Reviews are an essential part of your law firm’s online presence. To your clients, reviews are one of the best ways they can get to know, like, and trust your firm to help with their legal matters. Reports indicate that 98% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase or selecting a service provider. Personal recommendations are vital to gaining potential clients, and online reviews allow your clients to do this while highlighting your firm’s strengths, expertise, and trustworthiness. How your firm responds to reviews is as important as who reviews it. Consumers expect companies to respond to all their reviews; 88% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a company that replies to all of their reviews, regardless of the star rating. However, responding to negative reviews is much more challenging than responding to positive ones. Learn how to respond to negative reviews to maintain your law firm’s reputation and increase potential clients here:
Assess Legitimacy and Accuracy
The first step when responding to a negative review is determining whether it is legitimate. There are instances where a bot or spammer could intentionally leave bad reviews of your business. Or, a competitor may bombard your business listing with one-star reviews to tarnish your reputation and manipulate search rankings in their favor. Once you determine the review is legitimate, review the circumstances and context of the customer’s complaint. When you respond, you can use this information to assure the customer that their negative experience was not the intended outcome.
When you choose a digital marketing agency like Southern Cross Media, LLC, we can help you assess the legitimacy of your reviews and ensure the ones that appear on your business listing are from genuine clients who have utilized your services.
Apologize
It’s important to empathize with the reviewer’s feelings. The best way to do this when responding to a negative review is to apologize (even if you don’t think you need to). Personalizing your response is a key element. Address the reviewer directly if they provided their name, and apologize for the specific elements listed in the review. Do not respond with a generic copy-and-paste message. The goal should be to repair the broken bridge. Step into their shoes and validate their feelings, regardless of what the review is about.
Take Responsibility
Along with apologizing, taking responsibility for the actions leading up to the client’s disappointment in your services is vital. Don’t make excuses or blame the client for the wrongdoing. Instead, use “we” statements and avoid pushing blame on the person posting the review. In this section, you’ll want to include the characteristics your firm strives for and specify why their negative review is outside of how your firm operates. The best responses to negative reviews highlight the qualities you want your law firm to be known for, such as replying in a timely fashion, considerate customer service, and expertise in your practice area.
Specify Future Action
You want to offer a solution to help resolve the client’s issue. Solutions and future actions will vary depending on the individual situation. A simple statement such as, “We’re sharing this feedback with our team,” can go a long way. For more complex issues, it’s best to provide an offline form of communication to discuss the situation in detail and attempt to resolve the issue. Don’t engage in a back-and-forth discussion on a public forum with the reviewer for an extended period.
Review and Revise
Keep track of your reviews and take time to analyze them regularly. Look for trends, commonalities, and differences in the feedback. Then, work with your team to determine how to improve your practice based on these responses.
Tips For Responding to Negative Reviews
Here are a few tips for replying to negative reviews well:
Be prompt
Customers expect businesses to respond to their reviews or questions within two to three days. With so many platforms where people can potentially leave reviews, managing them across platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp can be daunting. That’s why having a reputation management company sift through reviews and respond to them as they come in is a vital part of your online presence.
Foster positive customer experiences
Use your reviews to develop best practices for your firm regarding communication and interactions with your clients. Provide guidelines for answering customer questions and specify who will be the primary contact person if a question cannot be answered immediately. Respond to all requests, calls, and messages that come into your firm, ensuring you provide each potential client with the attention their case deserves.
Be mindful of “lurkers”
Many people read reviews but don’t write them. When responding to a review, be mindful of how your response will be viewed by potential clients looking at reviews to determine whether to contact your law firm. Reviews stay online for a long time, so it’s important to respond to reviews with a calm and professional tone.
How to Remove a Negative Review
Each platform has specific guidelines regarding how and when to remove negative reviews. The goal of eliminating a review should be to prevent fraudulent, deceitful, or spam from impacting your firm’s reputation, not silencing people with legitimate complaints or concerns. If you believe a negative review should be removed, the first step is to respond anyway. The removal process can take a few days (or a few weeks). During that time, the review is still visible online. Once you respond, review the platform’s guidelines for removing a review if it goes against their policy.
Respond to Negative Reviews with Reputation Management Services from Southern Cross Media, LLC
Reviewing, responding, and maintaining online reviews across platforms can be daunting. Our team at Southern Cross Media, LLC, can help you preserve your online reputation by monitoring, responding to, and removing fraudulent reviews. We’ll craft considerate and professional responses that will help solidify your firm as the exceptional choice for their legal matters in your practice area while allowing you to focus on other elements of your business. Call our team at 407-377-7530 for a free consultation to see how we can help you manage your online reviews and digital marketing efforts.
