Salon Reputation Management: 5 Proven Tips

Managing online reputation is becoming increasingly important for all kinds of businesses, but it can make or break companies in the service industry with a physical location.

If you’re a business owner in the beauty industry, you probably already know how important a salon’s reputation is in attracting new and retaining existing customers. This article will show you what you can do to keep your image spotless in the online world as well.

We’re going to cover important topics like online reviews, media monitoring, turning your staff into brand ambassadors, and promoting your brand on social media.

With our practical tips and actionable advice, you’ll be equipped to maintain a positive online presence as well as handle most situations that can harm your reputation.

As you’re well aware, good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster, so to help you handle both on time, let’s dive right in with our first tip!

Claim Your Business Listings

The first thing to know is that there are a lot of listing sites out there. Some of them, like Facebook Business and Google My Business, are practically must-haves, while other, less familiar ones, are good to have, but not essential.

Source: Zoyya

As you can see above, a listing on Google is definitely worth having. Most people use it to find businesses and learn about them.

Since there are so many choices, you should select just a couple of sites to be listed on, as that will allow you to manage your online reputation more easily, without becoming overwhelmed.

To get you started, consider claiming Google My Business and Facebook Business, and Yelp, as these are some of the most commonly visited sites for listings and reviews.

Source: ReviewTrackers

As a salon owner, you may also find use in claiming your listing in Zoyya’s own directory. We’ll build a landing page just for your salon and include contact information, working hours, and a list of your services.

Source: Zoyya

It’s a great resource for customers to connect with the service providers they need, like hairdressers, barbers, beauty salons, and nail salons.

After you’ve decided on a couple of platforms, you can go ahead and create a profile for your business on each one. The procedure is really easy to follow.

Source: Google My Business

Follow the steps outlined by each site and try not to skip any fields while filling out your business information.

If you ever need to change any information, you can always go back to your profile and change it. Be mindful to always keep your information on listing sites up to date!

And here’s a pro tip. After you’re finished, you can ask some of your clients, friends, and relatives to leave you a review, just to get the ball rolling.

With all of your listings sites claimed, you can sit back and let those first reviews roll in.

Monitor Your Online Reviews So You Can Respond on Time

The online reviews coming in from your business listings will greatly influence your clients’ decision to visit your salon.

In fact, a great majority of consumers in 2020 have reported reading online reviews while deciding whether or not to use a service.

Source: Zoyya

A steady influx of positive reviews means that your business is moving in the right direction, but what happens when you get criticized?

As you probably already know, reviews can’t be deleted from listings sites, so your only course of action is to respond to the negative review and see what you can do to mitigate the damage.

Besides taking steps to protect your reputation, responding to reviews is also an excellent way to try to retain the client by apologizing or offering a free appointment.

Source: Appointfix

In the example above, the owner is moving the discussion away from the eyes of the public and inviting the client to get in touch with them privately.

This gives them the opportunity to see if there’s any way to convince the client to continue doing business with them. This is a good practice because it addresses the negative review instead of ignoring it, and takes the necessary steps to retain the customer.

Also, it’s important to keep a close eye on reviews because you want to respond promptly. A quick reaction gives the customer less time to voice their complaints in their social circle in a way that would cost you potential customers and harm your salon’s reputation.

All in all, monitoring online reviews allows you to prevent a lot of problems from the start. It enables you to be proactive about protecting your reputation and helps you retain customers, even after they’ve had a negative experience at your establishment.

Track Your Business Mentions Online

Good online reputation management extends beyond just claiming and tracking listing sites.

Since reviews and mentions of your business can come from a vast array of sources, like local media outlets, social media posts, blogs, and so on, reputation management also includes tracking these sources.

Right now you might be thinking that tracking all your business mentions across the Internet is an impossible task. Thankfully, that’s where brand mention tools come in. It can alert you to any and every time your brand is brought up online, meaning you don’t have to hunt for mentions yourself.

Tracking business mentions has a lot of benefits and you can use it to drive the development of your salon and the services it offers.

Below, you can find a couple of reasons why media monitoring is a good idea for any salon owner.

• It can help you avert PR crises.
• It allows you to reach out to unhappy customers and smooth over issues, increasing customer retention.
• It enables you to collect more feedback which can be used to expand your services and sharpen your practices.
• You can also track your competition and keep an eye on what they’re doing.

Let’s take a look at a real-life example. Determ is a tool for monitoring mentions of your brand across traditional and social media. It allows you to see what people are saying, when, and why in real time.

Source: Determ

With all of this information, you will have a much better idea of how your salon’s reputation is doing and what steps you can take to improve and strengthen it. It also allows you to be proactive and respond to any threats to your good image.

For example, say a client has a bad experience at your salon and isn’t happy with your service. Maybe they complain about it on Facebook in a post. Maybe they post about it on their blog.

Either way, your media monitoring software would alert you to this occurrence, giving you a chance to respond quickly and professionally. A good course of action might be to reach out to that person to apologize and offer them a refund or a free appointment to remedy the mistake.

By formulating such a response, you have a fair shot of keeping your reputation undamaged and retaining that client.

To sum up, tracking your business mentions online is an excellent way to tackle a crisis, as well as to manage your reputation.

Turn Your Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

Nurturing positive relations with your staff is a big part of reputation management. Your team is invaluable for generating a positive image for your salon and their own perception of your business will have a big impact on how the public sees it as well.

Think about it—your employees interact with customers all day long. They also share information about their work with their loved ones and on social media. That means they continually reinforce the image of your brand, be it negative or positive.

So, how do you harness this amazing resource to your salon’s advantage?

You turn your employees into brand ambassadors, of course.

Brand ambassadors are the employees who use their personal networks to promote your brand by talking about their positive experiences working for your salon.

Their enthusiasm helps you maintain a positive public image, attract new customers, as well as quality new hires.

Source: Zoyya

As research from Talent Lyft shows, your reputation as an employer plays a major role in helping you attract talent for your salon.

So, what steps can you take to turn your own team into brand ambassadors?

Well, the first step is to make sure you’re doing everything you can to make sure your staff is happy at work. That means fair pay, enough time off, regular feedback sessions and team-building events, as well as continuous and high-quality training.

After you’ve got those bases covered, try to gently encourage your staff to share their enthusiasm. For example, you can ask them to share their positive experiences with your brand when talking to customers.

You can also suggest that they hype your salon up on their own social media and recommend your services to their social circle.

Something that may help you in this effort is providing original content for them to share, like quality photos of the work you’re doing at the salon or even branded merchandise they’ll be proud to use.

Source: Instagram

Remember, a happy workforce is the foundation of a good salon reputation, so don’t forget to do everything in your power to support your staff, as that will help you turn them into ambassadors for your brand.

Promote Your Salon on Social Media

Whether you’re a hairdresser, barber, beautician, or manicurist, your job is intrinsically tied to visual experiences. Therefore, social media, like Facebook and Instagram, represent a perfect platform for you to promote your brand and build a positive reputation for your salon.

Social media allows you to reach vast audiences at a very low cost. All you need is a free account and loads of excellent content your followers will enjoy. This is your opportunity to speak out about your business and tell people what’s unique about your service.

There’s a lot of social media sites and apps these days, and you don’t really need to be present on all of them. Try to select just a couple that would be best suited to promote your work.

Source: The Salon Business

As you can see above, Facebook and Instagram are still the most popular platforms out there, so you can’t go wrong with promoting your salon there.

Other online spaces useful for professionals doing visual work are Pinterest and TikTok. The latter is particularly popular with the younger crowd, so it may be worth exploring as well.

When you’re done setting up your accounts, it’s time to start posting. To really boost your salon’s reputation, try to include quality content that showcases your work.

Source: Instagram

You can also share information about any education programs you and your staff are participating in, as well as industry news that will help you demonstrate thought leadership in your niche.

Source: Facebook

And as we’ve mentioned before, it’s always a good idea to encourage your employees to share their positive experiences working for your brand on their accounts.

In conclusion, reviews and brand mentions are important factors for good reputation management, but nothing can beat a personal touch. Social media gives you the platform you need to share why you love what you do with everyone.

Conclusion

To a beauty salon owner, a good reputation is everything. Your clients trust you with their personal appearance, so they need to feel comfortable in your hands.

In modern times, reputation management is a little more complex than it used to be, as owners need to be aware that their online image is even more powerful than personal recommendations from happy clients.

Consequently, they need to pay close attention to online reputation outlets like listing and review sites and social media. It’s also a good idea to track the mentions of your brand across the Internet and encourage your staff to help you build a good image for your salon.

Hopefully, this article has given you a great starting point and sound practical advice for each of these factors and helped you understand the basic principles of managing your salon’s online reputation.

All of your hard work and exceptional skills should not go unnoticed, so get out there and share your amazing brand with the world.