Got a Negative Online Review? First Things First: Turn Off Your Attorney

Because of their training, attorneys tend to treat just about any negative interaction like a court of law. Ever tried to subject your significant other to the legal treatment you got in law school or court that day? How'd that turn out? Just as the kitchen table is a terrible place for the Socratic method, negative online review forums are not formal dispute resolution mechanisms. There aren't rules of discovery and no matter how persuasively someone presents their case no judge will ultimately rule on the review. Responding to negative online feedback is a customer service exercise and the “customer” in this type of customer service isn't the one you might think.

2. You're Not Talking to the Negative Reviewer

Remember that when responding to a negative online review, you're not talking to the person who left the review. Rightly or wrongly, their mind is already made up about you and your services. Your response is not going to change that. Research from online research firm BrightLocal shows that, provided that the reviews meet their expectations regarding authenticity, quantity, and other factors, nearly 80% of individuals trust online reviews as much as in person recommendations. That shows that many people both participate in — and trust — the online review ecosystem. So, when responding to a negative review, remember that the audience is not the reviewer but the dozens or hundreds or thousands of people who will read the negative review and then see if you responded in a professional, customer-oriented way or in an angry, reactive and confrontational way.

3. Always Respond

In almost every case, you should respond to a negative online review. Absent a response, the negative review is the only thing that the reader will see about your firm. Again, the response is not a refutation of the merits of the negative review, but a customer service exercise demonstrating to other potential clients how you as an attorney and firm deal with negative feedback or, even, negative things that may happen in the course of representation.

4. Remember Your Ethical Duties As a Lawyer

We at Avvo give entire webinars about the ethics of responding to online reviews. It's not hard to respond ethically if you follow the guidance in this article, but a main challenge is when responding is the duty of confidentiality. Again, if you treat your response like a customer service exercise — as opposed to a tribunal of some sort — you'll rarely have trouble.

So, the first step is turning off your attorney and getting into more of a customer service mindset. And this may take some time. Don't answer a negative review from a reactionary or angry point of view. Take a breath and some time to reflect.

How to Respond

Once you're in that customer service mindset, the next step is to respond to the review. Here are three steps to responding ethically and professionally.

1. Thank the Reviewer

This may sound crazy, but it's the right first step. Even if a portion of what's in the review isn't true, negative reviewers have taken time to provide you with their feedback on how to improve your business. It may sting, but it's valuable information. Thanking the reviewer both acknowledges the value and shows that you're not reactive or defensive. Something along the lines of “Thank you for providing us your feedback about your experiences with our firm” will suffice.

2. Apologize

Next, apologize. This is not an apology about your work on the case, the legal outcome, or any kind of admission about your failure to meet the appropriate standard of advocacy. This is an apology that customer service standards or expectations were not met. An apology shows that you care about customer experience. I've seen firms say things such as “We're sorry that your experience at our firm didn't meet your expectations,” or “We apologize. It looks like your experience didn't match with the level of customer service our firm works hard to provide.”

3. Offer a Remedy

Finally, offer a remedy. I have seen firms on public Facebook offer negative reviewers a full refund for their services. I'm not saying that every attorney should do that, but if some do then you're offering some lesser remedy publicly in response to a negative review seems reasonable. Here are a couple of examples: “Please feel free to contact us through our website or call the office and let us know how we can make this right,” or “We may not be able to change the outcome of your situation, but please know that I'm always happy to discuss any aspect of your case and how we could have handled things differently.”

The Exceptions

It's a simple formula, but there are a few caveats. There are the occasional reviews for which there is no response. These are the reviews written in all caps, with multiple misspellings, or those that are overly nitpicky and clearly not substantive. Readers generally ignore or can see through reviews like that. Lawyers will assume that every review falls into this category but these reviews are the exception. Most reviews merit a response.

Some reviews are fake. Most reputable sites have a way to dispute fake reviews. I easily found one for a number of the best-known platforms by searching “Dispute Yelp review” or “Dispute Google review” on the Web.

In the clear majority of cases, the negative review is both substantive and authentic. You may not like it, it may be hard to accept, or it might not be how you remember what happened. But the best thing to do in the face of a negative review is not to “lawyer up” but to “lawyer down.” Consider thanking, apologizing, and offering a remedy. That approach will be more successful online than lawyering up and it might even be a nice break from all the other time you spend being a lawyer.

*****
Dan Lear is the Director of Industry Relations for Avvo. He is a lawyer, blogger and legal industry gadfly, and currently sits on the Board of Editors of our sibling newsletter, Cybersecurity Law & Strategy. As a technology-focused business lawyer Lear advised companies from startups to the Fortune 100 and helped develop agreements and terms for early cloud services offerings. More information on his published writing and upcoming events can be found by visiting http://rightbrainlaw.co/.

It happened. Some current or former client had the gall to write something less than flattering about you online. What do you do?

The first thing to do, and this can be the hardest thing for attorneys, is to turn off your attorney. Feedback can be hard to take. But before you even attempt to respond here are four things to keep in mind:

1. Remember: This Is Not a Court of Law or Administrative Proceeding

Because of their training, attorneys tend to treat just about any negative interaction like a court of law. Ever tried to subject your significant other to the legal treatment you got in law school or court that day? How'd that turn out? Just as the kitchen table is a terrible place for the Socratic method, negative online review forums are not formal dispute resolution mechanisms. There aren't rules of discovery and no matter how persuasively someone presents their case no judge will ultimately rule on the review. Responding to negative online feedback is a customer service exercise and the “customer” in this type of customer service isn't the one you might think.

2. You're Not Talking to the Negative Reviewer

Remember that when responding to a negative online review, you're not talking to the person who left the review. Rightly or wrongly, their mind is already made up about you and your services. Your response is not going to change that. Research from online research firm BrightLocal shows that, provided that the reviews meet their expectations regarding authenticity, quantity, and other factors, nearly 80% of individuals trust online reviews as much as in person recommendations. That shows that many people both participate in — and trust — the online review ecosystem. So, when responding to a negative review, remember that the audience is not the reviewer but the dozens or hundreds or thousands of people who will read the negative review and then see if you responded in a professional, customer-oriented way or in an angry, reactive and confrontational way.

3. Always Respond

In almost every case, you should respond to a negative online review. Absent a response, the negative review is the only thing that the reader will see about your firm. Again, the response is not a refutation of the merits of the negative review, but a customer service exercise demonstrating to other potential clients how you as an attorney and firm deal with negative feedback or, even, negative things that may happen in the course of representation.

4. Remember Your Ethical Duties As a Lawyer

We at Avvo give entire webinars about the ethics of responding to online reviews. It's not hard to respond ethically if you follow the guidance in this article, but a main challenge is when responding is the duty of confidentiality. Again, if you treat your response like a customer service exercise — as opposed to a tribunal of some sort — you'll rarely have trouble.

So, the first step is turning off your attorney and getting into more of a customer service mindset. And this may take some time. Don't answer a negative review from a reactionary or angry point of view. Take a breath and some time to reflect.

How to Respond

Once you're in that customer service mindset, the next step is to respond to the review. Here are three steps to responding ethically and professionally.

1. Thank the Reviewer

This may sound crazy, but it's the right first step. Even if a portion of what's in the review isn't true, negative reviewers have taken time to provide you with their feedback on how to improve your business. It may sting, but it's valuable information. Thanking the reviewer both acknowledges the value and shows that you're not reactive or defensive. Something along the lines of “Thank you for providing us your feedback about your experiences with our firm” will suffice.

2. Apologize

Next, apologize. This is not an apology about your work on the case, the legal outcome, or any kind of admission about your failure to meet the appropriate standard of advocacy. This is an apology that customer service standards or expectations were not met. An apology shows that you care about customer experience. I've seen firms say things such as “We're sorry that your experience at our firm didn't meet your expectations,” or “We apologize. It looks like your experience didn't match with the level of customer service our firm works hard to provide.”

3. Offer a Remedy

Finally, offer a remedy. I have seen firms on public Facebook offer negative reviewers a full refund for their services. I'm not saying that every attorney should do that, but if some do then you're offering some lesser remedy publicly in response to a negative review seems reasonable. Here are a couple of examples: “Please feel free to contact us through our website or call the office and let us know how we can make this right,” or “We may not be able to change the outcome of your situation, but please know that I'm always happy to discuss any aspect of your case and how we could have handled things differently.”

The Exceptions

It's a simple formula, but there are a few caveats. There are the occasional reviews for which there is no response. These are the reviews written in all caps, with multiple misspellings, or those that are overly nitpicky and clearly not substantive. Readers generally ignore or can see through reviews like that. Lawyers will assume that every review falls into this category but these reviews are the exception. Most reviews merit a response.

Some reviews are fake. Most reputable sites have a way to dispute fake reviews. I easily found one for a number of the best-known platforms by searching “Dispute Yelp review” or “Dispute Google review” on the Web.

In the clear majority of cases, the negative review is both substantive and authentic. You may not like it, it may be hard to accept, or it might not be how you remember what happened. But the best thing to do in the face of a negative review is not to “lawyer up” but to “lawyer down.” Consider thanking, apologizing, and offering a remedy. That approach will be more successful online than lawyering up and it might even be a nice break from all the other time you spend being a lawyer.

*****
Dan Lear is the Director of Industry Relations for Avvo. He is a lawyer, blogger and legal industry gadfly, and currently sits on the Board of Editors of our sibling newsletter, Cybersecurity Law & Strategy. As a technology-focused business lawyer Lear advised companies from startups to the Fortune 100 and helped develop agreements and terms for early cloud services offerings. More information on his published writing and upcoming events can be found by visiting http://rightbrainlaw.co/.