An Introduction to Yelp
For business owners, review sites can be either dangerous or tremendously helpful. In today’s online world, review sites are increasingly popular with the emergence of Yelp, AVVO, and Google place offering consumers a directory of local businesses. The most popular review site is undeniably Yelp with millions of users and a mobile application available on both smartphones and tablets.
Yelp is an American company with a local business directory service and review site that possesses many social networking features. Yelp.com allows users to rate and review businesses while interacting with other online users. The site is widely popular and successful with more than 178 million monthly visitors and has generated $0.872 billion dollars in revenue.
Almighty Yelp: A Firm’s Worst and Best Friend
While most people may automatically think of restaurant reviews, Yelp also features reviews and listings for a wide variety of businesses including law firms and attorneys. Many clients will post reviews about an attorney’s services, skills, and results. Here are the many pros and cons that make Yelp a firm’s worst and best friend:
Pros:
• Yelp helps place attorneys and law firms on the map. A law firm can create company pages where they offer a description of their services, contact information, and when the best time to reach them is. Yelp also allows businesses to post pictures so they can offer a clear image of what their law firm is all about. In addition, the site is user-friendly and makes searching for law firms easy, simple, and quick.
• Online users are allowed to post reviews about your services. Thus, positive reviews from past clients will help influence prospective clients.
• The site also allows businesses to offer a “yelp deal.” For instance, if the customer mentions the yelp deal they get a certain discount. Yelp deals help entice potential clients to choose their services over another when searching online.
• Because the review site features many social networking capabilities, it is easy for a business to create a fan following. If your products and services are widely admired and enjoyed by clients, you can easily create numerous followers online. The more positive ratings the more likely you will attract new customers.
Cons:
• However, negative publicity can be extremely harmful. Several negative reviews about your services can do more damage than none. According to a study done by ReviewTrackers Survey, negative reviews convinced 94% of consumers surveyed to avoid a particular business.
• Not to mention, anyone can write a review. People who never hired your services or rival lawyers may be able to write a negative review about your firm.
The best way to deal with a negative review is by addressing it firmly. When dealing with a negative review, explain your side of the story. If you were wrong, apologize for it. When dealing with harsh criticism, respond maturely in a friendly tone – this will portray you in a better light and influence potential clients to hire you.
Legal Marketing
Online directories, review sites, and social media platforms are all effective ways in gaining publicity for your law firm. However, updating these sites daily can be time-consuming and require much effort.