’t so clear cut. Veeder mentioned that there’s no magic number that means you no longer need to focus on reviews. What’s more important than the quantity of reviews is the recency of those reviews. For instance, if a firm has 300 reviews, but they’re all from over three years ago, that could potentially delegitimize the site by making it appear outdated. So the short answer is that you should always focus on reviews because having current ones allows a potential customer to see what working with you will be like today, not three years ago.
A large number of reviews, and recent reviews at that, is crucial not only for your firm to appear legitimate to a potential customer, but is also very important in terms of ranking on Google. In a study done by Moz, reviews are rated as the third most important factor when it comes to ranking in “The Local Pack,” which are the search results that appear just below the paid ads.
As a law firm, it’s impossible to guarantee a positive case outcome for every single client. It’s even impossible to guarantee an experience that is wholly positive in the eye of the client. Negative reviews, as a result, are an inevitability. How do you deal with negative reviews bringing down your overall rating? Veeder and other panelists suggested providing clients with multiple options when asking for a review. A good time to ask would be if they were pleased with the experience and advising them to reach back out to you directly if they weren’t as thrilled. This way, you’re decreasing the chances that a disgruntled client will take to the internet to air their complaints. Instead, you’re giving them a direct line to your firm, where their complaint will be listened to. You’re also being given a chance to mend the relationship and possibly turn an unhappy customer into a happy one who returns to you with their next legal matter.
To hear the full webinar about how to leverage online reviews, click the link below.
