Lawyer Ratings: What’s the Big Deal?
Perhaps there are other marketing people in the legal space who, like me, wonder as sites and sources that purport to offer rating schemes for lawyers and firms proliferate whether this is much ado about nothing. I mean, isn’t this still a relationship business?
Well, of course. That said, there is a fundamental in human nature where we each ask ourselves, after making a judgment, “did I make the right choice?” And there is a concept in compliance studies called “social proof” that addresses this introspection. Simply put, we look around at what others are doing and saying for demonstration that our choice was appropriate.
Testimonials remain one of the most persuasive types of marketing. As “word of mouth”, they produce and maintain the “referral” channel. As the voice of a “satisfied user”, the Wall Street Journal reports today they are becoming more important in consumer culture for marketing, so important that many product and service companies are building systems to facilitate, collect and reflect the view of users as a marketing program, in and of itself. Even bad reviews can accellerate sales.
In the law industry, just one system is currently deep and wide: the Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Ratings system. Around for over 70 years, it reflects the accumulated reputational capital of individual attorneys by assessment of their experience and integrity from other similar lawyers. Even this system suffers from the rapid growth of the ranks of lawyers over the last 30 years, as it depends on the individual personal awareness of the lawyers for rankings, and with so many more lawyers, it is both hard to know and hard to get known. Martindale recognizes the limitation and is working on the system. They are adding the “consumer” voice to rankings, as well, especially on their lawyers.com site, where a variety of schemes are being considered for displaying and explaining numerical rank. (At Martindale’s invitation, I was able to see a few of these choices briefly last week. Fascinating. And law firm ratings are coming…)
I’ve already whined about the poor communication that I experienced as MH converts their letter grades to a points system. Still, the change does reflect the recognition that users of legal services want and respond to more meaningful information on the opinion of experienced customers regarding the skills, honesty and accessibility of lawyers.
Research reported years ago in the Harvard Business Review confirms that one significant predictor of buying behavior is the willingness of a buyer to recommend a product or service to an acquaintance. To understand more, you should buy and absorb reprints of “Loyalty Rules! How Today’s Leaders Build Lasting Relationships,” Harvard Business School Press, 2001, and “The Loyalty Effect”, Harvard Business School Press, 1996 and the HBR-On Point called “Recalculating the Loyalty/Profitability Equation” (product 1421). This notion has become so entrenched that I often receive surveys from places where I shop or use services that consist of that one simple question about how likely I am to recommend the product or service to a friend.
While I am not of the belief that you can boil lifetime value of a customer down into this single query, it does infer that reputational strength and customer experience combine in a way that is economically powerful. What are you doing to support, improve and monetize your customers’ experience and voice?
