How to Effectively Manage Your Law Firm's Reviews

Online reviews play an important role in your law firm's reputation and Google search results. You need to have a process to manage and solicit reviews if you want your law firm to succeed.

Why do law firms need reviews?

Law firms need a healthy influx of online reviews because people are always reading reviews to make buying decisions. In fact, 93% of consumers read online reviews about a local business before making a buying decision, and 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Also, 48% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written within the past 2 weeks, so it's important make sure you're regularly adding new reviews. If you have a bunch of positive reviews, but they're all a few years old, people may not think the reviews are relevant anymore.

Online reviews can also help improve search rankings and overall SEO efforts. By having regular activity on review sites, you will signal to Google that you're a reputable business and they will rank you higher as a result. There are many factors that go into Google's rankings, but having a strong presence on review sites will certainly help your case.

How to ask for reviews

There are lots of ways to monitor and ask for reviews online. You can place a review request form on your website or at your law firm. You can place this form in your reception area and ask your clients to submit their review when they have a concern or question about a service you provided. A simple way to create a review request form is to collect an email address from your client and use that to send a review request via email.

You can also use the AdvisorForward review management platform to ask for reviews, monitor your competition, and track all your online reviews in one place.

How to respond to reviews

The first thing you should do when someone leaves a review is respond. This is especially true if someone leaves you a negative review. When someone leaves you a negative review, you should ask the reviewer if they are happy with the results you provided them. Ask what they are unhappy with and what you can do to remedy the situation. Even if the review is negative, people will still see your response, so it is important you provide a thoughtful, courteous response so viewers can see what you did to remedy the complaint.