Nearly everyone uses online reviews to make a purchase decision, and the process of hiring a lawyer is no exception. Therefore, knowing that 92% of internet users pay attention to online business reviews, seeing negative feedback about your firm can make you worry that you’re losing business.
However, all is not lost when your firm gets a one star review. The internet has made many people skeptical, and some negative feedback about your firm can waylay unwarranted suspicion that you’re gaming the online review system. It can also present a great opportunity for you to publically address negative feedback in a way that builds trust among other potential clients, and could even bring back the person who left the scathing review.
Claims of Perfection Raise Doubts
Experienced internet users have developed the ability to see through many kinds of advertisements, and what is an online review but word-of-mouth advertising? Most people have heard of at least one instance where a company wrote glowing reviews of itself to make themselves look better. If a product or a law firm is rated absolutely perfectly, red flags get raised, people get skeptical, and they consider other options.
A negative review killing your five star rating is not necessarily the end of the world. In fact, if the content of the review shows that they’re nitpicking, potential clients reading it might consider it another reason to hire you to represent them.
Potential Clients Often See Bad Reviews as the Worst Case Scenario
A common way that people peruse online reviews is to note the overall score, and then go right to the negative responses. They’re looking for what has happened when things went wrong. If it doesn’t seem so bad, they may decide that they can live with that outcome, and give you a call.
Negative reviews only complaining about a small aspect of your representation – “he got me off for DUI, but I never liked his tone of voice” – might not be something to sweat over. If it shows something trivial as being the worst part of what you bring to the table, it might bring in more clients than it pushes away.
An Opportunity to Connect in Public
Poor reviews create a rare opportunity to connect with a client to discuss your services publically. You can use this as a chance to impress potential clients with your reaction. Showing that you can handle bad situations and damning words like a champ tells future clients that they can expect the same thing if they’re not satisfied, either. Knowing that they can expect solid customer service if things go poorly can be a client’s final factor in hiring you as their attorney. It will even leave a good taste in the mouth of the person leaving the review, and could make a difference if they’re ever in need of a lawyer, again.