Client reviews on Yelp and Google+ matter.
Prospective clients read them and make decisions based on what they say.
Most significantly, prospective clients will change their mind about you when they read a negative review. Reviews are a big deal and becoming a bigger deal all the time.
Client review sites become the focus of the average lawyer only when a negative review is posted. If there aren’t any reviews or if the reviews are positive, the lawyer doesn’t pay much attention.
However, when a negative review goes up (and it will for most practitioners at some point), the lawyer’s head explodes. That’s when I get a call about how to deal with the problem.
First Things First: Stop the Negativity
You can choose from a variety of approaches to deal with negative reviews, and we’ll tackle those as time goes by, but there is a threshold issue to address first.
Negative reviews are often, but not always, the result of a negative experience for the client. People write negative reviews because they’re not happy with how they were treated by the law firm.
Before you can figure out how to deal with a negative review already posted, you’ve got to address the larger concern of how to avoid treating clients in a manner that motivates them to write negative reviews.
All the effort and energy you put into dealing with an already posted negative review is wasted when another client piles on and adds an additional negative review to the mix.
You’ve got to stop the negativity. You’ve got to stop creating clients who are unhappy with your service.
I can hear you now: “Yes, but…I’ve got to deal with this one review we already have…tell me what to do.” I’m telling you to put that concern aside and deal with the larger issue first. You’ve got to make the clients happy so they don’t write these reviews.
Take the First Step to Happier Clients
How can you make clients happy? Start with The Formula for Creating Happy Clients and then read 3 Steps to Very Happy Clients. That’ll get you going.
However, the most important thing you can do is own the problem. I’ve asked you before, “Do you make clients happy, or do you make excuses?”
You’ve got to reorient yourself so that you accept that your clients’ reality is “reality” in a service business. If they’re writing negative reviews, then it’s about you. It’s not that they’re “crazy,” “unreasonable,” or “difficult.” It’s you. The first step to solving the problem is acknowledging the problem.
If you browse the review sites, you’re going to find lawyers with lots of reviews from happy clients. You’re also going to find lawyers with lots of reviews from unhappy clients.
What’s the difference between the lawyers getting good reviews and the lawyers getting bad reviews? It’s the lawyer. The lawyer getting good reviews is creating happy clients. The other lawyer isn’t.
How do you stop the bad reviews? How do you prevent bad reviews from coming? You make the clients happy. Stay focused on that objective, and you’ll work through the problem. Focusing on how to manipulate reviews, how to respond to reviews, and how to bury reviews isn’t the solution. Happy clients are the answer.
