Online reviews are especially vital to personal injury advertising with Google Ads. The easiest and best way to get online reviews is with software that automatically sends an email and an SMS text message to your client requesting a review.
The problem is that companies like BirdEye, which provide software for lawyers to request and monitor reviews, charge a monthly fee almost as much as licensing 1-800-HURT-911!
Almost FREE Reputation Manager — Request & Monitor Reviews and more!
Personal Injury lawyers can get a feature-packed reputation manager to respond to reviews on Google My Business and 80+ review sites and stream selected reviews to your website. For only $15 per location per month, you can request reviews by email free and by SMS text message for an additional $.10 per text. You also get local SEO reports and tools to track your law office rankings, run SEO audits, and gather insights to improve local search performance when you license 1-800-HURT-911.
Tip: Personal injury lawyers should never request clients to post a review while in the lawyer’s office because it’s against Google guidelines and easily caught. Call your clients to ask them if they would be willing to post a review and tell them to expect a text message and email.
Send Review Requests By SMS Text Message
It is far more important to send review requests by text message because text messages are seen immediately and are almost always opened. According to Campaign Monitor, “Research shows that SMS open rates are as high as 98%, compared to just 20% of all emails.”
But text messages with plain text and a link look like spam. Although almost always opened, text messages with plain text may be immediately deleted or ignored.
This text message asking for a review of a personal injury lawyer is boring and can be mistaken for spam and deleted or ignored.
Best Way to Send SMS Text Message Review Requests
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So our clients immediately recognize the request, and because it’s important to promote the brand continually, both SMS text messages and email requests show the HURT911® logo.
Personal injury lawyers who license 1-800-HURT-911® can use the text message image and logo as well as our other HURT911® logos and images. We’ll even customize it for you.
This exciting text message image immediately attracts attention and reinforces the brand. How do you want to send text messages requesting reviews for your personal injury law firm?
This text message has an exciting, attractive design and is instantly identified with the HURT911® brand. This text message asking for your review will not be overlooked!
When a review is requested, both an SMS text message and an email are sent out simultaneously. Reminder text messages and emails are also sent any number of times you designate until the client submits a review.
Below is a screenshot of the email reminder
Bad Reviews
If your law firm gets any bad reviews, that can be a good thing.
Bad reviews make your reviews trustworthy. Too many positive reviews can appear fake, and everyone is aware of fake reviews.
According to TechCrunch, “product purchases were most influenced by reviews with an average star rating between 4.2 and 4.5. Products with five-star ratings were less influenced, likely due to today’s skeptical consumers’ “ too good to be true” sensibilities. Having a few less-than-perfect reviews decreases a product’s average star rating but grows the business more.”
Bad reviews give potential clients a sense of the worst-case scenario of what they can expect.
It’s important to respond quickly to bad reviews in a way that attempts to make things right. This will show potential clients that you care about your clients.
Use bad reviews to improve your law office management.
What to do:
- Verify what the reviewer complained about by conducting a quick internal investigation with your staff.
- Do not get defensive.
- Tell your side of the story.
- Apologize.
- If the issue escalates, continue the discussion privately offline rather than commenting back and forth.
How To Remove Fake Bad Reviews About Your Law Practice
See How To Remove Negative Google Reviews for Law Firms
Philip L. Franckel, Esq., is the author of this article.
Phil Franckel is the owner of 1-800-HURT-911® and over 1,100 domain names. He is a personal injury lawyer and a former Member of the Board of Directors of the NYS Trial Lawyers Association. He is an expert in branding, advertising, marketing, and SEO. He has been doing SEO since 1994.
Phil Franckel has written and produced TV commercials for lawyers and other industries and has been a consultant to businesses, including several using vanity phone numbers. Phil writes a blog about lawyer advertising at LawyerAdvertisingBlog.com.
Phil Franckel began a mail order business in 8th grade, bought and sold coin-operated amusement games in 10th grade, and a used car business in 12th grade through college. After law school, he worked in the wholesale diamond business and part-time for a TV production company. Later, while a lawyer at a large personal injury law firm, he worked part-time for ABC Wide World of Sports and ABC Monday Night Baseball.
Phil Franckel then started a personal injury law practice and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the NYS Trial Lawyers Association.
In his spare time, Phil Franckel became an Aux. Police Cadet in 12th grade and is the Commanding Officer of the Communications Bureau, NCPD Aux. Police Section.