Friday, July 17, 2009

Consumers Look for Value, Experience, and Success in a Lawyer

In a recent poll conducted by LawFirms.com, 69% of 572 users say they talk to 2~3 lawyers before making a selection. Only 10% of users say one lawyer is sufficient and another 21% talk to at least 4 lawyers. These results indicate that being the first lawyer to contact the consumer doesn't guarantee you a new client. You will still need to pitch to the consumer why you are a better fitted lawyer to serve his/her legal issue.

So what are consumers looking for? In a follow-up poll, we asked 710 users what are the three most important factors in selecting a lawyer. The top three were Lawyer's Fee (563 votes), Years of Experience (476), and Case History(382). In other words, consumers seek value, experience and success. Understanding this, the next step is to incorporate it into your branding and marketing on ExpertHub.
  • Value: On your LawFirms.com profile page, include messaging about your competitive pricing or contingency fees in the Tag Line and Teaser.

  • Experience: Always fill out the Years of Experience in the Summary section, regardless of the number. For those who just celebrated passing the bar, use the Overview section to elaborate in detail of what makes up for your lack of experience. Including a video also helps (please see my prior posting on Educating Consumers with Video)

  • Success: Fill in 3~5 representative and successful cases in the Case History section. Submitting articles that highlight your knowledge for a particular legal issue will also help instill confidence in consumers.
Other major factors consumers look for are Location (262 votes) and Education (114). Surprisingly, Endorsements from Family and Friends only garnered 75 votes. In the Other Answers section, Honesty and Integrity were the top two fill-in answers.