Word-of-mouth is something small businesses have relied on for years. If someone has a great experience with your business, he or she is apt to tell family and friends—and if they become customers, that’s great for you. Of course, the reverse is also true—people are inclined to share poor experiences with those they know, which can cause you to lose customers or prevent new customers from giving you a chance.
Recently, word-of-mouth has grown exponentially with the explosion of online review sites, which have revolutionized a person’s ability to voice their experiences with a business to the general public by simply clicking a button.
Review sites—such as Yelp, CitySearch, Insider Pages, AOL Yellow Pages, Angie's List and Yahoo! Local—offer people a chance to rate any and every service business imaginable, from electricians to florists to restaurants and more. And since a salon owner’s main job is to serve customers, you may, at some point, have a customer that reviews your business online.
Customer Reviews
On a good note, many of the reviews on these sites are positive. But, you still need to be prepared to deal with any bad reviews that come your way. Here are some tips:
Monitor review sites. First and foremost, you must be aware when and if someone posts about your salon. Try signing up for Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)—this free service can be customized to search for particular words and phrases online, and will e-mail the results to the e-mail address you provide as frequently as you like. To monitor potential reviews, you’ll want to set your alerts to search for your salon name.
Respond to reviews. If someone does post a review about your salon, you must respond. Whether the review is good or bad, you should make sure to e-mail customers who post reviews to the site. For good reviews, thank the customer for their kind words and let them know that you hope to see them again soon. For bad reviews, see if you can resolve the situation—if the person is complaining about poor customer service, you can find out which employee he or she spoke with and take any necessary action. At the very least, you are showing this person that you truly care about your business and your customers’ experience; at the most, you may gain back a customer.
Don’t submit fake reviews. Review sites aren’t a free-for-all place for you to make your salon look good—and some sites actually take steps to prevent owners from submitting fake reviews. For example, Yelp uses a proprietary algorithm to pull down suspect reviews. Just don’t do it.
‘Smear’ Reviews
Unfortunately, online review sites make it easier than ever for a competitor to spread negative feedback about your company, under the guise of a customer review. These smear campaigns can catch on like wildfire if you don’t nip them in the bud. Here’s how:
Check for accuracy. If you notice negative claims in the review that just don’t add up, you can probably assume it’s not a real customer.
Trump review sites with your Web site in searches. Use search-engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that your salon Web site ranks higher in a Google search than the bogus review does.
Address the phony review. Post a comment explaining the situation and pointing out the positive aspects of your salon. Just remember to keep things professional and to not get defensive—that only puts you on the same level as your competitor. As a last resort, you may want to consider legal action—especially if the negative feedback borders on harassment. But, keep in mind that it’s a lengthy and expensive process.
Using Reviews to Your Advantage
Don’t get discouraged by one or two bad reviews; instead, think of a bad review as a way to improve your business and make it better than ever. Online review sites are a valuable tool you can use to monitor customer feedback and evaluate operations—if there is even a kernel of truth to what is said in a bad review, you have the opportunity to make any necessary improvements.
In addition, be proactive and encourage your regulars to post good reviews of your salon. You can even print out positive reviews and display them in the salon or reprint them on your Web site.
In the end, online review sites offer a wealth of information about what your customers do and don’t like about your business—information that, positive or negative, most consumers do not go out of their way to share in person.
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