Ask any salon owner. We are an industry driven by referrals. It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling your business, word-of-mouth will always have a special, magic power. Well, it’s not magic actually. It’s psychology. You have heard it a million times, humans are social creatures. Referrals and online reviews appeal to our very human need for trust and validation. They offer us an example of social proof. And as the pandemic has migrated a serious amount of our social life online, online reviews are more important than ever.
Your salon’s online reviews will inevitably be one of the first things a potential client sees when they Google your business. Not only that, but they can greatly affect where your business ranks, compared to your local competitors, in search engine results.
According to 2020 research by Brightlocal:
- 85% of hair and beauty salon consumers look at online reviews
- 28% of consumers searched online for more businesses than they would in a ‘normal’ year
- 94% of consumers say positive reviews make them more likely to use a business.
- 79% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family
There are many industry awards out there, but nothing is more important than what your clients think.
This is why, each year, Phorest is proud to present our Client Experience Award. The Client Experience award recognises businesses, using Phorest Salon Software, who have consistently kept their reviews over 4-stars for the last 12 months. Congratulations to all our 2021 winners!
You may make it look easy, but we know running a successful salon is far from it.
Delivering a top-class client experience takes dedication and attention to detail. At Phorest, we understand there are countless hours of hard work behind every 4 or 5-star review you receive. We also know that many salons aren’t raking in their fair share of glowing reviews. Not because they don’t deserve to, but because they don’t have a system in place to ask their clients for reviews.
This is where Phorest’s Online Reputation Manager comes in. It benefits your salon by:
- Monitoring & managing what is being said about your business on Google, Facebook and Yelp!
- Allowing you to respond to positive & negative comments from one clean and clear dashboard
- Increasing the number of 5-Star reviews you receive through automated settings
- Helping your salon to stand out from your competition online
- Improving your salon’s website ranking on Google (SEO)
Online Reputation Manager is one of the industry’s most advanced automation tools.
Online Reputation Manager helps you to take charge of your business’s Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews. Phorest has a dedicated team to proactively manage all the logistics for you. All of your reviews are delivered to you in a single convenient location. Online Reputation Manager saves you time and effort so you can focus on solidifying personal relationships with your clients, rather than scrambling around the internet.
You can monitor everything from one clean dashboard and respond to reviews directly from inside the Phorest platform. This means you never have to worry about a negative review lurking on the internet unattended. Plus, expressing your gratitude for the positive ones has never been so simple.
Online reviews have become such a staple in our culture. Nowadays the average person consults them all the time, from booking a restaurant to ordering a new pair of shoes. Even still, many people don’t instinctively think to leave a review themselves. The easiest way to fix this? Just ask!
According to BrightLocal’s research, of the 73% of consumers who were asked to review a local business in 2020, 72% went on to do so.
- Encourage your staff to ask clients directly to leave reviews. Consider incentivising your team for reviews that mention them by name.
- Share positive reviews on your social media accounts so your clients see how much you appreciate them
- Enlist the support of Phorest Online Reputation Manager to automate the process
When it comes to online reviews, you’ll need to be timely, consistent, and available.
- 96% of consumers who read reviews, also read the businesses’ responses to reviews
- 72% said it was important for a business to be present on multiple review sites
- 73% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the last month
- Only 19% would use a business with fewer than 3 stars
- The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business
Online Reputation Manager helps you get more 5-star reviews
You can set up Phorest’s Online Reputation Manager to automatically request feedback from your clients after their appointment via email or SMS. Then you can customise when they will be prompted to post their review to Google, Facebook, or Yelp. Most Salons choose to ask a client to make their review public only if it is 4 or 5 stars. Thereby, filtering out the negative feedback to be handled privately.
Watch this video for a walkthrough of everything you need to know about Online Reputation Manager’s features:
There is inherent value in getting feedback from clients
Seeing the five-star reviews roll in will feel great, trust us. But you are human. Your staff is human. It is very likely, at some point, you’ll have an off day and someone will leave you a less than satisfactory review. Assuming the review isn’t overly antagonistic, consider it an opportunity. Without honest feedback, how would you identify the areas you need to improve?
A negative review is always better than silent resentment. At least with a negative review, you open the door to productive conversation. By taking the initiative to hear and address their concerns, you can often turn a disappointed client into the most passionate advocate for your business.
“My favorite feature is the client feedback. I was worried about negative reviews, but it has actually been a real area of growth for us. The first thing I do with a 3 star is I get them on the phone, and usually, it’s something tiny to fix. And you turn that client who, maybe had been a little bit dissatisfied, to being a client who was wowed. And she’s straight back in.”
Susan Roche, Owner of Newcastle Hair & Beauty Clinic in Newcastle UK
For more advice on handling negative online reviews, listen to:
- Louis Grenier on Phorest FM talk about Customer Feedback As An Opportunity for Growth
- David Linde & Gayle Fulbright On Online Reputation Management & Playing Nice With Yelp!
Set Your Sights on the Client Experience Award for 2022
From PPE to Covid lockdowns, This year has been another marathon for salon owners. If you were able to keep your online reviews above 4-stars, that is no small feat! At Phorest Salon Software our mission is to help salon owners get their clients in more often, spending more, and generating referrals. Polishing your online presence is now key to your success
Don’t forget to download your free copy of “The Salon Owner’s First Steps To Online Reputation Management” eBook.
Phorest’s designed Online Reputation Manager with these evolving business challenges in mind. We believe it can empower time-pressed salons in a world where 5-star reviews reign.
To learn more about how Phorest Salon Software can support you, book a demo with our friendly team today.
