Latest / Sharp Strategies Sweet Success / How to Request More Reviews for Your Law Firm
Transcript
- 0:01SPEAKER_00: So today I am going to talk about an important topic and I feel really inspired.
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: I just got out of a meeting with one of my clients and the topic
- 0:13SPEAKER_00: of requesting reviews came up and a lot of law firms and really small businesses
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: in general struggle with this part,
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: which is requesting reviews and successfully getting those reviews.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of SaaS tools on the market That helped to fill this gap
- 0:31SPEAKER_00: of requesting the review.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: And so programs like Hona,
- 0:38SPEAKER_00: K-Status,
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: BirdEye,
- 0:40SPEAKER_00: many others will connect with the tools that you're already using to some degree
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: and automate outbound requests to clients or people who have interacted
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: with your business and kind of take the sting out of requesting reviews, right?
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: Automated SMS email review requests are far,
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: far less effective than in-person requests for reviews.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: And I don't think there'll ever be a timeline where
- 1:13SPEAKER_00: a person-to-person review request is less effective than an automated request
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: because it's just how humans interact and respond to one another.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of persuasion principles that go into...
- 1:27SPEAKER_00: Requesting and actually successfully receiving a review.
- 1:31SPEAKER_00: And the first one being like the liking principle, like somebody has to like you.
- 1:37SPEAKER_00: And so I commonly tell businesses,
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: law firms I work with,
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: that the best time to ask for a review is at peak happiness with your business
- 1:48SPEAKER_00: and your law firm.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: And so that's going to be for a personal injury firm shortly after somebody signs
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: a fee agreement because they're so relieved
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: that they have somebody handling their case.
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: And so that's usually a good time to say, hey, thanks so much.
- 2:03SPEAKER_00: We're so happy to be working with you.
- 2:05SPEAKER_00: You know, would you mind going to Google and leaving us a review?
- 2:09SPEAKER_00: That's a good time to make the request.
- 2:12SPEAKER_00: And then usually for motor vehicle,
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: car accident firms,
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: the next best time to request their review is at the end of the case.
- 2:22SPEAKER_00: And that might be the point between the case is settled and
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: an agreement has been reached or a number has been reached and
- 2:31SPEAKER_00: the client actually having received the check.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: And this works in car accident firms,
- 2:37SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 2:37SPEAKER_00: that in between point,
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: because commonly people kind of check out at the end of their case,
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: they have their money,
- 2:45SPEAKER_00: they're probably still really happy with your firm,
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: but they got the outcome they wanted.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: And so They don't necessarily feel obligated,
- 2:53SPEAKER_00: but if you catch them in that point between the case is settled
- 2:57SPEAKER_00: and they've actually received the check,
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: you catch them in that in-between point,
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: they still feel a certain level of obligation to the firm
- 3:03SPEAKER_00: because you're still working with them, you're still helping with them.
- 3:06SPEAKER_00: So kind of an interesting psychological point to request a review.
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: Now, that might not be the case.
- 3:12SPEAKER_00: I was just talking with a firm that primarily handles Social Security Disability cases.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: And they don't have any control over when the client receives a settlement check.
- 3:21SPEAKER_00: And so what they're often doing is asking for a review as soon as
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: the client receives the funds, the funds for the Social Security Disability claim.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: And what I said to them is like, hey,
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: that's perfect because,
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: we're still asking for a review at the point of peak happiness,
- 3:40SPEAKER_00: which is what we're looking for, which is what we're going for.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: Those are good points to automate that review request.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: But again, automation is largely less effective than in-person requests.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: When you're asking somebody to their face to leave a review,
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: they've made like a very personal connection with you.
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: And they, my dog just burst into my office and they want something.
- 4:07SPEAKER_00: This one probably wants to be fed.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: And I lost track of my thoughts.
- 4:13SPEAKER_00: Blame the dogs.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: The person-to-person request.
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: So they're committed.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: They're more committed than somebody who's received a text message from
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: a phone number they haven't saved, or they see an email in their promotions inbox.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: The more potent request is obviously the person-to-person request.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: So the issue with this,
- 4:37SPEAKER_00: if you've worked at a law firm or you know something about law firm operations,
- 4:41SPEAKER_00: is at a certain scale,
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: the law firm owner Isn't the one who's talking to the clients more often.
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: If it's a new client,
- 4:50SPEAKER_00: it's somebody who's talked to the intake team or one of the other attorneys working
- 4:55SPEAKER_00: at the firm or the case managers, they may not have even talked to an attorney yet.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: And so usually it's the owner who's naturally good at requesting reviews.
- 5:06SPEAKER_00: Even if they're not naturally good at it,
- 5:08SPEAKER_00: they're certainly the most motivated to receive the newest reviews.
- 5:12SPEAKER_00: And so time and time again at Every business I've worked at,
- 5:16SPEAKER_00: the law firm owner is the most effective at acquiring new reviews or
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: the business owner, right?
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: Now,
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: so when you scale and the responsibility to handle a client diffuses among
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: the operations team,
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: it becomes important to train your case managers,
- 5:35SPEAKER_00: your intake team, your other attorneys, how to successfully ask for reviews.
- 5:41SPEAKER_00: And where I start here is usually with that person's psychology.
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: And when I say that person, I mean that internal team member psychology.
- 5:50SPEAKER_00: Because if we're talking about somebody who's not in sales,
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: doesn't have experience in sales,
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: maybe has limited experience in marketing,
- 6:00SPEAKER_00: psychologically, there are a bunch of hurdles that they have to overcome.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: One, they have to feel okay with asking for a review.
- 6:07SPEAKER_00: And that's not...
- 6:09SPEAKER_00: Intuitively natural,
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: as you would hope if you're a business owner,
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: not every employee is super enthusiastic about getting new reviews.
- 6:18SPEAKER_00: And they expend a little social credit in the process.
- 6:21SPEAKER_00: And it's something I think intuitively us as humans being social creatures are aware of.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: And so they like one have to feel psychologically like okay with doing it and okay
- 6:34SPEAKER_00: with asking somebody to somebody they don't know,
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: somebody that They have little information about,
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: they have to ask that person to leave a review.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: And so you have to start there with the person.
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: And you have to let people know some things that they probably already know,
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: which is reviews are an important part of how the business gets new business.
- 6:56SPEAKER_00: And so if they care about their jobs,
- 6:58SPEAKER_00: and I don't mean to put their jobs on the line,
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: but they care about keeping their jobs.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: They have a financial investment in making sure the law firm gets as many reviews as possible.
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: And your team might not be aware of how competitive personal injury marketing really is.
- 7:14SPEAKER_00: The law firm I was just talking to,
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: they're in a rural marketplace and they're able to grow and get more cases
- 7:23SPEAKER_00: with around 100 reviews.
- 7:26SPEAKER_00: But there are some law firms and more competitive marketplaces where you have
- 7:30SPEAKER_00: to have like 500 before you show up in the top three of Google business.
- 7:36SPEAKER_00: And so, you know,
- 7:37SPEAKER_00: the difference between a law firm having a handful acquired over many years
- 7:41SPEAKER_00: and months at the owner's discretion and a law firm that gets a steady supply
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: of these reviews is buy in from the internal team that this is an important metric.
- 7:51SPEAKER_00: This is an important part of my job and keeping the firm growing and alive.
- 7:57SPEAKER_00: And also, it's not just marketing's job.
- 8:01SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of another psychological hurdle.
- 8:04SPEAKER_00: People within a business, they tend to put roles into buckets.
- 8:08SPEAKER_00: You know,
- 8:09SPEAKER_00: this is marketing,
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: this is sales,
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: this is operations,
- 8:12SPEAKER_00: this is the legal team, these are, you know, And we segment responsibilities.
- 8:18SPEAKER_00: And as an employee, it makes sense.
- 8:19SPEAKER_00: You're hired for a job description,
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: you know, to a job description, you work that job description.
- 8:25SPEAKER_00: Most people don't step into a business and assume expansive responsibility
- 8:29SPEAKER_00: over metrics and all the internal operations, right?
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: So let's be realistic.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
- 8:35SPEAKER_00: these most employees put,
- 8:38SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 8:38SPEAKER_00: their roles into these buckets and really try not to stray from those buckets.
- 8:44SPEAKER_00: And so For a lot of people,
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: and I experienced this in a different way,
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: one of my law firms,
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: we were talking about a client appreciation dinner,
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: and they asked the question, like, well,
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: isn't this,
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: this isn't marketing,
- 8:55SPEAKER_00: this is customer service, why are you talking to me about this?
- 8:58SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, it's all marketing, that's how we get more word of mouth referrals, right?
- 9:03SPEAKER_00: And so it's all interconnected.
- 9:06SPEAKER_00: And so your team has to understand that marketing can't solely be responsible
- 9:11SPEAKER_00: for getting reviews.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: And when you think about A marketer working at a law firm or even a collection
- 9:17SPEAKER_00: of marketers,
- 9:19SPEAKER_00: they're usually not interfacing with clients and potential clients in the way that
- 9:25SPEAKER_00: the intake team and operations are.
- 9:27SPEAKER_00: So they literally can't make these person to person requests.
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: They're having to do automated requests or they're having
- 9:35SPEAKER_00: to get more reviews essentially by proxy through the internal team.
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: Talk to your teams about this.
- 9:43SPEAKER_00: Coach them about this.
- 9:45SPEAKER_00: Let them know reviews are the responsibility of everyone and particularly
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: the people working with clients because this is customer service
- 9:54SPEAKER_00: and this is marketing.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: And so review acquisition is part of that.
- 9:58SPEAKER_00: And then marketing team doesn't interface directly with clients.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: And if you're like most law firms and your only marketing team are your SEO vendors,
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: They can't help you get more reviews either.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: They can help you make it easier by introducing you to the SaaS tools,
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: setting up some automations.
- 10:17SPEAKER_00: But the only people who can truly get reviews for a law firm are the people who work
- 10:22SPEAKER_00: with the clients.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: And that's a fact.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: So I hope we've gotten over some psychological hurdles.
- 10:29SPEAKER_00: You've convinced your team.
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: They need to ask.
- 10:32SPEAKER_00: It's not awkward.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: They need to ask at moments of peak happiness.
- 10:36SPEAKER_00: And it's their responsibility.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about actually how to frame the ask.
- 10:41SPEAKER_00: And for me, this is the part that people overcomplicate.
- 10:45SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell like a quick story, just one quick story.
- 10:48SPEAKER_00: I won't talk too long, I promise.
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: I recently had somebody come by and power wash my siding.
- 10:55SPEAKER_00: I had mildew on some of the sides of my house.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: They came by.
- 10:58SPEAKER_00: And I found them in Google.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: And I found them in Google Business.
- 11:01SPEAKER_00: They had the most reviews.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: But it was actually a very small company, like a small business like myself.
- 11:09SPEAKER_00: He probably had three or four team members, I think what he was telling me.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: They came and did the job.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: And the owner,
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: I assume,
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: the way he was presenting himself,
- 11:18SPEAKER_00: comes up to me,
- 11:20SPEAKER_00: pay my invoice,
- 11:21SPEAKER_00: and he says,
- 11:21SPEAKER_00: hey, My business thrives because of Google and the reviews I have on Google.
- 11:28SPEAKER_00: And it's because I work with great people like you who go there and support me.
- 11:32SPEAKER_00: And I could use your support.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: Will you please visit this QR code?
- 11:37SPEAKER_00: And he handed me a little flyer and said,
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: like, click on this with your phone and you can leave me a review.
- 11:43SPEAKER_00: And it happened just like that.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: I, you know, scan the image.
- 11:47SPEAKER_00: It opened up Google.
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: I didn't leave the review right there, but I had it open on my phone.
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: And left a review for him later.
- 11:56SPEAKER_00: He was appreciative.
- 11:57SPEAKER_00: He even texted me after the fact and said, thank you so much for your review.
- 12:01SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate it.
- 12:02SPEAKER_00: I think he offered me a discount.
- 12:03SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't necessary.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: He was honest and authentic because that's the real story.
- 12:10SPEAKER_00: And there are,
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: you know, businesses like, well, there are franchises that pose as small businesses.
- 12:17SPEAKER_00: I know of a few out here in Warrington, Virginia, where I live.
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: And they're actually huge corporations,
- 12:25SPEAKER_00: but they present themselves as local small businesses and no hate.
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: Actually, I shop there.
- 12:31SPEAKER_00: They're nice.
- 12:33SPEAKER_00: But what I always find interesting about the way
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: that they structure review ask is they're using that small business.
- 12:43SPEAKER_00: We're just trying to get by.
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: We're getting by off the grace of the community.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: Please leave us a review.
- 12:49SPEAKER_00: That's how they ask for reviews.
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: That's what their signage says with their QR code.
- 12:53SPEAKER_00: That's how their team asks for reviews.
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: And it's very effective because people in general intuitively want to support small businesses.
- 13:03SPEAKER_00: And even if you're not that small of a business,
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: it doesn't take,
- 13:07SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: very much to frame the ask like,
- 13:11SPEAKER_00: hey, we have grown because of the support of the community.
- 13:14SPEAKER_00: If you're using that type of language, people are more inclined to follow through and commit.
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: Because again, people intuitively want to support small businesses.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they just want to support the person they are working with.
- 13:29SPEAKER_00: Going back to why the internal team is most effective at getting reviews.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: And so when Donna asked for a review,
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: the client hearing the request isn't necessarily giving feedback.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: The law firm review,
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: they're giving Donna a review,
- 13:48SPEAKER_00: which is one of the reasons why employee review contests were so effective.
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: They were effective when Google allowed them, they don't anymore.
- 13:58SPEAKER_00: They were effective because it incentivized the team member to make the request,
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: and it also set up the reviewer,
- 14:09SPEAKER_00: the person leaving the reviewer, As doing a favor for the person who helped them.
- 14:15SPEAKER_00: And so it was easy for them to name whoever requested a review in the Google listing.
- 14:21SPEAKER_00: Again, Google doesn't let us do that anymore.
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: Google uses AI tools and is getting more sophisticated at discovering
- 14:29SPEAKER_00: the marketing schemes and tricks and hacks that we use to request reviews.
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: And so how you ask for it and what they say is important.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: But really what's most important is that it's a real person leaving your review,
- 14:48SPEAKER_00: making the request, and giving their honest feedback of your business.
- 14:55SPEAKER_00: That's what's most important because Google prioritizes their users
- 14:59SPEAKER_00: and their users' experiences.
- 15:02SPEAKER_00: And whether or not a user,
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: like a person,
- 15:05SPEAKER_00: uses AI to write their Google Business listing and post it,
- 15:08SPEAKER_00: That is still them posting a review.
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: That's not necessarily problematic.
- 15:13SPEAKER_00: What Google finds problematic are people buying reviews,
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: people incentivizing reviews,
- 15:20SPEAKER_00: potentially creating unbalanced review profiles,
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: and businesses basically cheating to inflate their review numbers and get more
- 15:29SPEAKER_00: than what they actually earned via customer person-to-person request.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: And so...
- 15:36SPEAKER_00: Ultimately,
- 15:37SPEAKER_00: when you ask for reviews,
- 15:39SPEAKER_00: what you're doing is asking for it in an honest framing,
- 15:43SPEAKER_00: but a framing that positions your business as possibly needing help or would benefit
- 15:50SPEAKER_00: from the other person's help.
- 15:52SPEAKER_00: That's another persuasion principle that goes into requesting reviews.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: People want to do you favors because intuitively we know it implies
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: that you will owe them a favor.
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of review psychology works on this principle.
- 16:06SPEAKER_00: The more review or feedback you give,
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: the better your experience will be or the more the business owes you.
- 16:13SPEAKER_00: And maybe they're not literally thinking monetarily, they'll pay me for this.
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: Humans are a little bit more nuanced than that.
- 16:21SPEAKER_00: But they'll see the review as I'm doing a favor for the business and the person
- 16:27SPEAKER_00: who requested the review.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: And this is going to have possibly some downstream benefit if I have
- 16:33SPEAKER_00: to use this business again.
- 16:34SPEAKER_00: And they'll know I left the review and treat me as a priority or send me a gift
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: at Christmas or something.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of times like you're the business is literally putting itself out there
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: and asking for a review, which it may not get.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: You're going to ask for reviews and not get them.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: That's always a problem.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: And it's fine.
- 16:55SPEAKER_00: You know, so nobody bats a hundred.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: And Google will also,
- 17:00SPEAKER_00: it's getting better,
- 17:01SPEAKER_00: but Google has had a history of removing authentic reviews
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: because they don't seem authentic for one reason or another.
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: Again, it's getting better, but you can also still appeal missing reviews.
- 17:14SPEAKER_00: You can still, you know, make a case to Google that this was authentic and real.
- 17:20SPEAKER_00: If it was authentic and real,
- 17:22SPEAKER_00: if it wasn't,
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: then you're probably not going to get very far with the request
- 17:25SPEAKER_00: and they'll reinstate them.
- 17:27SPEAKER_00: But also, you're going to ask somebody to leave a review.
- 17:32SPEAKER_00: They're going to get in their car.
- 17:34SPEAKER_00: They're going to stop at McDonald's on the way home.
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: They're going to get busy with the kids.
- 17:39SPEAKER_00: They're going to forget.
- 17:40SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's where automation comes into play.
- 17:42SPEAKER_00: Automation comes into play to give them a gentle reminder.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: But the power still lies in somebody asked me to do them a favor and leave a review.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: It starts with your team.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: It starts with training your team.
- 17:59SPEAKER_00: So I didn't mean to record a full video here, but sometimes you just get inspired.
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: And this topic of acquiring reviews is super important.
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: And I personally, I feel that people overcomplicate it.
- 18:10SPEAKER_00: It's always been easy for me to get testimonials and reviews because I just ask
- 18:14SPEAKER_00: for them and I'm shameless.
- 18:16SPEAKER_00: And an element of being shameless and just making yourself vulnerable
- 18:20SPEAKER_00: to making your request is a huge part of this as well.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, Your risk tolerance is either up for it or it's not.
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: But hope you guys got something out of this.
- 18:31SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for my live listeners for tuning in.
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: I see you.
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk with you guys next time.
- 18:36SPEAKER_00: Bye.