Should A Law Firm Respond To Negative Reviews?

08 Sep Should A Law Firm Respond To Negative Reviews?

Receiving a negative review from a disgruntled client is not an uncommon occurrence, but bad reviews can tarnish your firm’s reputation and dissuade prospective clients from hiring your legal services. While you can’t prevent a client from leaving a negative review, your firm’s response can turn the negative into a positive. Your response can potentially convince the reviewer to edit their response or write a more positive review of how your firm reacted. At The HCS Agency, we offer reputation management as part of our New York attorney marketing plan. We’ll help you create a response that shows your firm’s willingness to rectify a situation. If you want to learn more about how to tackle negative reviews, please continue reading below. 

Should You Respond To Negative Reviews?

Just like acknowledging positive feedback on review websites, responding to the rare negative reviews is equally important. Reputation management is a critical aspect of a New York attorney marketing plan, so it’s essential to respond to all feedback. When you encounter a negative review, it’s only natural to have an emotional response. However, it’s important to let yourself cool down before you respond. 

You can turn the review into a positive one for your law firm when you respond the right way. Before responding to a review, research the client and case. Identify who posted the review and if their claim is legitimate. Sometimes people use an alias on their review accounts, so you may have to investigate further. It’s essential to understand the background of the review before replying. With online reviews, it’s critical to be aware of the language you use and your tone. The last thing you want to do is aggravate the client more when they’re already upset. Here are a few ways to respond with sincerity:

• Refrain from using exclamation points or multiple question marks, as these can be perceived as emotional. 
• Utilize empathetic phrases. “Our team wants to make this right.” “We understand your concern.”
• Make the response personal by addressing the reviewer by name. 
• Thank them for their response. Starting your response with a “thank you” sets the tone that you are taking them seriously and want to improve. 

Contact Us For New York Attorney Marketing

While you can’t prevent clients from leaving bad reviews, you can make them work in your favor by responding with compassion and grace. The HCS Agency doesn’t just help law firms respond to client reviews. Whether it’s collecting reviews, analyzing insights from reviews, or sharing them on your website and social media, our New York attorney marketing plan has you covered. To learn more about online reputation management, be sure to contact us today!