At SNS, we’re committed to supporting salon owners and nail techs in their business just as much as we are to providing superior nail care. Prioritizing reviews is essential for the success of your business. Learn why customer reviews are so important and how to successfully manage them to grow your business, boost sales, and get more customers into your salon. Customers can leave reviews on Google, Yelp, and more recently Apple Maps.
Common and Less Known Reasons That Reviews Matter
Build Credibility
Studies show customers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations, making them crucial to the success of your salon. When people search for a business online and don’t see any reviews, there’s a lot less of a chance they’ll visit that business. Having reviews for your salon helps build social credibility, legitimizing your business. Think about when you've compared services between a business with 4 or 5 positive reviews, or 100 'mostly' positive reviews. The trust is implied with a quantity of reviews.
Influence Customer Decisions
Many people like to do their research before spending their hard-earned money on things and online reviews can influence a customer's decision on whether they will visit your salon or not. Consider as well as that a customer may be looking for positive experiences with a specific service such as dip powder and scanning for mentions about that service. Customers often compare reviews with your competitors to see what the majority of people are saying and decide which salon may be right for them.
Maximize Visibility On Maps Because salons are location based businesses, it's incredible common for someone to type into the Map Search something like "nail salon" or "dip powder near me". Google and Apple Maps are absolutely crucial to capture this potential business. Beyond map searches, Google displays maps results for location based searches even when someone searches the web. A search for "nail salon" right into Google will display map results in that person's area above the other results. Your rating and number of reviews will determine your ranking when people search for nail salons. The higher the rating and number of reviews, the more you’ll show on search engines. Learn more about how to optimize your salon's Google Business Profile for even more traffic.
Increase Engagement
Whether positive or negative reviews, responding to reviews gives you an opportunity to engage with your customers and show them that you’re listening and you care, and you’re also open to feedback. Engagement also helps you build trust with your customers. When customers see you engage and use their feedback to improve your business, they may feel more confident with your services.
Gain Important Feedback
Reviews let you know what people like and don’t like about your business. This gives you an opportunity to focus on more of what people love and improve or change things people aren’t happy with.
How to Get More Reviews
While it is expressly against Google's rules to pay people or offer discounts for reviews, there are savvy ways to get more reviews from customers.
Ask. If a customer is happy with your service, you can simply ask them to kindly share their experience by leaving a review. This results in the highest number of reviews of any method. It's important to believe that your happy customers do want to support your business. When asked to leave a review, they look forward to doing what they can for free to help you out. Trust the positivity in human nature and ask customers frequently; encourage your staff to do so as well.
In Salon Signage. Having a sign in your salon with a QR code that directs them to your Google reviews is a great way to simplify the process for your customers, making it easier and more likely for them to leave a review.
Photos. Customer photos are incredibly important for promoting your services and are almost like visual reviews. They show customers what services you offer and the results of your work, which can build credibility and promote your salon. If you see a customer taking a photo of their nails, this is the perfect time to ask them to leave a review. Be sure to specifically ask them to tag you on social media as well. You can use these customer photos on your salon’s social media page, and if they add these photos with their review, they will go on your Google Business Profile or page of whichever review application they use, showing potential customers a portfolio of your work and services.
Staff Incentive. Some businesses will offer a staff member a $5 bonus whenever a customer mentions them in a review. This ensures your staff is actively reminding happy customers to leave reviews.
Managing Negative Reviews
While you hope for only 5-star reviews, in reality, you can’t make everyone happy and you're bound to get a few negative reviews from time to time, and that’s okay. While negative reviews can be upsetting, they provide two valuable opportunities:
Learn from customer feedback. While it is difficult to take criticism, it's important to take any comments to heart and evaluate what you could have done differently to please this customer. Businesses that take customer service seriously are grateful to hear about a reason someone may not have been happy because it gives you the opportunity to make to make any necessary changes and improve your business.
Responding appropriately can turn a negative into a positive. When it comes to managing negative reviews, it’s so important how you choose to respond, and potential customers will be watching how you respond. It’s crucial to not take these negative reviews personally and always respond positively, attempting to find a resolution to their concern. Effective response ideas to consider:
- Thank them for taking the time to share feedback.
- Apologize for their experience.
- Reiterate how important customer satisfaction is to your business.
- Offer to get in touch with them to discuss in more detail and try to make it right.
- Invite them back in for a free service.
- Convey empathy, that you want your customers to be happy, are open to feedback, and are willing to fix any issues.
In summary, customer reviews are a key component to growth, in particular with a location-centric business like nail services. Encouraging reviews and appropriately responding to them will demonstrate the pride you take in your services.
