How to Increase Salon Customer Reviews

So you have finally decided to find out how to increase salon customer reviews? That’s awesome!

Nowadays, before customers can try any new service, turn to online customer reviews besides friend recommendations for proof of reliability and credibility. HIgh number of positive online reviews helps you establish a top google search position, and generates more traffic through the door of your salon.

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1. Why Does Your Salon Need More Reviews?
2. How to Get More Customer Reviews?
3. How Do You Ask for a Salon Review?
4. How to Get Better Salon Customer Reviews?
5. Where to Get Reviews?
6. Conclusion

Why Does Your Salon Need More Reviews?

Having a substantial amount of online reviews is every bit as important as the quality of your service and here is why.

Attract New Customers

Good reviews from satisfied customers are crucial in reputation management since they give reassurance and act as recommendations to potential new clients. Good words about your salon will build trust with new audiences, improve your online reputation and build your salon's credibility. The positive reviews will improve your ratings on Google and increase your salon clientele.

Grow Brand Awareness

Having good salon reviews is an easy way of getting the word out about your salon. Good reviews from your clientele will highlight the services, location, details, mission and value of your business and make your brand more well-known and recognizable to prospective clients.

Improve Your Customer Experience

Online reviews are an effective way of assessing the quality of your services and improving upon them. A great deal of positive reviews means you surely deliver on what you promise. On the flip side, negative comments and complaints are a warning that your services are not quite up to par with the expectations of some of your clients.

You can also ask the clients what they like and dislike. Show them that you care, be remorseful and let them know that their feedback is vital to the growth of the salon. Make a point of fixing the mistakes and inform the client.

Grow Your Google Reviews

How can I make an existing salon more successful, you ask? Google Reviews allows your clients to voluntarily leave reviews on your salon's Google page. The page contains your business location on Google Maps and other business details.

You need to have a constant flow of reviews (whether good or bad) to improve your local search rankings and help your page climb to the top of Google Maps and local searches. Always encourage customers to leave Google reviews.

A word to the wise: Google reviews is the number one marketing platform for salons today so you should always aim at climbing to the top 3 of local Google search rankings to improve the online visibility of your salon.

Make It Up with Unhappy Clients

Some of your customers will be happy with the quality of service you offer but some of them less so. And studies indicate that a client is more likely to comment after an unhappy experience than after a happy one.

Negative feedback and criticism is useful in identifying dissatisfied clients. You get the chance to own your mistakes, correct them, get back to good terms and retain all your clients.

Increase Customer Loyalty

Positive comments from satisfied clients and personalized responses to clients’ opinions is a great way of marketing, increasing loyalty, and retaining your existing clientele. Your loyal customers feel valued when you respond promptly to all queries, give a personalized response, and appreciate their comments. Remember, these customers can also influence friends to follow them.

How to Get More Customer Reviews?

Ask for Them

In getting more online reviews, no step is more productive than requesting your customers to leave a review. In an age of tight schedules and limited time, most clients will quickly walk away after an appointment unless you ask them to leave a review. With a kind tone, try to compel the client in-person to share with others their experience with your salon. Explain to them how important the review is for self-assessment and growth of your salon.

Make It Simple

The process of writing the reviews does not have to seem like much of a task to your clientele. Make it easy and straightforward, and quick even for those who may not be so digital. Should the client request for help or tips, be quick to guide them through the process.

Post Reviews on Social Media

About half the population of humanity has active profiles on different social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And it is more likely that your hair salon clients will use Facebook as opposed to visiting your website.

So, consider posting enticing reviews on social platforms and encouraging your clientele to use their personal accounts to key in their opinions about your services as well.

You could also send them direct messages on social media. The feedback on social media platforms acts as social proof to new prospective clients in the audience.

Take Before and After Pictures

If you are still wondering how to increase salon clientele and reviews, try taking pictures before attending to clients and more pictures after you are done styling their hair. Send the images to the client and ask them to post a comment on their social media. Such posts usually generate lots of positive reviews.

Short videos can also do the trick. The photos and videos will not only act as visual proof but also grab the attention of would-be clients.

Install a Review Point

You need to make plans for a smart gadget or computer for your business that will be dedicated to the entry of customer reviews and business information. This way, entry of reviews to your system will be quick and easy without much interruptions.

One flaw with using one device, which means one IP address, is that internet engines such as Google and Yelp may regard the information as review fraud. This can hurt your online reputation and online rankings a great deal.

Answer All Reviews

Always try to respond to all reviews sooner rather than later, both good and bad. Prompt responses go a long way in encouraging more people to post their comments.

Most customers are not new to negative comments. But bad reviews that have been addressed well can have a greater impact than good ones in matters of winning over the hearts of new clients. Acknowledge and address each client by name, and thank them for their honest review.

Keep Your Review Sites Profiles Up-to-Date

From time to time, manage and update your website, and other online review profiles. The clients should not feel as though their feedback and participation does not count. Updated profiles get to retain your loyal customers who frequently leave a review and attract new ones to write more reviews.

Offer Incentives

You may get into trouble with Google and Yelp for offering an incentive in exchange for a positive review since it violates their policies on customer reviews. Besides, it sounds a little too desperate a move, doesn’t it? However, it is not a bad idea if you are just tossing your feet into the salon world. Just avoid being biased and giving free stuff only to people who tell up positive experiences. This kind of favoritism may be perceived as a bribe and get you penalized, banned or comments removed.

How Do You Ask for a Salon Review?

Follow Up on the Appointment

After an appointment, consider reminding the client to write a review. Reach out to them through email or over the phone or text, show gratitude for their visit and remind them to leave a review. Send them links to the review pages on the different platforms and offer to help should they require assistance.

Add the Link to Your Marketing Emails

If you have included emails as part of your marketing campaign, you can include links in your email signature to direct the reader to the review sites and pages. Do not forget to write a short message explaining what the links are for, and encouraging your audience to click and write a review.

Use Your Website

Your hair salon website should include a feedback page that includes star reviews. Not just that. You should also think about adding buttons on the site that will direct your audience to review sites and pages.

Train Your Staff

Looking for how to improve your sales through salon reputation management? Great! Let your staff know of your objective of collecting as many reviews as possible from your customers. That is not all. Teach your staff how to get google reviews for a salon graciously while exhibiting courtesy and etiquette. If you don’t mind, you can opt to incentivize your employees and spirit them up to rack up more five star reviews from the clientele.

Send Emails

Emails are cheap to send (almost free), customizable, accessible through mobile phones and computers alike, and arguably more effective than social media. You can choose to send your customers personalized emails with links to the online review site and encourage them to write a review.

How to Get Better Salon Customer Reviews?

Offer a Great Experience

How do I attract more customers to my salon? Offering the best salon customer experience is the most productive way of marketing, building your online reputation and earning better reviews.

Try to streamline your services to exemplary standards and ensure the clients are content right from day one when they book their appointment online to the day they get the service. More than that, take time and send a follow-up email to check if a client was satisfied with your services.

Start With Feedback

Once a client expresses satisfaction with your hair services, ask them to promote your business by writing a good review on your website or review pages. Did we mention that after resolving a complaint from a client, you need to request them to write a positive review even if they had posted a negative one?

Seize the Opportunity

Do not hesitate to contact clients who have written positive words about your salon on your websites, social networking platform, or any other platform as well. Remember to send them links to the other review sites.

Where to Get Reviews?

Google Reviews: This is a new service by the Tech Giant that allows hairdressers to open Google Pages where internet users can access location and business information about businesses like salons. After an appointment, the customers can leave a review about the business and share their experiences with other internet users.

For more information, do check out our post on how to get Google reviews for your salon.

Yelp online reviews: Yelp is a crowd-sourced online directory website for reviewing and keeping tabs on popular local businesses. Clients can search for information location, and photos of businesses nearby such as salons, shops, restaurants, and schools. The clients can also write reviews, submit their stars ratings ranging from one to five stars and initiate a conversation with each other.

Facebook reviews: Facebook Reviews also allow you to include a ‘Ratings and Review’ section on their business pages. Consumers can then leave their reviews and rating using their personal accounts. They are also prompted to say whether they would recommend your business or not.

Conclusion

You have always contemplated on how to increase salon customer reviews and now the answers are right in front of you. You need a reasonable number of reviews to ensure a positive social validation of your salon that will help attract new clientele and retain the loyal one. The secret to many salon reviews is to offer a great experience, ask your clients to make comments, and to reach out to new clients and audiences in different platforms and request them to write a review.

Citations

Perceived derived attributes of online customer reviews
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215302661

The effects of positive and negative online customer reviews: do brand strength and category maturity matter?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jm.11.0011

To keep or not to keep: Effects of online customer reviews on product returns
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002243591630001X