Do you know whether the reputation of your firm online is good, bad or indifferent?

Do you have a plan to protect your firm from attacks on your reputation?

Will you be committing regular effort in 2019 to building up a positive online reputation that can be leveraged to assist with winning quality leads?

If the answer to these questions is ‘no’ or ‘not sure’ then new modules available now on the Legal Eye Academy account would be helpful to you and your firm.

Created by online reputation specialists Edson Evers exclusively for Legal Eye, the modules are ‘Introduction to Online Reputation Management’; and ‘A Practical Guide to Online Reputation Management’. They are competitively priced and are being launched at a time when there is more focus than ever before on how firms present themselves and their services to the public.

With the regulatory direction heading decidedly in the direction of firms needing to become more transparent about their pricing and around the quality of service offered; potential clients will be heading online even more than ever before to check out a potential supplier of legal services.

The latest research shows that 84% of consumers look at online reviews before deciding where to go for a product or service. Whilst professional services might lag behind the retail sector in embracing the power of online reviews there’s no doubt that it’s starting to impact the ways in which consumers buy legal services.

Where previously, customers went to their local solicitor or whomever their friends and family used, now savvy consumers are doing their own due diligence, through online research, before appointing a solicitor.

The result of this is that your online reputation matters. Over 85% of people will hesitate to purchase from a company with a poor online reputation. There are multiple touch points legal services have with consumers online – websites, social media, third party review sites, all of these impact on how a customer perceives your value and therefore your ability to sell your services to them.

Managed in the right way, such as for instance responding to negative comments in the right way, can even enhance your company’s reputation – for example, answering a social media complaint can increase customer advocacy by up to 25%.

What is The Academy?

The Academy is an online training platform which has been developed specifically for law firms. Covering the essential elements around preventing risk its topics are designed to ensure that all staff receive thorough and effective training.

Delivered in 30-minute sections the Academy focuses on the practical implications of a range of compliance topics. Crucially each module includes quiz-style tests throughout each module to ensure that every individual has understood the training and can put the required actions resulting in to use as soon as they return to their everyday work.

Modules (in addition to the new modules ‘Introduction to Online Reputation Management’ and ‘A Practical Guide to Online Reputation Management’ cover topics such as cybercrime, whistleblowing and the Criminal Finances Act 2017. Modules also include: Introduction to Anti Money Laundering; The Bribery Act 2010; Introduction to GDPR; Conflict of Interest; Equality & Diversity; and Dealing with Vulnerable Clients.

New modules are continually added to reflect the changing regulatory landscape and the resulting need for our clients to keep up to date with the latest requirements and to ensure that all staff are well-informed and understand their day-to-day responsibilities in terms of the conduct of matters.

Users are able to access the training online at a time and in a location to suit them via a secure log in facility and ‘super users’ or administrators at the client firm are granted rights to enable records and test results to be recorded and stored centrally. Current users report that this has saved significant amounts of time both in terms of not taking time of out of the working day for staff to physically attend training sessions; but also by reducing the admin surrounding the organisation, delivery, record keeping and ‘chasing’ that is typically involved in ensuring the consistent delivery of training.

Pricing is based on the number of users accessing the Academy. Contact us for more information or to request a demo.