How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Salon in 2023
Are you actively collecting customers' experiences? You may want to start.
In a world that's increasingly going digital, your online presence is more important than ever. With customers able to browse service providers faster than ever, your customer reviews matter more than you may think. If you’re wondering how to get more Google reviews, or simply don’t know where to start, this guide is for you. We’ll explore the importance of reviews, how to get started and what you need to know to get your business climbing the online ranks.
Getting and Increasing Google Reviews
When it comes to your online presence as a business, Google reviews have the ability to affect both your reputation and rank. Collecting positive reviews can help boost your local SEO rankings, improve the number of business reviews you get and help local search engines find and locate your business.
While it can be tempting to go out and try to collect as many reviews as possible, the quality of your reviews is an important factor to consider. With Google displaying your overall ranking as an average of your reviews, as well as offering the ability to filter ratings based on their star rating, too many poor reviews can leave you slipping down the ranks. If you’re just starting your Google review journey, focus on the quality of your reviews instead of the number of them.
Why Should Salon Owners Worry About Online Reviews?
Customer online reviews play an important role in the overall online perception of your business. From building trust and reputation to driving traffic and search engine rankings, positive reviews matter when it comes to building your customer relationships.
Reviews Build Trust
Online reviews are essentially the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing. Long gone are the days of customers asking their inner circle for product reviews and advice. Customers have instead turned to the opinions and experiences of other purchasers, gathering intel from other first-hand experiences with the business. When looking for a new salon or trying out a new service, customers are placing a higher value on other clients' experiences than ever before.
Reviews Can Boost Your Google Ranking
Google is constantly trying to improve its ranking algorithms to provide searchers with the best information available. With Google reviews, Google is able to take the experiences and star ratings given by customers and use them to evaluate the businesses in their rankings. In doing so, Google works to boost highly rated businesses to the top of the rankings.
If you’ve got a collection of loyal clients visiting your salon, it’s time to start asking for reviews so Google can factor this into your ranking.
Reviews Can Boost New Clients and Bookings
With the boost in rankings discussed above, businesses with a high number of positive reviews tend to see an increase in traffic to their pages. If searchers like what they see on your page, you may even see an increase in the number of bookings made.
An act as simple as collecting more reviews can dramatically impact the bottom line of your business.
Getting Started With Google Reviews
If you’re new to the online business world, you may not know where to start when collecting reviews. Before you go out and start asking for reviews, it’s important to check your business is set up to allow your customers to do this.
Setting up your Google My Business account
Before you can start collecting reviews, you need to verify your business account. This gives you access to many of Google’s top features, including editing your business information and opening hours, replying to reviews and monitoring traffic to your business page. You can get started by visiting the Google My Business page to find everything you need to register.
Once you have a registered account, you can search for your business on Google Maps. Once you’ve located your business, scroll to the bottom of the details blurb and select “Own this business?”. Google will then walk you through verifying your business and linking it to your account.
Creating Your Google My Business Review Link
Whether you're sharing a review invitation through email, social media, newsletters or another way, you’ll need to create an invitation link. Once you have this link, you can start sharing and watching the reviews roll in. To create your unique link:
- Navigate to Google Place ID
- On the map, locate your business from the search bar
- Your current Place ID will be generated
- Paste your Place ID at the end of the following link and you’re set! https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=
You can now use this link in your marketing activities or to create a QR code for sharing on your storefront.
10 Ways to Get More Google Reviews for Your Salon
Now that you understand the importance of collecting reviews and how to get started, let’s jump into the tangible ways you can get them. From asking directly to sending follow-up emails, you can start your journey up the Google ranks with a few simple steps.
Build a Good Google My Business Profile
Your business profile is essentially your digital storefront. It plays a vital role in the first impression and overall perception of your business to potential customers. As customers will be visiting your profile with a specific search intent, it's important to ensure your profile contains all the information a customer needs. A strong business profile:
- Reflects your branding and is easy for customers to identify as yours.
- Contains vital information such as your location, hours, contact information and services available.
- Is simple to navigate and services are easy to locate.
Each of these factors, in addition to other tactics, plays an important role in your overall Google ranking. Remember, the higher your ranking, the higher the traffic to your website will be.
Ask Directly for Customer Feedback
Asking directly for customer feedback and reviews is an excellent way to collect reviews. With recent innovations such as QR codes and POS terminals having built-in review software, asking customers for reviews before they’ve even left your establishment is easier than ever.
Asking for reviews and feedback directly is a great way to learn more about your business as well, as customers have their experience fresh in their minds, resulting in more accurate ratings and reviews.
Send Follow-Up Emails
For salons with online booking systems, or with mobile receipt technology, you have access to a valuable resource; customer emails. Sending follow-up emails after a service that prompts customers to leave a review is an innovative way to get highly targeted feedback and reviews.
As you can guarantee these customers have already completed a service, you can avoid dreaded false reviews and get access to tailored insights about your business performance from verified customers.
Send Thank You Emails
Similar to the above tactic, sending thank you emails to customers who have completed a service is a great way to connect and encourage reviews. Providing a “thank you” gives you a reason to contact your customers, which can increase your chances of them opening your email.
In your email, include a brief thank you note outlining their specific service and include a link for them to share their experience. Some businesses even go as far as to offer a thank-you gift with a purchase that can be redeemed on their next purchase. This can not only encourage repeat customers but incentivise existing customers to leave a review.
Ask for Reviews on Your Receipts
Leaving an invitation to review on your receipts is another great way to collect reviews from verified customers. Whether you print receipts or offer digital versions delivered to a customer's email address, prompting customers to leave a review directly after visiting your salon can help them to provide feedback that's fresh and accurate.
Several businesses offer giveaways and discounts to incentivise customer reviews, which can be a strong tactic, especially when starting out on your review journey.
Link Google Reviews to Social Media Posts
Once your website is functioning, adding social media platforms to your online presence is a great way to interact with your customers and develop your online identity. With younger demographics favouring social media in their product research, having a presence on these platforms can help you to connect with your customer base and collect reviews. Prompting visitors to these pages can be a good source of reviewers, as their existing interest in your business is high if they’re active on your pages.
Consider sharing before and after pictures of your clients with snippets of customer reviews to accompany them. This can help create trust and credibility in the beauty industry.
Include Reviews on Surveys
Customer feedback in any form is an important part of connecting with your customers and making improvements that address their concerns. Sending out surveys to your customer email lists, or inviting customers to complete surveys on your receipts, is a great way to gain valuable knowledge of their opinions and to identify areas of improvement.
Surveys can also provide an opportunity for your customers to leave a public Google review and including a link to do so in your survey can help you collect that feedback. Since customers are already reflecting on their experience during your survey, they may feel more inclined to take the time to leave a review as well.
Include Reviews on Your Website
If you’re not utilising your website to connect with customers, you may be missing out. As your “digital storefront,” your website should include all the information customers may need, and this includes how to leave feedback and reviews.
Consider installing a pop-up or banner extension prompting customers to leave a review and activate it either on your main page or after a customer completes a booking.
Add a CTA to Your Newsletter
If your business releases a weekly or monthly newsletter, you may want to consider adding a call to action at the end, inviting readers to leave a review. Since readers have subscribed to your newsletter, they have expressed interest in your business and may be more likely to leave a review.
Consider closing out each of your newsletters with a review invitation, and include a link so you can track how many subscribers take action.
Encourage Public Testimonials
One of the easiest ways to collect reviews is to ask for them directly. Did you go above and beyond for a customer? Complete a difficult service? Did your client compliment your work? These are all great opportunities to collect online reviews and all you need to do is ask. This is also a great time to explain why reviews are important to your customers and how they can help your business grow.
Consider printing a QR code that links directly to your Google review page so customers can access it easily. Have a copy on hand in your store so staff can reference it to customers they have made an impact on.
How to Get More Google Reviews: Final Thoughts From Fresha
While it may seem daunting to gain recognition and customer reviews as a small or new salon, it's an important aspect of growth and reputation management.
Luckily, loyal customers looking to support small businesses in the first place are often more likely to go out of their way to help, meaning the more you get comfortable asking for reviews, the more you’re likely to get them.
For additional business resources, tips and opinion pieces, check out the Fresha blog.