Responding to Negative Reviews

Does anyone else feel like social media governs our lives as stylist? The pros are free advertising, networking, education, resource to find new clients (or they find you) & many more. The 2 worse things about the internet for our industry are Pinterest & online reviews. In this article I am going to teach you how to turn negative reviews into more butts in your chair.

Online reviews are a great way for potential new clients to check references before booking with you. But, it’s all about the response and there are to respond:

•Attempt to rectify the situation & keep face. It is our responsibility to show that we care about our reputation & take our title as a cosmetologist seriously. If you don’t respond people are going to think she has something to hide.

•You can act a damn fool, throw a fit & kiss your business good bye

•It is important to know that you & the client are NOT the only ones partaking in this. You have an audience of future potential customers lurking.

•Each & every response (positive & negative) deserves a personalized response. Do not copy/paste or use a template. It doesn’t show that you are genuine.

The first step, is to address them by name & apologize. Even if they are unfounded, show sympathy that they had a bad experience.

“I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience.”

Second, show gratitude for the time they have spent to leave a review.

“Thank you for taking the time to write a review, as a small business owner reviews like yours are helpful to me”

Third, make an offer, even if you’ve made it right with the client, still save face to those lurking.

“If you are willing to give me another chance I’d love to offer you 20% off your next service”

Fourth, let them know what you’ve done to address the problem.

“I am re-examining my client consultation process & am taking precautions in order to provide a better customer experience.”

Finally, promise it will never happen again.

“I promise that I have re-evaluated my consultation process & have implemented new stratified. I invite you to contact me at *phone number* if you would like to further discuss this”

When responding it is important to save grace & remind yourself that this isn’t a time to be defensive or combative…it’s not about you at all. In the Harrison Interactive study, it was shown that when the upset client fells they have been heard & fell they’ve been rectified, a third of them took down their negative review. Even a fifth of them become regular clients!

A classy, professional, understanding response may impress potential clients, negating the poor review entirely. Your goal is that those who are “here for the comments” will be impressed with the way you handled the situation & you’ve won them over.

Make sure that you have set up policies to abide by. Don’t just wing it, be consistent & negative incidents will be prevented.

Here are some examples:

“Hello (Name)

I would like to offer my sincere apologies for your recent experience and sorry to hear you were less than satisfied with (Blah Blah Blah).

I pride myself in (Blah Blah Blah) and hold myself to a high quality of standards.

You can expect a (Call/text) from me soon to discuss what occurred and how we might make it up to you.

Yours sincerely,”

“Dear (Client)

I would first like to thank you for sharing your feedback. I am gutted that somewhere we have evidently reached a breakdown in communication considering you’ve stated, on several occasions, how much you love your hair & that I “nailed it.”

Regardless, I pride myself in maintaining the highest quality standards for the integrity of my clients hair. As you can see from my other reviews, I am known for being very passionate about hair. I will definitely reevaluate my procedures because there is always room for improvement.

So, if you’d like, you could call me on [phone number] or reach out to us via twitter dm, facebook or even email us directly at support@companyname.com. We’d like to invite you too come back to the salon so I can make things with you good at no additional charge. If you give me the chance, I will definitely win you back.”