How to manage online salon reviews

The consumer voice is stronger than ever thanks to online salon reviews and the influx of social media, social sharing and reviewing; these days, there's nowhere for businesses to hide when it comes to customer comments. Hair salons are particularly affected, since haircuts are often very personal for consumers. So what happens when a hair appointment goes right or wrong? They write a review online of course! Online community and review site Yelp now attracts over 117 million unique visitors per month, with 60% of searches happening on mobile devices. Rosie Akenhead, Yelp’s Manager of Local Business Outreach answers some of the most common queries received from salon owners. How are people searching for hairdressers these days? We know that the days of the paper directory listing are well and truly over. When a person needs a service like a haircut, they turn to their computer, mobile or tablet. They are looking for rich, thorough content which tells them a lot about a business. Why is it important for hair salon owners to monitor their online reviews? Businesses are built and nurtured on constructive customer feedback. If someone told you in-salon or on the phone that they’d had a good or bad experience you would react. Written reviews about your business online are no different: you need to be responsive to that customer. Additionally, receiving customer feedback online is a valuable opportunity to make improvements to your business. Someone has left a negative review about my hair salon online. What do I do? About 80% of the reviews on Yelp are 3 stars of higher. That said, If you do find yourself with a negative review, there are two key things to consider: Firstly, identify whether that review provides you with useful feedback. On Yelp, you’re able to respond privately or publicly to all reviews. When it comes to responding to reviews that offer up constructive feedback about your salon, remain professional, thank the reviewer for their feedback and share any updates that have been made to your business as a result of the reviewer’s feedback. Secondly, if that review isn’t providing you information you can use, remember that you can’t please 100% of your customers, 100% of the time. All local businesses deal with complaints in some capacity. It’s ok (and completely understandable) to sometimes walk away from a fire-fuelled customer if you feel there is no way of turning around the situation. I’m pretty sure that this negative review isn’t a real customer of mine - what should I do? For starters, don’t send the reviewer a defensive private message or post something publicly accusing the reviewer of being a fraud. It’s viewed negatively by other consumers that encounter it and ends up only drawing more attention to the review. Instead, send the reviewer a private message to determine if perhaps they are a customer of yours and if they’re willing to connect with you privately to provide more details of what may have transpired. Rosie Akenhead is the manager of Local Business Outreach at Yelp, one of the world’s largest consumer websites.