How Law Firms Can Use Client Testimonials to Build Trust and Book More Consultations
- Client testimonials and reviews are one of the most powerful tools for building trust in the legal industry, influencing up to 88% of potential clients and often carrying more weight than advertising or self-promotion.
- Law firms should actively collect and showcase reviews across key platforms like Google, Facebook, BBB, and FindLaw, and place them strategically on service pages, ads, and emails to influence potential clients at decision-making moments.
- Surefire Local’s platform helps small law firms automate review requests, track reputation, and convert testimonials into ads, making it easier to manage online credibility and attract more high-quality leads.
Trust is everything in the legal industry. Often, a client’s wealth, reputation, and very freedom are at stake. And choosing the right law firm isn’t always easy.
When you shine a spotlight on happy clients, making them the all-out focus of your legal marketing strategy, you can build instant trust—with strangers. You can shape perceptions and establish realistic expectations. You can communicate why you’re worth what you charge and better than that DIY legal form website.
And you accomplish this not by expressing how great you are, but by letting clients do it for you—in the right places at the perfect time to generate those appointments. This is what leveraging testimonials to build trust for law firms is all about.
What’s a Client’s Word Worth?
A lot more than yours or ours, apparently.
- 88% of potential clients trust online reviews and testimonials
- 40% say that strong client reviews and testimonies were the primary reason they chose one legal services provider over another.
- 50% of people say several positive reviews can be as powerful as a personal recommendation from a trusted family member.
- 55% say they would only choose a lawyer with a minimum of 4 stars.
Now, 76% of people are concerned about fake reviews. But around 80% of people feel like they’re pretty good at spotting them.
Getting more reviews, getting as many 5-star reviews as possible, ensuring future clients see reviews at the right place and time—these are all vital to leveraging the trust people have in reviews from legal services clients.
What Is a Testimonial?
A testimonial can be an online review on a platform like Google, Facebook, BBB, Yelp, FindLaw, NOLO, or a local organization.
It could also be a video that you produce in a studio or on a smartphone. It allows a real client to tell their story in 60 seconds or less. It’s accompanied by a signed release to ensure you have consent to use the testimonial for marketing.
If you compensate that client for their time, even nominally, you must disclose that. Remember: People are paid for their time, not to give you a glowing review. The more authentic it is, the more powerful it will be.
Testimony can also come in the form of social media posts or comments from clients. Some people want the world to know when they’ve had a great experience. They share it on TikTok videos, Facebook posts, etc. You can amplify the reach of these positive stories by sharing them on your own profiles.
How to Leverage Testimonials to Build Trust (Step by Step)
1. Claim and Set Up Key Review Profiles
People need places to leave reviews. These locations must appear as claimed and managed by your firm.
Ensure your information is accurate and up-to-date on directories, listings, and review sites, including professional, local organizations, watchdogs (like BBB), social media and review sites.
Your Google Business profile is a critical profile to claim. 92% of website visits start with Google. 46% of searches are for local businesses.
Claiming and optimizing this one profile not only dramatically increases your firm’s online visibility in the local community. It also makes it easier for people to find your reviews and see them when it matters most.
2. Track and Manage Your Reputation
4.7 to 5-star reputations don’t just happen. They’re cultivated through firms asking for reviews and encouraging clients to place reviews on platforms potential clients go to.
Actively managing your profiles helps you not only get more reviews. It also ensures that the good outweighs the bad, since people often only think to write a review on their own after a bad experience.
You’re ensuring that you capture the positive sentiments that you know most of your clients share.
And if you do get a bad review, try to resolve it quickly. Often, people will change their reviews if you show you want to make it right—when you can.
Use reputation management software to track your reputation across platforms and notify you of new reviews that need attention.
Respond to all reviews when possible, with personalized yet compliant responses that demonstrate that you value all feedback—good and bad.
These responses not only strengthen your relationship with that client. Others see this as a sign that you value client relationships.
Unsure what to say? Generative AI review response tools can read reviews and suggest a meaningful and succinct response. These thought starters can save a ton of time helping you stick with your plan to respond to reviews more often.
3. Automate Review Requests
Reviews are most powerful in numbers. They need to be recent, relevant, and in enough quantity that potential clients see a pattern of client care.
It’s challenging to achieve these numbers without automation.
Leverage a reputation management software that automatically sends review requests via email or text after services and/or consultations.
4. Direct Clients to Key Review Sites
Don’t just say “don’t forget to leave us a review”. Please specify where you would like the review to be posted and provide the link. Most people will simply follow the link and write a review without much thought.
That’s what you want. Easy. Fast. A steady stream of reviews—relative to the size of your firm.
5. Suggest Important Details
This isn’t just about winning cases. People care about how they were treated by your staff, your availability, and your communication.
You have a track record of client care. And people want to know about it.
While you’ll never say “Hope you’ll give us 5 stars”, it’s okay to say things like “We hope you’ll share your experience with our team, communication, and availability.”
Focus on your strengths and the factors potential clients care about so you can use these more meaningful reviews in marketing to build trust.
6. Send Followup Requests
Track clients who haven’t left a review and send one reminder to see if you can capture this missed opportunity. Review automation can ensure review reminders are properly timed so they feel helpful rather than intrusive.
And you can continue with your day, knowing it’s been handled.
7. Display Customer Service Testimonials at Key Decision-Making Locations
Now that you’re getting more reviews (and better ones), it’s time to look at how to use them effectively to build the trust that leads to consultations.
To begin, place reviews or video testimonials on key pages on your website near scheduling forms. The most important locations will be:
- Services pages
- Landing pages for ads and offers
- Any fees pages where applicable (showing why your services are worth that price)
- Sidebar or footer carousel so they’re in the peripheral while they explore the site.
Additionally, consider adding a review to your quotes, emails, and ads where relevant.
Clients will feel more compelled to take that next step because they know they’re not entering uncharted waters.
Short impactful snippets from reviews can also become quick quotes you share on social media. Use a tool like Canva free version to put the short quote in quotations on a colorful (but not detracting background).
Create a bunch of these at once to save time and periodically share them on Google and social media. You can even put them on your website.
8. Choose the Most Relevant Testimonial
The most effective testimonial is relevant to a potential client’s situation and their questions about what to expect if they hire you. So, look through your reviews or record a video testimonial that will really speak to someone at this critical decision-making moment.
For example, if you’re an estate planning lawyer, your special needs trust page should include reviews from clients mentioning special needs in their reviews.
If that review also talks about how compassionate your staff is and how you explained everything so they could understand, this review also answers questions people have about what to expect if they hire you.
9. Turn Customer Testimonial to Ads
Video testimonials and reviews can also become powerful advertising.
Add a short testimonial quote to your ads on Google or Facebook. Embed the more complete testimonial into the landing page, effectively continuing the story they clicked on the ad to see.
Or consider turning a video testimonial into a video ad. You can either share the video on social media and boost it or use an ad platform’s video ad feature.
When doing this you want to use a testimonial that’s polished and effective, even if it was shot on an iPhone.
While clients should certainly use their own words and share their real experiences, you can guide them by suggesting a storytelling format like this:
- I had a problem.
- I felt this way about it.
- This law firm (by name) helped me.
- I appreciated their …
- Now I feel…
If you can get a testimonial like this without editing all the better.
10. Get the All-in-One Platform Built for Small Law Firm
We’ve designed a suite of marketing tools to help small, local legal services providers manage their reputations, leverage those testimonials, generate leads and grow their firms—all in less time than you think.
From generative AI tools to automation to tracking and analytics, Surefire Local’s customer testimonial and marketing software helps you build a powerful, localized online presence.
To see how this tool helps you build trust online, schedule your demo today.