In a previous article on this site, I answered the question how many reviews do I need for my law firm? The short answer is, spoiler alert, more. You always need more reviews, because it’s always a race to the top with your competitors, who are also getting more reviews. Having the most reviews get you noticed, so you have to keep getting them.

But that leads to this next question: how do I get more reviews, and consistently?

You won’t get more reviews, certainly not consistently, if you don’t ask for them. Consistently asking is the only way to get more reviews consistently.

One way to do it is to develop the habit of asking clients and potential clients to post them. But new habits take time to establish. You need to do something regularly over a long enough period of time that it becomes routine.

But this takes discipline and focus, which is difficult to do in a busy law practice. You have enough on your mind trying to get everything done for your clients and run your business, without also having to remember to ask for reviews.

Automate the Ask for Reviews

The better way to do it is to automate it. One way to do this is through your contact relationship management (CRM) system. Have prepared emails (and if your CRM has this feature, texts) to send to the client asking for reviews at certain predetermined points. This campaign should have at least two emails.

The first is sent asking for the review and providing the link, and the second is sent if they don’t leave one (because life got in the way) giving them a gentle reminder. All you have to do is put a tag on that persons entry in your CRM to trigger the reminder campaign.

Want a pro tip that will make it even more effective? When you are meeting with a client or prospective client and concluding the session, ask them for the review. If they agree to leave one, tell them that you will be sending them an email with a link to the review site, and to keep an eye on their inbox. This will alert the person and make it more likely that they will notice it when it comes in and take action on it.

When Should You Ask for Reviews?

Lawyers seem to think that they should ask for a review when the case is over, and the result has been obtained. This is not necessarily true. You can ask the client at any time. Any time you provide value or help someone, you should ask for a review. You may achieve major victories along the way or (or any kind of victory) that might make the client disposed to give you a five-star review.

Just because the case isn’t over doesn’t mean that you haven’t helped them. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t provided value, and it doesn’t mean that the individual won’t say nice things about you.

You should also bear in mind that you have to ask for review at the right time. The best time to ask is while you’re fresh in the person’s mind. Send them a review link immediately.

Ask Prospective Clients for Reviews

In fact, they don’t even have to be a client. A review is a review. You should ask for them after an initial consultation. Who knows? Maybe they chose to meet with you, as opposed to another lawyer, because of the reviews you have.

Tell them that people just want to know that you’re easy to talk to, will answer their questions, and that the overall experience will be positive. People are nervous when they meet with attorneys, often seeing us as intimidating, so reading reviews that described the opposite will help them find the right attorney to talk to. By leaving a review, they are helping other people.

Nutshell View

So the takeaways here for getting more reviews for your law firm are:

• • Ask for them consistently
  • Ask when you’re fresh in their minds
  • Ask whenever you have provided them with value or help them in some way
  • Make it easy for them to leave your review by immediately sending them a link
  • Automate the process of doing so, so that you don’t forget or have to spend the time and focus to develop the habit

Your next step is to mark some time in your calendar to implement these procedures and, if you have support staff, talk to them about how they can help. The good news is, that if you ask for reviews consistently, at the right time, and make it easy for them, you will get more reviews.

But Wait; There’s More!

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Need help setting up an automated system to ask for reviews? Just give me a call at 856-345-9699 for a free, no obligation consult to discuss it.