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What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team and systems, mastering money issues, and more; then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth-generating law firm? That’s what we do each week on the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. Hosted by Davina Frederick, founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer –– every episode is an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve (and will pay you on time), and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. The goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund, and still have time to enjoy, the lifestyle of your dreams.
Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more? Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams.
Intro:Now here's Devina.
Marilyn:Hi, I am Marilyn Jenkins. I'm founder of Law Marketing Zone and digital marketing coach for Wealthy Woman Lawyer. Devina has asked me to takeover her podcast today and share with you how to take control of your online reputation. Stick around until the end and I'll share with you an exclusive offer for Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast listeners only. I've been working in digital marketing since the early nineties.
Marilyn:I've published four books on marketing for law firms. I'm a podcast host and a syndicated TV host. Since 2018, I've worked exclusively with attorneys and have helped many of those firms grow to multiple 7 figures and retainers. Law Marketing Zone is a full service digital marketing agency, including a 20 fourseven bilingual intake service to qualify your calls or your cases for you. Today we're going to talk about something that quietly makes or breaks your firm every single day, whether you're paying attention to it or not, your online reputation.
Marilyn:So let's get into it. Here's the honest truth. You could be an exceptional attorney. You could deliver real results for your clients and still lose the case for new business before you ever get on the phone with a prospect because of what they saw about you online. Your online reputation does not automatically reflect the quality of your work.
Marilyn:I know that's not fair, but it is reality. So what's super important is your online reputation is the first impression you're not often in the room to control. A weak or absent review profile signals risk to potential clients, even if your work is outstanding. But the good news is this is completely fixable and it doesn't have to consume your time. So when we think about it as a consumer, Amazon years and years ago got us into the process of looking at reviews before we make a purchase.
Marilyn:So then now consumers are trained for that. So if you look at what is written about your firm, look at the reviews. If you don't have many reviews, we need to fix that. And today we're gonna talk about that as well. I know that some people say, Do online reviews actually matter?
Marilyn:And let me give you some data on that. Let me give you two real numbers and I want you to really sit with these. 84% of people trust an online review as much as personal recommendation. Not almost as much, but as much as a personal referral. And 77% of consumers consider reviews older than three months irrelevant.
Marilyn:So think about what that second number means for a law firm. If you got a wave of great reviews two years ago and then you stopped, you may as well have zero. Recency matters as much as volume. So keep that in mind as you're thinking about your online reputation and how often you're asking for reviews. So reviews are not an optional social proof.
Marilyn:They are functional trust signals that tell people that you are trustworthy to work with. Stale reviews actively work against you. And this means reputation management is not a one time project. It's an ongoing system that needs to be put into your firm. 88% of consumers read reviews before making a decision.
Marilyn:Your prospects are doing that right now. What does your online reputation say about you and your firm? And one other thought, we're all interested on where our Google ranking lies. Your online reviews impact your Google rankings. So if you're doing anything with your Google Business Profile, you make sure that reviews are something you're definitely paying attention to.
Marilyn:So let's look at maybe the core problem here. You may be already using some sort of automation tool. I know that many of our CRMs have a review management program built into them. I know our CRM that we provide clients do. You may be using something like Podium, ReviewBuzz, any of the automated tools that are online.
Marilyn:And most firms have invested in at least one of these. But yet the reviews still aren't coming in consistently. And the question is why? It's because tools don't work without a process. And a process doesn't work without a culture.
Marilyn:So that's the gap. The tool sits there doing nothing because nobody owns it. Nobody is asking for reviews consistently and it was never baked into how the firm operates day to day. So having a tool isn't a strategy. The problem is almost never the software, right?
Marilyn:It's the absence of a firm wide commitment to actively driving reviews. Fix your culture first, then the tool does its job. So you have processes of how you handle every case that comes in, how you handle every client that comes through the door. Part of your process is world class service. Obviously you're doing that.
Marilyn:And at the end of every case asking for reviews. So I kind of look at it as like five different principles, five key principles that we can work with on this. First off, like I said, provide world class customer experience. Okay. We want to separate your firm with strong, consistent review profiles from everybody, from anybody else.
Marilyn:We want to stand out in your local area. So reviews are a team sport, your front desk, your paralegals, your associates. Everyone needs to understand that reviews are part of how the firm grows. That means talking about it in team meetings, celebrating wins, making it someone's specific responsibility. So if you have a customer service person, the front intake person, someone assigned ownership to ask for those reviews, celebrate every new review publicly within the team.
Marilyn:And make the ask feel natural, not transactional. You can even gamify it and ask people to mention my name in your review if you are happy with our service. Use tools and use multiple channels. The mistake firms make is relying on one channel, usually email, and then wondering why the response rates are low. So what you need to do to reach clients is you need to reach them via email, SMS, even what I really like is review card that you hand to them in person or you mail to them with the closing documents.
Marilyn:So that could have a QR code that goes directly to you write us a review link on Google. So all you have to do is take a picture of it and it will take them straight to that page on their phone. You could have the QR code as something on your front desk. So when people are literally standing in your office, they can scan that QR code and write you a review. The key is it often happens that you have to ask multiple times for a review because you know how it goes.
Marilyn:You start to do something and you get interrupted. So many times you have to ask two, three or four times for that review, but it's worth it. And if people are happy with their service, they're gonna be willing to do that. And as most of us are text people, so SMS has significantly higher open rate than email. The printed QR code card is really awesome.
Marilyn:Can at qrcodegenerator.com, I believe is the website, you can get a free QR code that goes to your review page. And so you can make that simple. You can even automate the ask that it goes out within twenty four hours of your case resolution. And then this could be in your CRM. So you automatically make that part of it that you say, send that review request out.
Marilyn:Okay. So make it something prior to your process. Don't ask once and give up. A polite follow-up sequence dramatically increases your response. So think about how you get busy and someone reminds you of what you agreed to do.
Marilyn:So go and do that. Acknowledge and respond to every single review. This is important on your Google Business Profile or anywhere else you've got reviews, but especially on your Google Business Profile. And I know I've talked about this before. If you've listened to any of my content, any of my presentations with Wealthy Woman Lawyer, building your Google Business Profile, you are showing Google that you are actively engaged in the user experience.
Marilyn:You wanna make sure that every review you get has a response, right? Assign that to one person in your office if that's the best way in the process. It doesn't mean you as the attorney have to be the one to do it. Good, bad, and indifferent, every single review needs to have a reply. Think of that as your future customers are looking to see how you replied to past reviews.
Marilyn:And if you've never replied to any of them, now's the time to go back and start replying to all of them. It also increases your Google ranking. Okay? So when you respond to a positive review, you're not just thanking that client, you're signaling to every future prospect reading that page that you are engaged and you care You run a firm where people matter. That is huge.
Marilyn:When you respond to a negative review, you're doing something even more powerful. You're demonstrating professionalism under pressure. Future clients are watching how you handle conflict. Handle it well and it can build trust. Keep in mind, people will read that one star review to see was it something that happened in the office?
Marilyn:Was someone having a bad day? Is it an irrelevant review? You responding positively professionally to each of those is so much better for your future customers to see how you are, how you relate to them. Again, you could put together a short library of response templates for common scenarios, right? So your responses can be very similar where you don't want your reviews to be similar.
Marilyn:That's why you don't wanna write the review for your clients. And then for negative reviews, you wanna acknowledge the problem. Don't argue with them. Take it offline and stay professional. Give them an optional way of contacting the office or emailing you and try to handle that negative review offline and just keep everything professional online.
Marilyn:But never ignore a review. Silence says indifference. And Google again rewards the replies, okay? And for the future, people that come to your firm or are looking into your firm. And we wanna talk about actually making this happen without it becoming another thing on your plate.
Marilyn:We don't need another task to deal with. With platforms, we recommend include Caseload AMP, ReviewBuzz, BirdEye, Podium, any of those types of programs. And like I said, your current CRM system may have an automation built into it. Each of them can automate the review request process so that even when every time a case closes in your system, a request goes out automatically. So there's no manual follow-up required.
Marilyn:This is gonna make your review requests much easier on your team and make it more consistent. Again, it's part of the processes in your systems that you need. So automate it within twenty four hours, use multi channels like we talked about. Track your invite to review conversion rates so you know what's working. So if you have some way to track that you sent emails worked better or text messages worked better.
Marilyn:Build a review widget for your website to display all the results in real time so as you get new reviews, it shows with the new dates. That is very important to show off on your website. And one tactic, like I said, that works really well is the printed review card. It costs nothing on, say even Vistaprint to create a two sided color business card that has your something like, would you mind leaving us a review with your logo and information and a QR code that takes them directly to leave us a review link on Google. And when you go to your Google business profile and you click on that, it's when the window pops up in the middle of the screen, you wanna take that address in the address bar.
Marilyn:It's gonna be weird and long, but that's super important. We wanna make sure that people don't have to click an extra time. They can go directly to choosing the stars and typing the review. Okay. Make it super easy on them.
Marilyn:And some people prefer this. It costs almost nothing and it works really well. And let's go just a little bit deeper on the showing it off a little bit on your website. I know that a lot of people, a lot of firms have a few reviews on their website. Many are getting better about there's widgets within WordPress that can actually capture the reviews as they come in real time from your Google Business Profile.
Marilyn:These typically are gonna be a nice little clean professional box. You can even set it with the colors of your theme of your website. And they are pulled directly from your Google business profile and list from anywhere from like the bar across where they rotate. Rotate, or maybe instead of like five or 10 that rotate through, you'll have a box or a rectangle on your website towards the bottom that has maybe 10 and those rotate. So that's something you wanna do so that you're showing off a bit because you wanna showcase that.
Marilyn:People are gonna wanna see your reviews anyway. You're saving them a click if they've already come to your website. Show your reviews there. Make sure they're in real time. And then what I would do is in addition to having your reviews at the bottom of your homepage, I would have an extra page on your website for testimonials and reviews.
Marilyn:And that gives people even more a place to look and see more. And then go to your Google Business Profile if they want to read more about you and hear what other people have to say. But that's one of the best things to do, show off your review score. And it's gonna be constantly updating without you having to update your website. Let's go into a little bit more depth about responding to reviews.
Marilyn:A simple positive response that works and doesn't feel very generic is something similar to, Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve you. We appreciate your kind words and your trust in our firm. So many people are afraid to respond to reviews because they're afraid of there's so much information that's confidential. I can't say that. We're talking about just a professional thank you.
Marilyn:That's it. Short, warm and human, right? You can personalize one line referencing something specific about their review if you have time, but even a consistent short response is far better than silence, right? Because a no response is silence. For negative reviews, the formula should be something like acknowledge the concern, express your genuine care and invite them to contact you directly.
Marilyn:Never let it sit unaddressed. If people are looking at your company and they see you've got negative reviews you've never responded to, but you did respond to the positive ones, they're thinking that there's a conflict there. There's a problem and you're not communicating on the negative side. So definitely reply to all of them. What you could do is create a response calendar.
Marilyn:So reviews should be answered within forty eight hours max. And I know it's not always realistic, but if you've assigned reviews to someone in your office, they should be able to check reviews every day and respond to the new ones that come in or every two days, something like that. You could even set up a Google alert or a dashboard notification so no review goes unnoticed. I do know that when you have your Google Business Profile, the email that's set up under will get a notification, an email every time someone does a review with a link to inside that email to respond. So make sure that whoever's handling reviews in your office gets that email and can jump right on it.
Marilyn:So that way you're being much quicker. And again, Google rewards you for that. So your response to reviews is marketing. So write it down, know it, future clients will read it and just make sure that is not something you drop the ball on. Let's talk a little bit about delegating it all.
Marilyn:Here's a real question for a room full of successful attorneys. Is it your best use of your time to manage this? And you know the answer. You're running a firm, you're serving clients, you're building a practice. The smartest move is asking who handles this, not how do I find time to handle it myself?
Marilyn:That's whole philosophy. Identify the right person, whether that's someone on your team or done for you partner, give them the system and let them run it. You have enough to do. You are building a firm and need to have the right person doing the right things. And you should not be the one managing all your reviews.
Marilyn:Reputation management can be fully delegated with the right process in place. Again, we're talking systems. You all have systems in firm. This is one system you cannot live without. Done for you options exist that handle everything from sending requests to responding to reviews.
Marilyn:Your job is to decide this matters and make sure someone owns it. The ROI of a strong review profile compounds over time. It pays for itself. When you look at the Google Map Pack and you see the top three attorneys in your area and you see one has, say, 153 reviews and the other one has eight, are they about the same age? One's prioritizing reviews, one is not.
Marilyn:So the one with the more reviews is obviously going to get more business. If you currently look and have less than 10 reviews and you're a new firm, what I would suggest you do is you can go to your current service providers and ask them to give you a character review. So with the reviews of Google, it does not say they have to be a client, a paying client. So if you've been working with a company, whether they're a service provider for you or you've been doing some pro bono work or whatever, ask for a review. They can give you an honest review.
Marilyn:You can't ask for a five star review. You can ask for an honest review. You can't incentivize reviews, but you can ask your service providers, people that you work with, heck, your dentist. Any of those types of people that you work with on a regular basis to review you. Then you can build your review status up.
Marilyn:If you get over 10, that is like a milestone with Google. Then just continue to grow that. Okay? Again, the ROI with a strong review profile is amazing compared to new firms coming in or people that just aren't working on that. So I just wanna be clear that reviews, you need to look at getting your reviews, replying your reviews, those types of things in your customer journey.
Marilyn:So if you haven't mapped out your your actual customer journey whenever they're having a problem, decide they have a problem that they need help with, and then they're researching who can help them, your reviews is very much part of that customer journey. Once you have them in your sphere influence, whether they're paying you or they've just had a meeting with you or maybe they subscribed to your newsletter, now you need to be talking with them, reminding them of the reviews, putting the reviews on your website, put some new reviews in your monthly newsletter. If you're not doing a monthly newsletter to reach out to your database and keep your firm front of mind, you should be doing that. You never know when circumstances change in a potential customer's life, where they need you or they know someone who needs you. So the email newsletter is a big way of keeping that information out there, keeping your name top of mind, and of course updating them with happenings in your office, new reviews that come through, and potentially even new law changes that might affect them in the future.
Marilyn:That is what we're talking about is why this is all a big importance. Reviews are massive. Before I let you go, I wanna leave you with something concrete. Everything we talked about today, the reviews, the reputation, the visibility, it only works if you know where you actually stand right now. And most attorneys genuinely don't.
Marilyn:So here's what I'd like to offer you today, exclusively for this group. I'm making available a complimentary reputation and visibility audit suite. And it covers three things that directly affect whether your ideal clients find you, trust you, and choose you over the firm down the street. So here's what's included. A digital presence audit.
Marilyn:We do a full assessment of how your firm shows up online right now. Your Google Business Profile, your review volume and recency, your directory listings, your overall star rating across platforms will tell you exactly what a potential client sees when they research you and where the gaps are costing you business. We offer a competitive overview. This is the one most firms have never seen before. We look at your top three to five competitors in your market as Google sees them, not as you think they are.
Marilyn:Okay, we wanna see exactly what's happening online. And we're gonna show you exactly where you stack up against theirs. Review counts, ratings, response, visibility, any of that. You'll know precisely where you're ahead and where you're being outpaced with no guesswork. And then one of the best reports we have now, the new reports is a ChatGPT visibility audit.
Marilyn:This one is critical right now and almost nobody is talking about it. When a potential client asks or types in who's the best family law attorney in Chicago or top estate planning lawyer near me into ChatGPT or any of our voice things like, Hey Google and Siri, any of those types of things, does your name come up? So we assess recurrent AI visibility because this is where search behavior is shifting fast. And the firms that get ahead of it now will have a significant advantage in the next twelve to twenty four months. You've built something real.
Marilyn:You have a reputation in your community with your clients and in the courtroom. The question is whether your reputation is translating online and whether it's reaching the clients you actually want, the ones who value your expertise and can pay for it. This audit gives you a clear, honest picture of where you stand. No fluff, no generic report, a real assessment of your firm, your market and your visibility. And here's the thing, you don't have to guess anymore.
Marilyn:You don't have to wonder why a competitor with half your experience is ranking above you or pulling clients you should be getting. This audit tells you exactly what's happening and exactly what to do about it. It's complimentary, it's specific to your firm, and it's only available to the attorneys in this room today. So to claim yours, go to lawmarketingzone.com/bookacall or you can email me at team, T E A M, lawmarketingzone dot com and just write the word audit and we'll reach out to you from there. Spots are limited because we do these personally, not with a bot, not with a template.
Marilyn:A real person on my team will review your firm, your competitors, and your AI visibility and put together a report that's actually worth your time to read. Okay? So if you spent years building your practice, building a practice that reflects who you are and the standard you hold yourself to, your online presence should do the same. Let us show you where it stands today so you can decide what comes next. Again, I'm Marilyn Jenkins of Law Marketing Zone, and I'm delighted to takeover Davina's podcast today for the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast.
Marilyn:Feel free to book a call with me at lawmarketingzone dot com slash bookacall or email me at teamlawmarketingzone dot com. Thanks ladies and have a
Intro:great day! If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.