What's The Secret To Getting Clients To Review Your Law Practice?

It’s no secret that online reviews have the power to make or break a growing law practice these days. What many lawyers don’t know is how to go about collecting five-star reviews from their former clients.

In a recent episode of our “Everything Except The Law” podcast, we welcomed Darl Champion, one of Georgia’s most esteemed trial attorneys. During his appearance, he took us inside the process of how his firm goes about asking clients for reviews once their case has concluded.

Check out the clip below to find out what’s worked best for Darl’s firm.

You can also check out a transcript of the conversation below:

Host Nick Werker:

Your firm collects reviews, and obviously you have such great candidates, but is there a certain process that you have in place for following up with clients once you've finished with their case.

Darl Champion:

It is good old-fashioned asking them. I mean we've tried the review platforms in the past that make it kind of automated, and we were not very successful. You know I think if you're a really large advertising firm just by sheer volume, you're going to get enough to where it's going to kind of build that up. For us, you know when we've tried that in the past, you know a lot of it's going to their email. I can't remember the last time I checked my personal email.

It's just kind of getting overlooked or people just aren't even paying close attention to it. So people aren't really reading it. I mean they're not even checking to see what it is. Maybe there's a program out there that's great that other people have had success with. I've not run across that.

To me I found that the best way to get them is just by asking. When they're getting their settlement check… even in the age of Covid we like to have a meeting with the client where they're actually meeting with the attorney… go over the settlement statement with them and answer any questions they have. We'll ask them, “Hey we'd love for you to leave a review for us, would you be willing to do that”. And our marketing director sends them a link, sometimes by text. Sometimes text is a little bit easier, because people get it on their phone and they see it right there, whereas email again it's just kind of being lost and getting buried in all the spam.

Then if they don't (respond) within a certain number of time, we may reach out again and ask. And you know sometimes if it's somebody the attorney worked really closely with and has a good relationship with, the attorney will call. If the person maybe had a really, really close relationship with the paralegal, because they were interacting a lot more for whatever reason, you know then the paralegal will call. Sometimes after that you just don't get it. There's clients I know who have been very very satisfied, and sometimes just a year later you know (the review) just magically appears.

I think the other thing too is, especially the way Google's set up, I think you've got to have a gmail account to leave a review. So some people just may not. They’ve got a Yahoo or whatever email account. They just don't get around to it and you know they're looking for the easy way.

But that's the other thing. In addition to the ask, you've got to make it as easy for them as possible. Don't just say, “hey leave me a review” and here's some options. Send them the actual link, so all they have to do is click on it. And so if you get a text and you get a link, all you just do is click on it and boom it pops up right there. Type it in, leave the stars, you're done.

Nick Werker:

See that's the mindset that I really appreciate is you make it sound simple. Like, we just ask our clients for reviews and they're happy to give us reviews because we've worked really hard and we've tried to be as personable as possible. But then it's followed up by action on your part, which is we make it really easy for them. We tell them exactly where we want the review. They say text it to me, I'll text it to them. Email it to me, I'll email it to them. Oh I don't know Facebook message, whatever… The important part is that you meet clients where they are.

I say this all the time, is that if a client wants a text message you better be able to text. The client wants a phone call, you better be able to call. If they want to come into your office, I understand with Covid you might not want to do it or wear a mask or something like that, but there's video chat. If they want to see you face-to-face, Zoom is free. It's easy and you better get acquainted with it if you don't want to get left behind.

Full episodes of the Everything Except The Law podcast can be found on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Anchor.