Speaker 1: 0:05

What is the best way to handle a bad review? Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Every law firm is going to face this sooner or later. This is the dreaded bad review. Whether it's just one angry client, a flurry of negative feedback that's just random. Whatever it is, whichever platform it's on, it can shake even the most confident lawyers and the most confident firms. But here's the thing these bad reviews are normal. Even the greatest firms get these bad reviews. There's no one out there who has only five-star reviews. Yeah, we make it look like that in the marketing, but it's not really like that. And so today, what we are going to do is talk about what to do when that happens and how to actually turn this into a marketing advantage, because, yeah, bad reviews aren't fun, but there's a way out.

Speaker 1: 0:57

So let's start with the gut punch. Getting a bad review stings, especially in this profession of law, where we pour our time, our energy, our expertise into every single case. It feels really personal, because often that person is saying something personal. But here's the thing Google doesn't really care about your feelings. It's harsh, but it's true. Google's just tallying up a bunch of different signals to decide how visible you should be in search. It is an algorithm, it's not a therapist, it's not a psychologist and from a business standpoint, one bad review is not the end of the world. In fact, it can actually start making our firm look a little bit more trustworthy. And I know that sounds backwards, but studies show that consumers are actually more likely to trust a firm with a few imperfect reviews. It just feels more real. No one ever is going to believe that you're batting a thousand. Even if they see all five-star ratings, they're going to start to wonder if your mom or your wife or your sibling whoever it was wrote some of those reviews. But what does matter is how you respond and whether you keep the positive reviews flowing to balance out the narrative. A single bad review is not going to sink your firm, but if it's the only recent review that's showing up, it can definitely skew a potential client's perception. That's why we need to think less about damage control and more about reputation management as an ongoing strategy.

Speaker 1: 2:21

So let's say your firm just got hit with a bad review. The instinct and I know I'm there with you, the instinct is to fire back. You want to defend yourself and maybe even start typing on the keyboard with just a little bit too much force, but that's exactly what we don't want to do in this situation. So step one, pause and analyze. Take a beat, take a breath. Do not respond in anger. Even if the review is completely unfair, flat out wrong, incendiary, don't get mad.

Speaker 1: 2:52

First figure out who actually left the review. Was it actually a client? Was it a disgruntled ex, someone on the other side of a contentious case? Look at what this person wrote. Is this an isolated complaint or is it part of a pattern?

Speaker 1: 3:06

This is our opportunity to step back, gather a little bit of data and avoid fueling the fire. Then we can sit down and write a professional, composed reply. We're going to thank this person for their feedback, no matter how hard that is to do. We want to try and avoid legal jargon, finger pointing, emotional language, that kind of stuff. You are not trying to win this argument. You are demonstrating to future clients how you and your firm handle conflict.

Speaker 1: 3:35

A great line is something like we take all feedback seriously and aim to resolve concerns whenever possible. If you're open to it, we'd welcome a private conversation to better understand what happened. Obviously, you need to understand what your bar rules are before you say something. But something along those lines can work. And here's another key point If the review is truly inaccurate let's say it came from someone who is never a client, or it includes these demonstrably false claims like he eats, you know giraffes you can just report it to Google for removal. But don't hold your breath. Sometimes it's hit or miss and it doesn't always work. But it is worth submitting a flag through your Google business profile dashboard or having someone else report the review as well, and then, lastly, take this in-house.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Even if you think the review is unfair, ask yourself is there any truth in this? Is there something operational, communicational, procedural that could have slipped through the cracks, even if we don't feel it did correct us? Could the client feel that way? Sometimes the loudest feedback can actually point to a fixable issue, and that's gold, because it's a free lesson that helps us build a better firm. So before we clap back or go full scorched earth, remember this your response isn't for the reviewer, it is for every future client who reads it.

Speaker 1: 4:51

So that one bad review it's annoying, but it's manageable but a cluster of them, especially if that happens in a short time frame. That's when we need to look closer. Multiple bad reviews can sometimes be the result of a coordinated effort, not necessarily a sudden wave of client dissatisfaction. And yeah, we've seen it all An ex-employee on a mission to take the firm down, or a bitter opposing party who lost in court, or someone rallying friends to leave fake one stars against you. There's a million reasons why this can happen. So how do we spot a coordinated attack? We can look for signs like a sudden spike in reviews within a few days, reviewers that we cannot trace to our client base at all and generic complaints that could apply to sort of any law firm or any business.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Really like terrible service. And just no specifics. Because if you think you're dealing with fake reviews, your first move flag them with Google. Go to your Google business profile, click the three dots next to the review and select report review. You want to choose the most accurate reason, usually spam or conflict of interest or something like that, but you can also submit a more detailed explanation through the Google support form. That said, like I mentioned, be prepared. The success rate is kind of low. Google's automated review process just isn't that great at context or nuance. Right now. It probably is going to get better, but right now it's not great, but it is worth trying, especially if we're dealing with a clear violation of Google's policies.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Now let's talk about the thing you guys all want to do in these moments, but probably shouldn't, and that's legal action. And yes, I've been involved with this and I have had some success. However, while suing a reviewer feels satisfying in theory, it often backfires. It turns a local reputation issue into this public court-based spectacle and guess what story any press person loves. Law firm sues client for leaving bad review. Even if you're in the right, you look defensive, untrustworthy, difficult to deal with. The list goes on and you could even risk triggering anti-slap stuff, depending on your jurisdiction. That's more. I'm not going to get into it. I'm not the lawyer here. But look, it's just not the area we want to get into.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Unless you're really, really sure you're right, even with a cooler head, and unless the review crosses into clear defamation with real damages and zero connection to the firm, it is almost always better to handle it quietly, professionally, zero connection to the firm. It is almost always better to handle it quietly, professionally, behind the scenes. Focus your energy on building a wall of positive feedback that pushes those bad reviews out of sight, because in the end. It's not about silencing the noise. It's about drowning out the bad noise. If a bad review is a storm, your goal isn't to stop the rain and hold up the sky. It's to build a stronger roof. And that's what we mean by review resilience. It's the ability to weather negative feedback without it leaving a dent in your firm's reputation and the key to that the long game.

Speaker 1: 7:47

You can start by proactively generating positive reviews. We've talked about this on the show before. Most happy clients aren't thinking about leaving you five stars unless you ask so ask the best time Right after something good happens. A successful case wrap-up it's when your client is still feeling relieved, grateful and in your corner, and you don't need to be pushy about it. A simple automated email, a quick message from the paralegal they worked with the most, or even a QR code on a post-case summary page can work wonders and make sure that you're actually asking them to review.

Speaker 1: 8:20

On the platforms that matter for your area of practice, yes, google is king. For most of us, it's the first place most clients look, but depending on the specialty Avvo, findlaw, justia some of these sites can be really beneficial too. Some consumer-facing practices like immigration, personal injury, can also really benefit from Facebook reviews because of the visibility and shareability. And here's the real power play volume and recency. A single bad review sitting at the top of your GBP looks way scarier when it is the most recent thing there, but if it's buried under 10, 15, 20, 50 five-star reviews from the past two months, suddenly it looks like a crazy person. It's just background noise. Google weighs recent feedback much more heavily in local rankings, and so do people, and that's why consistency, not just crisis response, is really the name of the game here.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And look, don't just collect great reviews on your GBP. Use them, take the best ones, embed them on your website. Put one in your email signature. I think that's annoying, but you could try it. Drop a line or two into your intake packet. Print them out onto cards. These aren't just nice words that someone said. They are proof of your performance. When people see others trusting you, they're much more likely to do the same. So don't let these bad reviews catch you on the back foot. Build your review strategy the way you build a case, with intent, evidence and structure, because over time, a steady drumbeat of positive feedback is going to drown out the occasional critic, even when they're really, really annoying and turn your reputation into one of your firm's strongest assets. That's what this is going to do for you.

Speaker 1: 9:59

So let's bring it all together quickly with the tech side of things. If you've listened to the previous episodes on Local, we've talked about a bunch of different tools, things like Podium. Even Clio Grow can give some interesting ways to automate your review requests, and whether it's a text message that goes out after a case closes, an email triggered by your CRM, the point is to make it really easy for happy clients to leave this glowing feedback. You don't want to add more to your team's plate and you don't want to add barriers for the client to do this. Maybe equally important, maybe more important, is staying on top of what's already out there. This means setting up alerts so that you're notified the moment a new review drops. Google does this natively and you can get emails about it, and some third-party platforms can do push alerts to your inbox or Slack or just straight on your phone.

Speaker 1: 10:44

What we really don't want is to let a negative review sit unanswered for a week or a month or worse, longer. It sends a really bad message and if you're already using a CRM, integrate that into your review system. That way, the reviews, they're not an afterthought, they're a key step in your client workflow. When a client closes a case, your team is immediately prompted to send the review request and you have a feedback loop. That sort of runs itself.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Now let's step back a little bit, because this is really about bad reviews, and I want to say this again bad reviews aren't a death sentence. What they are is a test. They're a test of you. They're a test of your firm's professionalism, your process and your ability to communicate under pressure. Again, your response isn't really about the person who left the review, it's about the next person who reads it. Now, what I do want to say before we wrap up is that if you've got a horror story about a bad review, or actually one that you handled like a pro, I would love to hear about it. I've had some crazy review cases going on in the last year and it's been on my mind all the time. So shoot me a note and I might share it in a future episode. Let's keep learning from each other whenever we can. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.