Many small businesses like hair and beauty salons, as well as hospitality venues, depend on reviews today, making it crucial to nurture client relationships. Reviews are an excellent tool for clients to keep service providers on their toes, acting as a corrective factor. However, they can also be very powerful and destroy someone's business if manipulated by disloyal competitors. That's why it's essential to constantly maintain balance and use a mix of offline and online marketing activities so you can ultimately make a living doing what you love.
Reviews are public opinion with a signature. While positive reviews are fine, they can also be negative (justified or unjustified), but I believe every situation can be resolved. Nurturing relationships with clients, even when problems arise, is very important. The client, customer, user, or player (whatever you call the end user of your service/product) is king, and you always need to de-escalate and strive for a win-win solution. A big NO-NO is responding to a review by "seeking justice." The rule here is: "If you can't be kind, be quiet."
Let's break down reviews into simple factors. Reviews are critical assessments, ratings, or opinions about a product, service, movie, book, restaurant, trip, or any other content or experience. They are usually written or verbal comments that may be accompanied by a photo or video, providing an opinion or analysis of something, often written by people who have tried or used a particular product or experienced a particular event.
Reviews typically contain information about advantages and disadvantages, quality, performance, appearance, usefulness, and other relevant aspects of the item or service. They may also include personal impressions, ratings, and recommendations for other users or consumers.
Reviews are an important tool for consumers as they allow them to gain insight into a product or service before making a purchase or usage decision. They also help companies and content creators receive feedback from users and improve their products or services based on that feedback.
The power of reviews is confirmed by "Ženski recenziraj" (Women's Reviews), which evolved from a simple Facebook group into much, much more.
When a satisfied person leaves a review, in most cases they've had an experience that truly delighted them and left an extremely good impression. It's much harder to get someone to proactively leave a positive review, but getting a negative review is much "easier" because when people are dissatisfied, it's in our nature to share that with others to protect them from the negativity we experienced. The good thing is there's a remedy for that too.
Positive Reviews
There's no shame in asking a client to leave you a review. After providing a service, somewhere after payment when you're saying goodbye to the client and you see excitement on their face because you solved their problem, just ask the question. "Are you satisfied?" When they say: "Yes, yes, excellent, thank you so much!" You smile and say: "I'm so glad! Would you like to leave me a review on Google? It means a lot to me when clients leave a review with a photo of my work they're happy with." The answer in most cases is: "Of course, no problem." By the time the client gets to their parked car, the review will already be left. It's important that the conversation flows naturally and unobtrusively. If the client says: "No, I don't use that!" Don't be pushy and force them into something they're unfamiliar with or that represents the unknown, as this can damage the positive psychological experience gained. They don't necessarily have to publicly leave their review, but if they've gained a positive psychological experience, they'll recommend you to their neighbor or colleague. Moderation, subtlety, and a simple question can work wonders. It's recommended to thank them below the left review or at least click thumbs up. This doesn't have to be immediate. It can be a day or two later, and when you do, the client will receive a notification and whoever is nearby will hear the sentence: "Look, I got a thank you for the review I left at salon XY, they really try, and the girl gave me a great haircut."
Negative Reviews
We're not all at 100% every day. Maybe the client is having a bad day, or maybe you're having a bad day and you did the job half-heartedly just to get it done. The client left not entirely satisfied and was looking at something on Google Maps when Google asked: "Did you visit XY place? Rate this place."
And here's an opportunity to express dissatisfaction with your uncomfortable waiting chair, and they noticed a stray hair in the rearview mirror, and the hairstylist wasn't smiling either. All their ships have sunk... and so a bad review happens, and if they photographed that stray hair and left the image with the text, Google doesn't forgive this. Regardless of all other reviews, this last review that also has an image is the most relevant to Google. The good thing is this works in reverse. A good rating with text and an image also ranks high on the review list.
How to solve this? I'll assume you keep records of your clients and know who left you the review. Call the client and be honest. Tell them you're sorry for leaving a negative impression and offer to fix that stray hair that annoyed them. You can subtly ask them to remove the bad review when they come for the fix. People always respond well to a smile and kindness. With this approach, you can expect a super positive review from that same person after the correction. If you don't have the client's number, you can offer a solution below the review with an apology, but if the client reacts poorly and refuses any further communication, it's important to stop communicating and not get drawn into an argument. Seeking justice is the worst possible thing, especially if it's public. Believe me, you don't need that. After that, not even 10 positive reviews will help you. Reviews on GMB are not moderated and cannot be removed except by the person who wrote them.
