Once your collaborative law practice is established and running well, you may be inclined to let your business continue to run as it is. However, this should not be the case.
After the crucial early stages, another thing to consider is your online reputation as you risk losing 22% of your business when your potential customers find one negative review about your firm.
More so, nothing less than 90% of consumers read reviews before engaging a business. So, having a negative review will do more harm to your collaborative law firm.
What Are Search, Social, and Online Reviews?
Search reviews are reviews that are displayed on search engine results when home care agencies are searched for. They are basically from Google My Business (GMB) listing and PPC ads.
GMB listing reviews initially appear as a star ratings as shown below:
And when clicked, the Google reviews are displayed as shown below:
Social reviews are reviews about your agency on social media platforms. They’re mostly in the form of comments, posts, tweets, retweets on social media platforms, which are also ranked in the form of star rating (only on business pages) as shown below:
The online reviews are considered as reviews written online, especially on review sites, such as Yelp, Yellowpages, Manta, BBB, and other relevant legal directories, by consumers who have experienced your services.
An example of a review on Yelp is shown below:
All of these three types of reviews work together to make or break your online reputation.
So, are you encouraging your clients to give you positive reviews? This should be a “yes” because a recent case study revealed that the more reviews you have, the more likely you are to get your prospects to convert into clients.
More so, you must carefully monitor what is written in these reviews – whether bad or good – because too many bad reviews may do your business more harm.
Why Search, Social, and Online Reviews Are Important to Your Business
i). Reviews boost trust and confidence of prospects: Reviews can make or break a practice. Simple star ratings can give potential clients enough of a ‘feel’ about a firm to try, or not to try.
It boosts their trust and confidence in your firm with the knowledge that other people also have trust and confidence in your care firm.
ii). Reviews boost clients: You can either go out of business or obtain new clients with reviews. Reviews are a fantastic way to increase or decrease your client base as consumers are more likely to consider a firm if others have spoken highly of it.
iii). Reviews help to understand your clients: Reviews are an important tool to understand your clients and learn more about how your firm and staff are performing and what they are doing right or not.
Reviews can be used to evaluate your firm, your services, your client service and would make you see whether clients would recommend using your brand.
Here is a big and most surprising take: bad or negative reviews are not always as bad as you think and you can also take advantage of them – just ensure that your positive online reviews outweigh the bad ones.
Be sure to respond to negative reviews quickly and professionally. Responding this way can boost your prospects’ confidence in you.
To make the best out of negative reviews, do the following:
- Carefully monitor all of your reviews on review sites regularly so that you can respond promptly.
- When you’re responding to bad reviews, respond professionally and with grace. You should try as much as possible to let your professionalism shine brightly to impress prospects.
- If possible, offer an opportunity to make things right to give your firm the chance of rectifying the wrong.
Conclusion
Having a strong online presence coupled with a strong online reputation can help you attract new clients. So, always be monitoring and listening to your search, social, and online reviews. While you ask your satisfied clients to leave positive reviews for you on review sites (you may have to guide them through the process or offer incentives if necessary), search for and address negative reviews.
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