Handling reviews correctly is crucial if you wish to attract new clients to your salon. To reiterate what we had said in a previous article of ours, salon ratings can be an amazing asset to you business. However, let’s go back to basics. Where do you look for these reviews to begin with? What differentiates the different platforms on which clients can leave a kind or perhaps unfortunately sometimes less nice account of their experience?
Many of you come to us to know what to do or how to respond to negative salon ratings. Your concerns are ours, hence here are some pointers for where to look for them and handle the bad feedback. Anything else you need to know, hit us up in the comments!
3 places you should check for customer salon ratings
There are three specific places you should look for salon ratings: on your Facebook page, in your Phorest Marketing tab and on Google.
Viewing your salon ratings
Click here to view this Slideshare on mobile.
[slideshare id=60972623&doc=viewratings-160415202430]
What are the main differences between the three?
Facebook reviews
Anyone on Facebook can leave a review on a business page. It’s as easy as going on your salon page to that particular section and post a comment. Can you delete them? The answer is no. Nor can you remove the section from your page. However you can request that defamatory testimonials be removed. Look at the bright side; even if you do get a negative rating, there are still ways to set yourself apart from the crowd and reconnect with your client. More on that below.
Phorest Software reviews
In your Phorest software under the Marketing tab, you can set for clients to receive an SMS or an email requesting a rating of their experience. In that same tab, you can see every rating clients have left you. I know what you’re thinking; no, these do not automatically get posted to your social media platform!
You can decide whether or not you want to share the rating on your Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest account. This allows you to share only the best-of-the-best comments, while still seeing if expectations weren’t met somewhere down the line and taking the matter into your hands. This section is actually also a great tool to raise awareness of client experience within your staff because it the review shows you the client name, the staff member who did the service, the rating and the comment itself! (want to know more about the Phorest reviews and #salonselfies? Fill out the form at the bottom of this post for a free demo.)
Google reviews:
On Google Maps, clients can say what they think about places they’ve been. Ratings are public, so anyone can see what they write and unless it somehow violates a law or Google’s policies it stays visible, there is no way to delete it. To find these reviews search for your salon on Google Maps. Post to come on increasing your Google Maps presence soon
What can you do about bad salon ratings?
Sadly enough, you can do everything right and yet still receive a negative rating. Your reviews don’t only rely on the service you give; they mainly rely on your customer’s expectations. It’s a hit-or-miss: they are either met or they’re not and human behaviour is such that hiding behind a computer to write a negative comment about something experienced is incredibly easy: hence the term ‘Keyboard Warrior’.
Handle your negative salon ratings somewhat along these lines and set yourself apart from other salons.
- Respond promptly.
- Take the issue offline and contact your customer privately.
- Be polite.
- Request that defamatory salon ratings be removed.
- Take negative testimonials seriously.
- See the good in a bad review.
- Share the negative comment with your team and build customer-centric mindset within your salon.
Looking for testimonials on Internet can seem overwhelming at first, but when you know where and what to look for, then you can start to embrace the good salon ratings and handle the less pleasing ones in the utmost professional manner and preserve an amazing brand image. If you don’t already have the Phorest software, why not use the form below and request a demo today!
Thanks for reading,
#LetsGrow
