Motivating Clients to leave reviews

[JulieALS]

We are a bankruptcy law firm and therefore getting clients to post a public review is challenging, as they don't wish to disclose the fact that they filed for bankruptcy.

I recently audited our local competitors.  Most just have one or two reviews.  But 2 firms in particular have 6- 10x the amount of what is "normal" for our practice area, and in addition they are 1.)  all 5-star reviews  2.) the only review they had ever posted by that person (seems unnatural that your first and only review is of a bankruptcy attorney).  This is the exact same fact pattern for both attorneys, so I am wondering if they are using a special tool or some how incentivizing clients to leave a 5 star review...is there any way to know if they are using unethical practices?

So my question:  how do we motivate happy clients to leave a public review when they the nature of our practice is a private matter?  Is there a helpful tool or method people have found good success with?  Is there a way to leave anonymous or first name only reviews on Google Plus?  We have a lot of review on the testimonials section of our website, but clients who submit ask us to change their name for privacy.  Could we somehow post these on Google Plus for the clients, while still keeping within the regulations of Google?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

[Saijo.George]

The best time to ask for a review is once you have successfully helped your customers, I see a lot of sites ( especially eCommerce / Service related ) get a good review if they can email the customer and ask for one immediately after a service or product is purchased. ( assuming they had a good experience )

You can easily generate a direct link that you can embed in your email using this tool . ( NOTE: I was involved in making that )

I don't believe you can leave a review on Google anonymously. But you can create a review page on your website where you can publish these reviews. Bu sure to markup the review to stand out in the SERPs.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Julie,

What you are describing about your competitor's reviews does sound suspicious. While you may not be able to figure out exactly what they've done, you do have the option of reporting spam to Google if you become convinced that spam is involved.

Regarding posting reviews to Google on behalf of your clients, that is actually also spam, so not a plan you'd want to pursue.

Regarding the names used on Google-based reviews, for a couple of years, it was required that users have a Google+ account to leave a review and that this had to reflect their actual name. Just a few weeks ago, Google revoked this policy and users with any type of Google account can now leave a review again. So, if my Google account is HappyPuppy, I can leave a review ... it doesn't have to include my full name anymore. I've tested this, and it seems to be true.

So, this may assist some of your customers who would like to leave a review for you on Google but don't want their full name on it. But, at the same time, your industry would certainly seem to be one where getting reviews is going to be a bit tougher than average given that a) privacy is a major concern for clients and b) your competitor who may be spamming his way to a high review count sticks out like a sore thumb for having 10x as many reviews as anyone else.

Your question made me do a random search for 'bankruptcy attorney denver':

https://www.google.com/search?q=getting+reviews+in+sensitive+industries&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=bankruptcy attorney denver&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=39697170,-104939747,1337&tbm=lcl&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:2&rlfi=hd:;si:

I see everything from 0 to 50+ reviews on the listings of the top 10 companies Google is pulling. And, yep, I do see a pretty high percentage of first-time reviews on one of the profiles I looked at. So, there could be something a bit odd about 50+ people being eager to openly rave about the services received from a bankruptcy lawyer, or maybe people really do feel that way. At any rate, it looks like Denver bankruptcy attorneys are getting more views, on average, than what you are seeing in your city, so there may be hope if you have truly loyal clients who do not mind speaking about their experience and whom you can advise about the recent change Google has made to its requirements for leaving a review.

I'd love to see someone write a good, up-to-date blog post on this topic of earning reviews in sensitive industries. If anyone in the community knows of a good one, please share!