Instagram comments and stories, Facebook Page reviews, Fave ratings – Beauty reviews are read by women everywhere! Because they form such a huge aspect of word-of-mouth marketing, it is almost deadly to turn a blind eye to them.
StaffAny dissects and investigates what makes a positive review response, and how salons, spas and parlours can better respond to both positive and negative reviews.
Why Should We Respond to Positive Reviews?
Responding to positive review response will show that you care about your customers. However, there are lots of businesses that are only giving responses to negative ones and not giving positive review responses.
If you are known as a brand that responds to every review, your potential customers will also increase. That’s because every prospective customer love brand that responds to its customers.
Additionally, responding to online reviews will improve your ranking on Google My Business, bringing your business up in the search result. If that happens, your customer’s further engagement may increase as well.
Tips on How to Respond to Positive Reviews
Responding to positive reviews is an important part of managing your online reputation and building customer loyalty. Here are some next-level opportunistic tips you can consider to respond to good reviews with positive review response example your business can apply.
1. Respond Quickly
If you respond quickly to your reviews, your reviewers will feel appreciated, and you will create a strong impression in their minds. It is a great way to increase your customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Play up the SEO
Yes, reviews go into SEO as well! This is an opportunity for you to reinforce your business name, location, best dish and/or your unique selling point. It will increase your online visibility. Here is positive review response examples that your business can use
“Thank you, Felicia! It is our commitment at Oasia Retreat to deliver soothing but deep massages, especially Bo Jin, in Singapore :)”
3. Zoom In on the Goodness
Double down on what your customers loved and share the story behind it! People love hearing stories about things that they like – be it how the team was founded, the hard work from the team or even surprises like “Jean never considered she could be a professional hairstylist!”.
The business increases the human touch factor and consumers feel like they are interacting with people instead of a “company”. Also, don’t forget that you should be expressing gratitude for the positive feedback they gave you. Here is positive review response examples that your business can use
“We're delighted to hear that - and you can look forward to us delivering better cuts next time! We send our hairstylists for courses once a year to ensure they level up in their skills" Read more: 10 Best Tips for Managing Restaurant Staff
4. Introduce Other Possibilities
a. Other Services
Use this chance to talk about any underrated services or alternatives you could be “testing the waters” with. Given the eyeballs on beauty reviews, this is a viable channel to get the word out. You can use this positive review response templates.
“If you’re bringing your girlfriends here next time, don't forget to check out our BFF package, many of our customers are on it and ove it!”
“We bring in new colours every 3 months, so you can pick from a new set the next visit"
b. Marketing Initiatives
Customers may not reach every single touch point of your intended customer journey and by now, you probably realise you can do this through review responses! You can use this
“Don’t forget to bring your loyalty card next time for the free treatment sample!"
“Btw, we launched a giveaway this month - you can join it via Instagram :) Look forward to serving you again!”5. New Perspectives
Often from beauty reviews, you get to hear first-hand what customers really love about you – and it could be something you never thought about! Perhaps it is the location, the excellent detail and gentleness of the crew. Consider using these to market yourself to potential like-minded customer personas!
6. Keep It Professional
Maintain a professional and friendly tone in your response. Avoid using slang, jargon, or overly casual language, especially if your business is in a formal industry.
7. Avoid Overly Generic Responses
Each response should feel unique. Avoid using generic templates or responses that make it seem like you didn’t put effort into crafting a thoughtful reply.
8. Address Specific Issues (if any)
If the reviewer mentioned a concern or issue in their review, acknowledge it and assure them that you’re taking steps to address it. This demonstrates your commitment to improving.
Read more: 8 Rules of Customer Service for Small Businesses
9. Monitor and Respond Across Platforms
Keep an eye on reviews across various platforms (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) and respond consistently on all of them. This shows that you care about customer feedback everywhere.
10. Avoid Self-Promotion
While it’s okay to mention new products or services, avoid turning your response into a sales pitch. The focus should be on thanking the reviewer.
11. Stay Genuine
Authenticity matters. Don’t be afraid to inject a bit of your brand’s personality into your responses, but ensure it aligns with your overall tone and values.
12. Finally, Ask and You Shall Receive!
One way to improve your online presence in reviews is to accumulate more customer reviews – by asking customers! Well because if you don’t ask, the answer is already no. Ask happy customers to leave you a review, especially if they have told you in person about their good experience.
Or, you can offer a free drink in exchange for a review. Share with them how this will help you in your marketing efforts to bring your pampering experience to more customers.
Responding to Not-So Positive Reviews
And here comes the part most dread. We know how detrimental bad reviews can be in turning away potential customers but at the same time, it is a chance for businesses to understand customers’ experiences better. Ensure that the responder is calm when creating the response to avoid any heated replies!
1. Address The Customer by Name
When a customer posts a bad review, a way to resolve their concern is by making them feel heard. Addressing the customer by name instead of a generic term like “customer” or “sir / madam”, helps to personalise each response, and make the customer feel like they’re being heard.
2. Thank Them
Why thank someone for a bad beauty review? We believe communication is better than none at all – better a customer who told us which parts of the experience could be better, than 20 “meh” customers who said nothing at all!
“Thank you for writing in to share your experience with us”
“Thanks for choosing to have done your hair/nails/facial/massage with us”
3. Call Out the Issue Clearly
This tells the customer that you hear exactly what they are dissatisfied about. It is step one to restoring the bridge of trust by showing that you are not avoiding the situation or saying that the issue they faced was not a big deal.
“I understand that you were really looking forward to an hour of relaxing. However, due to the persistent up-selling, this caused you to be be unable to enjoy your session with us."
4. Apologize and Empathise
Some may ask, does this mean admitting we are wrong, even if we were really not? No, not really! Empathy is not directly saying “I am wrong” but rather, “I hear you” and “I hear your frustration and disappointment.”
“We are deeply sorry... I would have been equally upset if I were you.”
“I understand that you were looking forward to the same experience you had previously but this time, you did not get the same standards”
5. Explain, Concisely
Many times, there are reasons for certain experiences such as overbooking of the place, or perhaps the preferred person was suddenly unable to make it. While rational explanations may not calm the emotional customer, it can help readers understand more objectively what caused such a situation. A concise explanation would be good though, as long explanations may sound defensive!
“Janice was unfortunately held up in an unforeseen traffic jam and as we did not want to keep you waiting, we transferred you to so-and-so"
6. Next Steps
And finally to assure both the reader and unhappy customer, this “recovery process” could be the most important to prevent similar unhappy customers. Because what’s worse than 1 unhappy review, is 2 of the exact same kind! At times, you may want to take it offline to prevent an ugly online explosion.
“We will be reviewing our selling process and ensure that we are internally consistent with regards to this. Rest assured that we will respect your preferences in future visits".
7. SEO?
Ending with our first point on SEO, some would recommend responses not to include the company name, location, service and USP so that they don’t show up on reviews. Well, that’s up to you 🙂
At this point you might be thinking, “Gosh… must one beauty review contain all of that?! I’d need to hire a writer already! Do you have any customer feedback templates??”
It’s perfectly alright to start off with templates, but as review readers ourselves, we think we can all agree that reading copy-paste review replies can make those replies seem slightly insincere. Forcing too many “tips” into one review can also feel overwhelming for the readers.
So TLDR, write from the heart – from gratefulness, understanding, empathy and responsibility. When so, words are easily felt.
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