Lawyer reputation management involves managing the narrative around your Law firm. in the various corners of the internet, from online reviews to social media mentions. It means managing what your Future clients think about your Law firm. Also, building your reputation online and remove negative search results from internet.
Today I will talk about the importance of Lawyer reputation management. I will address the mistake many lawyers make when they fail to understand that their reputation is the most important element of their Law Firm.
As clients increasingly use Lawyer review websites as their primary source for finding new Law Firm, Lawyers must adapt and control their online presence.
When a prospective client is looking for a lawyer to provide representation, one of the number one things they’re going to look at in making the decision of which lawyer to hire is reviews. A lawyer with a bad reputation and a history of bad reviews is going to struggle to find new clients.
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy for lawyers to acquire good reviews because of the nature of their business. Some clients have unrealistic expectations and leave negative reviews that unfairly describe their services.
How Bad Reviews Impact Your Law Firm?
Have you ever “Googled” yourself? If you haven’t, try it. The results may surprise you. Simply type your Law Firm name into Google or another search engine, hit search, and see what pops up. Not all of it is pretty.
Your law firm or practice is already probably listed on a dozen or so review sites, local business directories, social media platforms
The number of consumers researching businesses online increases with each passing year. Furthermore, consumers are even more likely to research lawyers. No one wants to waste their money on a service that will fall below expectations. Because of this, a growing number of people are reducing their risk by gathering information from online review sites.
When consumers search for legal help, 83% of people check lawyer reviews as the first step to finding an attorney.
Be aware of online review sites. It’s important to understand how potential clients find you and also where past clients may leave reviews about your law firm. These are the most popular online review sites that lawyers should be aware of: Avvo, Yelp, Google, Yellow Pages, and Google Places.
Do personal injury Attorneys Need Online Reputation Management?
Professionals are increasingly requiring the services of professional online reputation management firms to fix their bad reputations or that of their firm online. Among the professions in need of online reputation management services, personal injury attorney’s maybe in the direst need of services to repair and control their professional reputations on the web.
How Can a Lawyer Start Online Reputation Management?
Love them or hate them, online reviews are a reality and powerful decision-making tools for Clients searching for lawyers. Managing or mismanaging a lawyer’s online reputation can make-even threaten to break-a practice.
- One is that they need to monitor reviews at all times.
- Two, they need to capture reviews from patients (happy and unhappy) to better understand.
- three, they need to make sure they only publish positive reviews and manage the negative reviews internally.
Respond to all negative online reviews.
When you see a negative review, take a deep breath. Give yourself some time to cool off. Try to figure out exactly who posted the review. Is it a client, competitor, a fraud, or an unknown person? Check your records whether that person was once your client or is it someone promoting your competition. Inspect the authenticity of the person before responding to the negative review. Provide valid evidence to refute the post. Request the customer to call you to address any misunderstanding.
After you’ve done this analysis, you might want to reach out to the reviewer. Do this directly, not online. Tell them you read the review and would like to discuss the situation more fully with them. Don’t be angry, threatening, or defensive. Apologize if appropriate. Ask what steps they would suggest to remedy the matter and improve your business going forward.
Finally, Your responses to negative reviews should be timely. The faster the lawyer responds to a negative online review, the faster the reviewer is appeased and prospective reviewers can see that the firm is dedicated to solving customer complaints in a timely fashion.
Suggestions for managing negative reviews included:
- regularly run searches for your name and your law firm’s name so that you understand what your potential clients see first.
- resist the urge to tell your story, since doing so adds credibility to the review.
- but do respond–briefly–and show empathy.
- avoid getting angry–or at least don’t show your anger.
- counteract negative reviews by getting positive feedback on the same site.
Hopefully, you’ll never receive a negative review. But if you do, you need to carefully and thoughtfully respond to the former client’s feedback. Avoid expressing anger and instead, provide a brief response that is empathetic. But my advice is: Don’t give in to temptation. That could damage that hard-earned reputation.
Set Up Notifications for Google Alerts
Have you spent a lot of time searching Google to see the search results for your name or brand? If you’ve done this, you’re certainly not alone. It’s hard not to be curious about what people are saying about you or your brand online.
Sadly, this can take up quite a bit of time, and it’s likely that you’ll miss some results. Instead of checking things on your own, you can set up a Google Alerts notification. When your chosen phrase or keyword appears in new content, Google will send you an email alert. To make things even better, it doesn’t cost a thing.
Don’t have Google Alerts set up yet? The process is simple, and once things are set up, you’ll always receive updates.
Hire ORM Expert
Lawyer reputation management is not always an easy task. Often, hiring an outside organization to help manage your reputation marketing efforts alleviates some of the burdens. When hiring professional help, look for companies who do not overpromise – removing all your bad reviews and landing you 1,000 Reviews on Google in a week is indeed too good to be true.
Our Internet content removal services ensure effective results using only honest and ethical techniques, which will help to improve your reputation online, helping to build your brand’s trust and increase your traffic and revenue as a result Our expert team will monitor the top sites for negative PR and promote the positive PR, ensuring that your business benefits in the long run.
If you would like any further information or need advice on Lawyer reputation management, please contact our team.