Use Third-Party Resources to Build Online Credibility
You know you’re good. Your existing clients have personally experienced how hard you work on their files. They know the outstanding results you obtain on their behalf.
What about potential clients who have never met you before? How can you expect them to trust you when they don’t know who you are or don’t know what kind of law your firm can help them with?
The fact of the matter is that many consumers simply don’t trust lawyers. When a consumer goes online to find a lawyer, studies have shown that they put little weight on what YOU say about YOUR OWN services.
Use Third-Party Tools
The secret to gaining trust and getting your phone to ring is to use independent third-party tools to validate your experience and services. These tools will allow you to share, in an objective manner, what other people in the community have to say about your legal ability and skills.
Third party rating services like Martindale-Hubbell, AVVO, and similar companies are a good first start. Prominently sharing your affiliation with lawyer associations like the ABA, AAJ, and your state and local bar organizations is also another good way to go. Adding seals from reputable online review services like VeriSign, Truste, and even the BBB will also enhance your credibility to your site visitors.
When used correctly, these third-party tools work very well. However, without any hesitation whatsoever, what I’ve found over the past 25 years is that the best third-party tools to use are…
Client and Lawyer Testimonials and Case Results
Testimonials and case results are by far the best and most effective tools all lawyers need to incorporate in to their on and offline marketing and relationship building and marketing efforts. At our various web sites, these two pages or sections result in more clicks that almost all the other pages combined.
We actively track this information both on and offline. Online we use Google Analytics to see where our web site traffic comes from and which pages visitors click to and spend the most time on.
Offline, our staff always ask an incoming caller how them came across our name and what made them call us as opposed to another firm in town. While the answers vary (and we track every response), the most common answers are, in this order, (1) personal referrals, (2) they liked our testimonials, our (3) they respected our case results.
In this article I’m going to limit my discussion to testimonials. I’ll talk about using case results in another post.
How to Get and Use Testimonials
When it comes to getting testimonials, good service and timing is everything.
Good Service: First, you must provide excellent service. I know this may seem rather basic but if you want to get good testimonials and build your practice, you’re going to need satisfied clients. Because this article is about testimonials, I’m going to assume you and your staff are already doing all that you need to do to provide outstanding service.
Good Timing: Assuming that your taking excellent care of your clients, you’re still not going to get testimonials UNLESS YOU ASK FOR THEM.
And when it comes to asking, timing is everything. Here’s what works for us…
Most satisfied clients will be more than happy to give you a testimonial if you ask for one. There are exceptions but generally, they have nothing to do with the quality of your service. Some extremely satisfied clients are simply too busy to take the time to share their testimonial and others may have simply forgotten about your request.
With the above in mind, it is kind of a numbers game and this is how we go about the process…
When you successful complete a case, immediately send out a client satisfaction questionnaire asking for feedback. Make sure to always personalize the letter and questionnaire with the client’s name.
What feedback questions should you ask? Well, you may want to start with the questions found at our online form (similar to our written questionnaire except it is not personalized with the client’s name).
In the same letter, provide a second testimonial request form asking the client share his testimonial about his experience with your firm. To give the client options, in the letter we also share a link to our online testimonial form so that he or she can respond quickly online.
In the personalized cover letter that accompanies this short package, make sure to (1) thank the client once again for the opportunity to be of service; (2) ask for their important feedback so that you can better serve your clients; (3) let the client know that testimonials are an invaluable way to help potential clients become comfortable with calling your firm and then ASK FOR THEIR TESTIMONIAL. Make sure they know that you would really appreciate any help they can give you with providing their short testimonial about their experience with your firm or about how you were able to help them solve their legal issue.
Important Reminder: Make sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelop to make it easy for the client to return the completed forms. We’ve tested sending out identical testimonial request and have found that this added step will increase your response rate by more than 65%!
Once most clients are informed about your genuine need for their testimonial, they’ll go out of their way to help. Of course, you’ll only get a good testimonial if you’ve provided outstanding service so make sure you take care of business first BEFORE asking a client to help you generate new business with his or her testimonial.
After getting the testimonial, thank the client with a phone call. Next, make sure to put the testimonial to use at your web site, blog, and other on and offline marketing material.
Tip #1: Timing is everything. Make sure to send out your testimonial request immediately after you finish the case. I’m talking about the next day! Waiting a week or longer may allow “buyers remorse” to kick in and completely dash any hope of getting a good testimonial.
Tip #2: When asking for testimonials, always include an option at the end for the client to include his complete name (or initials) and his status (family man, business owner) and contact info like telephone number and email address. This will make your testimonial much more believable and effective. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been contacted by a good new client only after she first contacted 2-3 people who posted their testimonials.
Tip #3: Give the client an option to provide the testimonial online. Include a link to your web site that allows the client to quickly and easily provide this information without a great deal of effort. If you’d like to see an example, click here to see our law firm client testimonial link [note- we use the wufoo.com service for many of our online forms].
Tip #4: If possible, use a picture of the client. If you have the time and resources, video testimonials are also very effective in communicating third party credibility.
Tip #5: The money is in the follow-up! If your client didn’t respond to your initial request for a testimonial, send a follow-up letter in about 30 days. Attach it to a copy of your earlier letter, feedback form, and testimonial request form.
In your letter acknowledge that you understand your client may be busy but also reemphasize how important getting this client’s testimonial is you to. By personalizing your correspondence and sharing your true need and desire for the testimonial, we’ve found that many clients who fail, for whatever reason, to respond to the initial request will respond to the second request.
Tip #6: Several online resources like LinkedIn and AVVO allow you to seek endorsements or recommendations from other people. Use these tools to help supplement your testimonial efforts.
Tip #7: Use this same approach to get testimonials from other lawyers. We’ve found that friends, professional contacts, and even opposing counsel are more than willing to share their testimonial. All you need to do is ask!
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