However there are some things even a family law attorney can do, and perhaps the list will be helpful to you. First, ask your happy clients to post reviews for you. A little nudge from you might be enough to get them online soon after you’ve finished providing your services — the best time to get a positive review. Second, make it easy for your clients by giving them written directions describing how to get to your listing and post a review. Third, thank the clients who make the effort — a handwritten note is most appreciated.

Finally, if you get a bad review, apologize for the client’s unhappiness and make a good faith offer to work with the client to resolve the problem. Don’t argue about facts online! Document your apology and offer in your online response to the bad review. You’ll be surprised — most people will respond to your evident concern and your willingness to work for a solution, and some of them will become your biggest advocates. Good luck!

Think of the alternative. Before the Web, if someone complained about your business, you’d probably never learn about it, and the rule for traditional word of mouth was that a complaint would be passed to ten people when a recommendation was passed to five. Now with Web Word of Mouth, the complaint and the recommendation have an equal audience.

Steven is also correct about the effect of a few negative reviews. If you use the Web to document a sincere attempt to make the situation right with an occasional, inevitable unhappy customer, you will get points with the people reading the reviews. A few negative reviews scattered in many more positive ones will also lend credibility to all the reviews, making the positive ones even more compelling and persuasive to your potential customers.

Steven Ventress