Attorneys, and even the experts in law firm marketing,
almost always overlook a certain critical aspect of online reviews.

In a recent webinar, a very professional legal marketing consultant, totally missed emphasizing the critical opportunity lawyers have that transforms a boring five star review into a great five star review.

First, consider the ecomomic concept of ‘Opportunity Cost’
op·por·tu·ni·ty cost
noun
ECONOMICS

  1. the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
    “idle cash balances represent an opportunity cost in terms of lost interest”

Second, consider ‘The Power of Story’
People are wired to remember stories. I recommend a new book called Storynomics  by Robert McKee.
“Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World”
Let me paraphrase the Storynomics video introduction.

There is a moment where you have to jump off a cliff, and say,
“What would happen if?”

Life is in balance until something happens that radically upsets the balance of your life.
“What would want, what would anyone want.”

Consumers have had it with bragging and promising. You need to understand story to be able to market.
“It (story) is THE way forward for marketing.”

Marketing in the post advertising world,
“Consumers, don’t want their lives interrupted, they want to be entertained.”

       “Life is remembered as a story, not data.”

The best online content you can have is written by your clients.
A Five Star Review without a story, represents an opportunity cost in terms of lost interest, i.e. in your services and in a referral sources ability to remember how good you and your team really are.

Differentiate your thinking between a Review and a ‘Review-Story’
When I think about online reviews of my law firm clients, especially estate and elder law attorneys, I easily recall the following two ‘Review-Stories’.  Both of these review-stories made me realize just how valuable this particular attorney and his staff are to people in need. The first is both humorous and compelling describing a daughter’s experience of estate planning for her ‘89 year old, know-it-all, not crazy about lawyers’ father. The second ‘review-story’ is a compelling story from a woman who starts with ‘My husband was diagnosed with Lewy Boby Dementia…”

Armed with these two concepts, ‘Opportunity Cost’ and ‘Review-Story’, what would you calculate the opportunity cost between a Five star review with ‘no story’, vs a ‘Review-Story’ below? Would you move forward with this attorney? I know I would.

Posted on AVVO  T Barnes    Oct 07, 2016                                                                                         Shared on  Facebook

In my search for the “right” T&E attorney to handle my father’s and my estate needs, I was highly impressed with Mr. Rosenkranz and his staff upon our initial conversations. They were responsive, sensitive, and detail oriented when explaining the unique options for both my father and me so I made an office appointment with Mr. Rosenkranz for my father. My very intelligent, opinionated, and “with it” 87 YO father typically finds something negative to say about everybody he meets, and even more so for attorneys and about the “justice” system in general. So setting up the appointment for him to sign estate documents made me very nervous when I realized I would not be able to make it to the appointment myself.

However, late that night after the appointment, I was shocked when my father called me and raved about Mr. Rosenkranz and his staff. That was about a month ago and he still is talking about how impressed he was with them, totally unsolicited.

Estate planning, wills, and deep family and financial issues are extremely sensitive issues by
their very nature. Mr. Rosenkranz’s firm was exceptional and gave me full confidence that these sensitive issues were professionally and responsibly handled in the kindest way for my family and I highly recommend him for anybody requiring trust and estate planning. « less

In another review the clients starts her ‘Review-Story’ with “My husband had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia …” which to me sounded terrible and I have been told it very much is.

Posted on AVVO a client    Jan 04, 2015                                                               (Also Shared automatically to Facebook)

My husband had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia about 4 years ago, and recently he was admitted to the hospital. He was not improving, and I was told he needed to be in a nursing home. Everything happened so fast, and I was unsure of what to do. My daughter, who lives in a different state, found Rosenkranz’s law firm online. I called the number and Jack Rosenkranz answered the phone. I explained the situation, and he said I can help you file for Medicaid, and my husband was transferred to the nursing home. Jack said he works with his staff, Rachel and Brook, as a team. Early in this process, I called the office with a dire concern about the application process, and Rachel told me that Mr. Rosenkranz was out of the country for about 10 days. Honestly, I panicked, but after about 15 minutes I received a phone call from him – he was at the airport out of the country, yet he reassured me that everything was going to be OK. He came back from his trip, and I had a meeting with the team. Words can’t express the feeling of honest truth about them. They are very professional, give very detailed information, and most importantly, have compassion for their clients. I can attest to how, as a team, this office works to help their clients. Mr. RosenKranz was honest and never guaranteed any result, but he said he will do his best, and he definitely did. I couldn’t be happier with the results and with the firm. Thank you. « less

In Summary, it’s not about getting five star reviews, it’s all about getting five star stories.

To learn about best practices for review story generation and further learn about how to automatically leverage great review-stories through review marketing, please contact us.

Tel. 856.429-3010
or support at premiersoftware com
or visit us in New Orleans May 16-18th at the NAELA Annual Meeting

Thanks for reading.