How to encourage clients to leave reviews

The Internet is an amazing source of information. Thanks to Uncle Google, one can easily find a beauty salon that meets their expectations concerning location, prices or range of services. However, there is one more piece of information available in the depths of the World Wide Web that may affect your potential client’s final decision like nothing else – you guessed it, reviews.

Of course, vocal recommendations cannot be overestimated, as one is most likely to follow the opinion of someone they know in person. Nonetheless, most people just search for what they need in the browser and take the ratings they find very seriously.

Therefore, it’s important you pay attention to your salon’s online reviews as well. Unfortunately, customers tend to be much more vocal when it comes to things they didn’t like than things they appreciated. Is there any way to politely encourage your contented clients to share their great experience online?

Talk to your staff

It may sound very obvious, but before convincing your customers, you have to convince your staff. After all, it is them who have the most contact with clients – and often good relationships with them, as well. Motivate your employees to encourage clients to leave their feedback. The most successful staff member should be rewarded for their efforts. This may also be a great way to qualify a staff member for the employee of the month award.

Tip: Storing such specific information is difficult to track – consider implementing a salon management software, such as Booksy, to help you manage this data quickly and easily.

Reward a constructive opinion

The idea of providing material benefits for a positive review sounds sketchy (at best). Moreover, no one will really believe opinions written under such circumstances. Is there any way to use this technique and not come out as dishonest?

There is – make sure you always reward constructive opinions, and not the bluntly praising ones. Make it very clear on your website and social media that you are more than happy to reward your customers’ honesty and willingness to help you improve. This approach gives the impression that you are truly a professional.

Of course, the review can be entirely positive and honest at the same time, but make sure you highlight comments that say more than just a few generic words of adoration. There is a big difference between “Mrs Turner is the best when it comes to mixing colours. She always knows what look I’m after and the shades she gives me are always perfectly balanced. Love the overall cosiness of the salon” and “This salon is the best, I love everything”.

You can say “thank you” to authors of such constructive comments with discounts on their next treatment, a free additional service during the next visit or a little goodie bag. These well-written reviews are available on your Booksy booking page for all to see, but make sure to share them on your social media fan pages as well. It builds trust and customer loyalty because they feel that their opinion really matters.

Once again, thanks to a salon management tool such as Booksy you can note which client gave you such a good review, and even track which treatment caused such an enthusiastic reaction and who carried it out.

Encourage your client to take a selfie

Yes, you read that right. Selfies can be an amazing, visual form of recommendation! They can reach an extremely big audience (in some cases, incomparable in any way to what your site alone can ever achieve) and are very suggestive – words are not as persuasive as seeing the amazing result with your own eyes.

If the work you did is truly great, the more social media-active customers are very likely to show their Instagram or Facebook followers their new updo or manicure without any additional encouragement. Unfortunately, they may not include the name of the salon in the description, so you are gaining nothing. However, there are ways to induce such behaviour – for example, you can promise that every tagged selfie will be re-posted on the salon’s account and its author will get a discount on the next treatment.

You can even consider implementing a selfie station in your salon – for the social beasts of Generation Z, the temptation of getting a perfectly lightened and arranged selfie may be impossible to resist!

Send a good-humoured reminder

Truth being said, many customers, although very impressed with the quality of service they got, quickly forget about leaving a review. It is understandable, they have a hundred other things on their minds. Even if they have considered doing so, by the time they get home, they are already focused on other things. That is why it is crucial to send a reminder.

Good hair & beauty salon software allows you to send customised messages to chosen customers. Booksy supports both email and SMS, which makes it a perfect tool to reach every client. In such a short message, you can both explain how much you value their opinion and inform them about a potential reward. Booksy also allows you to take notes about every particular client, so you can make sure to group each accordingly or send a message to the intended customer only.

Remember to always say thank you, for both positive and negative reviews. Do not even think about deleting unpleasant opinions, as this may backfire and cause even more harm. Instead, always express your concern, ask the disappointed customer for more details and offer compensation, for example, in the form of a discount. Being polite, calm and empathic may turn a complaining client into a satisfied one and bring you a truly loyal, returning customer. Remember to mark them on your Booksy system as a picky one!

However, if a review contains offensive words or attacks you personally, you are fully allowed to moderate it. Honesty is a good thing, but blunt harassment is not. You are a business owner, not a punching bag. Be respectful and cordial, but also confident and assertive.

Keep your services top-notch, do not hesitate to ask for honest reviews and get your Booksy system to make sure that every satisfied client will be reminded to say how good your salon is!