What does your online reputation say about your salon?

People have always relied on book and film reviews to make a decision about how to entertain themselves.  These days, most people won’t choose a holiday, restaurant or hairdresser, for that matter, without comparing their online ratings first. In a world where it can be difficult to differentiate between genuine and fake reviews, these critiques are having a massive impact on client activity. Your online reputation matters. In fact as many as 80% of customers will change their buying decision based on a bad review; that number increases to 87% who are swayed to make a choice by positive reviews. All this means that it is critical for salon owners to stay on top of their online reputation to attract and maintain new business. Here’s how to manage how your business looks online.

• Be aware of every platform clients could potentially review you on. The best way to do this is to enter your salon’s name in a search engine and make a note of all of the relevant sites. These may include social media pages, directories and review sites – some of which you might not even realise you are on.
• Set a schedule to check these regularly. In most cases, weekly will be sufficient, but trust your instincts. If you get a vibe that a client might not have been totally satisfied, it’s worth investing five minutes of your time to check.
• Actively try to build positive reviews. It’s never ok to pay for reviews or incentivise people to give you them, but you can reward people afterwards - add-on services such as complimentary treatments are always a good way to do this.
• Modernise the way you speak to clients. If you’ve always asked happy clients whether they have any friends they would like to refer to you; you could ask them for an online review instead e.g. “I’m so pleased you love your hair today and would be so grateful if you’d put a review on our Google+ page’.
• Respond to every review you get: positive or negative.  Basic customer service says that if they’ve taken the time to talk about you so it’s important to extend them the same courtesy.

So what if you do get a negative online review? Online reviews have once again made the headlines after a Swindon hairdresser responded to a negative critique on his company Facebook page with a torrent of abuse.  The spat came about after the client gave him a 1* rating on Facebook, which he took offence to, claiming she had been a difficult client from the off-set (along with a few other choice words!). He has now come to his senses and offered a refund and apology, but, not before making the situation an awful lot worse. He concedes: “I will be the first person to say my reaction was out of order, but I wanted to protect my business. I realise now that probably did more harm.” So how should you react to negative reviews?

1. Don’t take it personally! If a review has made you angry then take a time out before responding to it and ask someone else to read your response first.
2. Don’t waste time trying to get the review site to take it down (they won’t – unless you can prove it is either a fake or is factually inaccurate).
3. Respond in a professional manner and that means thanking the reviewer for taking the time to comment and apologising that they are unhappy with the service.
4. Tell them you would welcome the opportunity to make the situation right by inviting them back into the salon.
5. Then try to take the conversation offline. Ask them to contact you by another means, or send them a your mobile number so they can contact you directly.
6. Whatever you do, don’t ignore negative reviews. Aside from looking bad from a customer services perspective, search engines are increasingly putting weight on reviews, and well-handled negative reviews are looked on more favourably than those that have not been dealt with.
7. Make the most of the opportunity. It is easier to turn a hater into a fan of your brand than someone who is impassive. Just think how powerful it will be when this person comes back online and praises your good service.

  Kate Woods is managing director of KOR Digital which offers an array of services including, copywriting, social media support and digital strategy, to businesses in the hairdressing industry.