What’s Being Said About Your Salon? Simple Steps To Review Sites

Review sites – love ‘em, or hate ‘em, it’s a social platform every salon owner must pay close attention to. During my social media trainings with stylists and salon owners the topic of review sites often raises heated debates. Some owners have great success with review sites and work hard to capitalize on  positive reviews where some tend to avoid the topic and brush off the negative reviews. 

Online recommendations and reviews allow potential customers to gain perspective on your salon’s service - but there is no one monitoring the good and the bad you may be losing new business.

The best way to take control of these situations is to be aware of your review atmosphere! The three most popular salon review sites are Google Reviews, Yelp, and City Search. These sites provide a platform for clients to exchange stories, recommend a salon, or vent about a bad experience.

Here are the steps we recommend taking when it comes to managing your online review sites:

1. Know What’s Being Said:

With your online reputation, awareness is key. I often work with salon owners who (at first) have no idea what is being said about them online! I suggest going back to the basics and first conduct a simple Google search for your salon and see what pops up. Review sites actually pull to the top of Google ranking, meaning, this could be the first impression a new client sees when searching for your salon online.

So, then what? The next steps in the awareness process is to also take a look at the three major review sites out there: Yelp, CitySearch and Google. It’s best to know what is being said about your salon on all three sites…and trust me, in most cases, there are reviews posted, good, bad and unfortunately some times ugly. Now that you know they exist – what’s next?

 

 

2. Claim Your Location:

Now it’s time to claim your salon location on each review site. Each site has a "claim this location" or "are you the owner" link. By clicking on the applicable link, the site will lead you through the process of verifying you are owner, and then allow you to manage the account. You can now begin to monitor what’s being said, and post feedback as the salon owner or representative.  Once you have access, get ready to spruce up your online profile.

 

3. Build Your Profile:

When you build up your page with pictures, hours, pricing, and product information for your salon clients can view your review site and have a better feel for what your salon offers. Search engines also pick up on this information, so be sure to make your online profile robust with content.

4. Join The Conversation:

Now that you are up and running as the owner of your salon’s profile within each review site, you can join the conversation. You may be shocked at the amount of online "chatter" about your salon, but keep in mind that regardless if it is position or negative, it’s imperative to respond to all of it!

This is your opportunity to interact with reviewers and perhaps turn a negative experience in to a positive by addressing the situation and offering to ‘right’ the wrong. Provide the unhappy client with a coupon, or discounted service to allow them to come back in and experience your salon in a  positive light. Never declare war on a past client with a negative review – often times they just want to be heard and by responding you are showing other potential clients that you are taking responsibility to fix the situation. On the flip side, be sure to reward your positive reviewers and share those great reviews on your social networks.

5. Continually Monitor:

Similar to any social platform, it’s important to continually monitor your online reputation and feedback. Make checking your online reviews part of your weekly or bi-weekly to-do list!

Keep in mind, like any other online or social media remaining positive in your feedback keeps your salon in good standing. Remember, you are responding in a public forum, so address each review as if a potential client may see your comments.

6. Integrate into your salon experience

Finally, with those five steps in place, remember to ask your clients for reviews. Let clients know they can find you on Yelp, Google and CitySearch and that you would appreciate their feedback. Everyone loves to be asked their opinion and what better way to spread the good word about your salon than to have numerous positive reviews!

As always, feel free to contact me at: kehlers@evokebrands.com with any questions or comments.

About www.StyleSync.me:

Style Sync is an on-line social media training, personal branding and business education platform designed specifically for salon owners and stylists to help them magnify their image and multiply their results.

Style Sync, a division of Evoke Brand Strategies, is an on-line, subscription based social media training, personal branding and business education platform designed to help individual stylists and salon owners turn social media prowess into more clients and more money for your salon.

About www.EvokeBrands.com:

At Evoke Brand Strategies we develop digital, social and mobile strategies for salon professional, beauty, hospitality and entertainment brands. As branding and public relations veterans, yet early adopters of all things digital, we understand the importance of creating measurable, buzz-worthy campaigns that generate bottom-line results.