How to Deal with Negative Reviews at Your Law Firm

Feb 4
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4
min Read
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Google Reviews

NOTE: We’ll be talking specifically about how to handle negative reviews at a law firm, but these same principles can be applied to any small business.

A negative review is something every law firm fears. In a recent study, 78% of law firms indicated that getting negative reviews was something that consistently worried them. It’s something they thought about frequently and something they felt that, largely, was out of their control.

In this post we’ll talk about negative reviews. We’ll discuss how to avoid them, what NOT to do when you get one, and what you should do when you get one.

Negative Reviews: Why Do They Matter?

Google has never been perfectly transparent on how much negative reviews can impact your ranking. But, one thing is clear: it matters.

Businesses with a higher star rating rank higher in organic listings, as a general rule. And we all know the truly horrifying statistic: that if you’re not in the top 3-4 listings after a Google search, the odds are that no one will find or click on your business.

Very few things can sink your law firm faster than negative Google review.

How to Avoid Negative Google Reviews

You really can’t avoid them per se. But you can mitigate them.

You can be perfect, you can do everything right, and you’ll still get bad reviews. Some people just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. And if they’re not leaving you a negative review, they’d be leaving the Mexican restaurant down the street or the steakhouse on the corner a bad review.

So, you can’t eliminate bad reviews.

But you can reduce them.

A recent study found that 98% of negative Google reviews for law firms were based on poor communication—or, at least, the perception of poor communication. The client didn’t feel like their attorney spoke to them enough, gave them enough updates, or was clear about paperwork and the process. Perhaps the client didn’t feel like they understood the onboarding or initial consultation process.

Now, we’re biased, but we believe texting is probably the best way to communicate with your clients at a law firm. No phone tag, no messages, no back and forth through phone trees. Just text. It’s instant and text messages are opened 98% of the time.

If you want to communicate with clients better (and thus reduce your negative reviews), you should get texting for your law firm.

What NOT to Do When You Get a Negative Review

The thing you should NOT do is the thing that you probably want to do the most: reply to the review and put the reviewer in his or her place! You want to reply to the review and let the reviewer (and the world) know that they are WRONG!

This is a natural instinct, particularly for attorneys. But you should resist the urge.

Remember this: you will not convince the person who left the review that they’re wrong. You just won’t. No matter how great your reply is, you will accomplish nothing but making yourself and your firm look foolish and dragging yourselves to the reviewer’s level.

DO NOT LEAVE AN ANGRY REPLY

What Should You Do When You Get a Negative Google Review?

There are 4 things you should do:

1) Figure out What Happened – Read the review and then get to the bottom of it. Did someone in your firm screw up? Was a receptionist rude to the client? Was the attorney bad at communicating? Were you clear upfront about costs and expectations?

The first thing you need to do is figure out what happened.

2) Text the Client Directly – Before you reply, you should text the client directly and see if you (or a partner) can speak with them. Don’t mention the review. Don’t offer to bribe them to take it down. Just say you heard they had a bad experience, and you want to talk to them to see if you can make it right.

3) Reply to the Review – It doesn’t need to be long. But it should be empathetic. And remember this: your audience is no longer the person who left the review. Your audience is the 5000 (or whatever) people who will see the review and your reply in the next 2 months.

Those are the people you should try to impress.

4) Go Get More Positive Reviews – The best and ONLY way to effectively deal with negative reviews is to go get more positive reviews. Go. Get. MORE. Reviews.

If you don’t get more positive reviews, then your methodology to handle negative reviews won’t matter.

Here’s the deal: you’re going to get negative reviews. It’s how you handle them that matters.

Get texting for your business