Salon Tracker’s Feature of the Month

For our last few features of the month, we’ve discussed all the wonderful add-on technology that we offer to really enhance your salon.

However, on looking through our product-list, we decided that for this month, let’s concentrate on the most beneficial aspect of owning a salon management system. That is, the digital client card.

For anyone who is switching from the appointment book to your first management system, the fundamental reasoning for you opting for a computerised solution is so that you can do away with the appointment book and paper client cards for good! But our digital record card offers more than that. It allows you to go completely paperless within the salon as we offer some key add-on features that mean that any form of marketing lists, signed disclaimers and skin patch testing can all be recorded on the system as well.

Our record card has 5 different tabs, the first 2 allowing you to enter primary information about the customer, so the usual; their name, contact telephone numbers, D.O.B, email, postal address and so on. By having all of this information digitally, this allows you to then use the information in clever ways, and also eliminates the chance of you losing a paper record card, speeding up that search process for finding the relevant card.

Salon Tracker then offers a brilliant inbuilt marketing system, meaning that you can actually filter clients using this information; for example by date of birth to do some relevant target marketing. You might say search for client birthdays within the next month and then email or text them with a little complimentary birthday gift or a simple celebratory message.

By having their email address and contact number, this then allows you to communicate with those clients and market to them personally, should you ever need to send them an individual message regarding their appointment. This can be done directly from the system, meaning that you’re not reaching for your personal mobile phone or searching for the clients’contact number on their paper record card among realms of other documents. Instead, it will be a simple system search and click of a button on Salon Tracker to quickly communicate with those customers.

You can then have an added PDF disclaimer stored with an e-signature on the client’s digital file. Salon Tracker links up with electronic signature pads to allow clients to sign for your terms and conditions digitally, again eliminating the need for any paper documents at all. A great space saving exercise and it improves time management massively!

For those of you who require patch testing prior to offering your services, our record card has a built-in notes file for you to add any relevant information about that client that you should need. We can then highlight alerts for any of those notes that you require, so for example if a client has an allergy, this can flash up as you load the client’s digital file. You may want to keep the notes really informative and use them for taking down clients’ tea/coffee preferences, or recent topics that you’ve discussed - i.e. their upcoming holiday/wedding, just so this doesn’t slip your mind next time. As we all know it can be hard to remember every single detail that a client has told you, especially if your database is hitting the thousands!

Owners then have the option of adding a client photo to each digital file on the third tab. An excellent security feature, especially for those in the tanning industry who need to ensure that identifications are accurate and match the client’s appearance.

Our fourth tab allows you to put clients in to a specific group-type. You create these groups yourself in the admin section of the software, based on the requirements that you need for your salon. A very generic one that is seen at many salons is ‘student discount’. Therefore if you have a client that is a student, put them in this group upon viewing their NUS card and they will then receive the appropriate discount that you have set rather than you having to do this manually, for example 10% off retail and bookable items.

And lastly, this brings us to our 5th tab, which is a skin type. Probably most relevant in the tanning industry as this is where the guidelines are extremely prominent in ensuring that all members of the public are tanning safely dependent on skin tone. However, if a client has sensitive skin and is prone to chemical reactions, you may want to highlight that their skin type is sensitive if you are a beauty/hair salon as well, just for your record.

We really feel that our digital client card really enhances a salon business, as it improves organisation, speeds up the customer registration/check in process and evidently makes the client journey much more personable.

What’s more is if you take advantage of our online booking features, clients are able to register for your salon online and so all of these details are automatically synchronised from the online form in to a digital card on the Salon Tracker system. A great way to also grow your client database!

To see this feature in action, enquire today for your FREE demo with one of our sales & marketing team members. They will be willing to show you how this process works and you can then also trial this with no-obligation in the salon, to see for yourself just how much it will benefit your business!

So get in touch today at info@salontracker.co.uk or call our office on 0113 350 8230 to book your consultation, we’ll be happy to help.

Look forward to hearing from you and helping you to improve your salon management.

Salon Tracker x

How to Attract and Retain Clients at the Salon

The ultimate salon goal for many is a constant increase in revenue by keeping all their loyal customers whilst also attracting new ones regularly. After all, what makes your salon grow are new customers but also loyal customers, as they hopefully refer you to their friends and family. If all of your clients would only visit for one appointment and never return, you have nothing to build on and certainly no room to improve. The best way to increase business is to expose yourself to old as well as new clients and to build up strong relationships with them. 

Now you might ask yourself how effective client retention really is and how you get going at your salon. Luckily we have done some research for you and found out that the average salon can lose up to 20% of its customers annually because they neglect customer relationships. To prevent this you can use different techniques to improve customer service, which will increase the amount of people returning to your salon. Client retention is one of the best and most important things salons should be focusing on. However, you should still focus some energy in reaching out to new clients as well. So below, we have listed top tips on how to attract new clients and how to retain them. 

Source: Lockhart Meyer

Attract

Go Digital:

As more and more people use their smartphones for everyday tasks it is also no surprise that many people, who are looking for the right salon use search engines such as Google or Bing. You can take advantage of theses sites and use features such as Google My Business or Yelp and register your salon. This enables you to input relevant information on them. Make sure you have correct contact details and opening hours in order to make it easier for new customers to find you.

There are lot of small little things you can do with search engines in order to target people. Search engine optimisation (SEO) helps you to be visible online to people who are searching for exactly what you are offering. Google has plenty of tutorials on topics on how you can optimise your business online using social media and other marketing methods.

Using online directories is also worthwhile looking in to. There are several ones that specialise in salon businesses and certainly help you to advertise your services to a broader spectrum.


Refer a friend campaign:

These are great incentives, as they involve your current clients but also encourage them to bring in new ones. It is a great way to improve client retention as you both get something out of it. Run a campaign with an exclusive offer that they can’t find online or elsewhere. This way it will be hard for them to say no. Clients always trust their friends more than brands and therefore it's no surprise research shows that this is a powerful tool, according to Addshoppers. Did you know Dropbox grew their customer base 40 times in just over a year and 35% of Dropbox’s daily signups are from referrals.

What more convincing do you need?


Retain

One key to salon success is client retention and is crucial to drive business forward. There are many ways in which you can ensure that new clients turn into loyal ones. Retaining means clients want to return because they like your salon and services. It is therefore important to get the fundamentals right from the beginning in order to build lasting client relationships. First impression is key and this can be achieved through a welcoming atmosphere in the salon, friendly staff and great offers. If clients feel welcome at the salon they also want to treat themselves more often. Here are our tips on how you can turn your clients into loyal regulars.


Use Salon Software:

Salon software has proven to be a great asset to any salon. Not only does it manage your appointments and client cards, software such as our system comes with plenty of features that help with all business aspects, like client retention. On the system, you can easily track customers history and specifically target clients in order for them to return to your salon.

On our marketing feature you can run filters to find out who your ‘best spending’ customers are or customers that ‘haven’t visited in a while’. Once you have a better picture of who these clients are you can reach out to them via SMS messages or Email with any special incentives.


Rebook:

Rebooking is fast and easy and can be done in person with the client being present at the salon at that particular moment. Encourage staff to rebook appointments whenever they can. This doesn’t require them to be great sales persons as they simply have to ask. State the benefits and ask them if they would like to book now and then. Rebooking is easy, especially if you work with salon software. Once you confirm appointments, the system will give you the option to rebook. At the same time it gives you ease of mind as you are already filling those gaps for the future and secure business. Make sure each booking will receive a booking reminder in order for them to attend their appointment and not turn into a no-show.


As you probably know by now, client retention can be done in several ways. We hope you have found our tips helpful on how to drive business forward. Even small changes can result in growth of the business and have a positive long-term effect on profits that should not be underestimated by salon owners.

Salon Tracker x

Salon Tracker’s Top Tips for Boosting those Salon Sales this Father’s Day, and in to Summer!

We can’t believe that Father’s day has come back around again, hasn’t the time gone so fast! It’s always great around Father’s Day because you can cross-reference some of your marketing to suit other nearby events, like Proms, Wedding Season and Graduation, to name a few.

All of these events are great because they are directed at both males and females, so the marketing is relevant to such a large target audience.
So what can you run for this year’s Dad’s day? Here’s a few simple tips that you can then extend in to the summer months! 

- Run a gift voucher campaign, for example get in touch with your graphics team to see what they can produce in terms of Father’s Day artwork, as that way then your clients aren’t having to go and buy Father’s Day themed voucher pamphlets as well. Alternatively you could use this as an add on tool, see if you can come up with a selection of different images and then offer these for say ‘£1.50’ to the clients whom are purchasing those gift vouchers, giving them a range of designs to choose from. Similarly, you could create similar wedding or graduation themed pamphlets to extend this idea out in to your summer campaigns? For every gift voucher sale you make, you’re then making a slight % uplift on the sale. 

- Run a Dad-Daughter pampering day, or even a family spa package. A great one to get all members of the family involved and for those of you that offer lots of different services at the salon, for example beauty, tanning, hair and barbering - you can come up with a great multi-treatment package. There is something to offer everybody therefore it should be quite simple to come up with the perfect family pamper-pack. In which again, this is a fantastic idea to sell to friends throughout prom season as a girly pamper day, or even as bridal packs for the bride-to be and her fellow bridesmaids. 

- Bundles or hamper packs! Such a great idea for Father’s Day, especially if you sell a lot of products and men’s grooming equipment, now is a great time to flog it as Father’s Day gifts! Bundle together your male shampoo’s, facial creams, tan accelerators, shaving balms and create a little Father’s Day style pack. Research has shown that the men’s grooming business is now a multi-million pound industry worldwide, with women being the highest spenders for their significant others, Brothers, Dad’s and Grandad’s, according to the independent online! So this is a great Stat to go by! 

- We’ve mentioned this before - offer a gift wrapping service! If you sell a lot of retail products at the salon, this is your opportunity again to save someone else a job and also make a bit of a profit. Great for any customers who are leading busy lives! 

- Buy in extra add-ons that you wouldn’t usually sell. For example, if you’re going to be selling a lot of gift vouchers, it’s often that clients want to purchase extra trinkets to finish their presents off, so it’s not just a voucher in an envelope. Little things like chocolates, cupcakes and novelty dad gifts won’t go a miss. Have a look at which wholesalers or suppliers you can get some bulk gifts created/ordered and then this is another little add on sale technique for you. You could even put an offer on ‘buy a Father’s Day gift-pack and two novelty gifts and get the cheapest mini gift free’?

- Run a competition on your social media channels. It could be something really simple - for example upload a picture of a product pack on to Facebook/Instagram, ask clients to tag their Dad’s and then the winner wins the package? You could easily run similar comps for prom season and any brides-to-be. Social media posting is free after all and therefore it’s a great way to get some engagement on your company platforms. 

- Tash-tastic! Another simple, and silly, idea for you to grow your brand awareness and get some engagement on your social media portals, whilst promoting your male beauty kits in the process. Appeal to your male market and get them to send in their best tash/beard selfie (or ask them to post/upload them to a certain social media platform and tag your salon). The competition winner, chosen at random, could then bag themselves a free mini facial kit for example, or a discounted beard trim for winning? Tie this in with Father’s Day but then extend this out to all men that aren’t even Dad’s themselves yet and just call it ‘male appreciation’ or something along those lines. By doing something a bit outside of the box around Father’s Day helps your salon to stand out, and also allows your clients that aren’t Dad’s themselves yet to join in on the fun!

We know that it is an extremely busy time for all salons at the minute, but keep your summer profits in mind! By trying a few of these simple promo ideas you could boost those profits by a significant percent just by taking a couple of minutes to re-create some of these easy tips.

Happy Summer Marketing!

Salon Tracker x

How can your Salon be more secure?

Most of us have heard about the recent incidents, where companies have been affected by cyber hacking and ransomware. It was hard to miss when big organisations such as the NHS were affected by these actions. But what exactly is ransomware? And how can I protect my own business against similar attacks?

According to online sources, ransomware is a type of malicious software, designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money ‘ransom’ is paid. Although, ransomware is usually aimed at individuals, in recent weeks more and more businesses have been targeted as well. It is commonly delivered through phishing emails and attachments. 

Since then we had many enquiries from customers as well as individuals asking for advice on how to keep their salon secure. One of the questions that came up multiple times was certainly the way that Salon Tracker secures data. Not only do we want to talk about the technical site behind our software, we also want to give you a few tips on how you can keep your PC and your client data secure as well. Therefore, this post should give you a better idea on Salon Tracker’s security and ways in which you can protect yourself from happening to your PC as well.

Salon Tracker and Client Data

Our software is a local based programme, meaning it is installed on your computer, rather than a cloud-based solution. Usually you do not require the internet to run the software, unless you have linked online booking to our software or are an owner of multiple salons.

For those on the Enterprise package that use our online features or the HQ function, I can guarantee you that your database is completely safe. We store all data in our highly secure cloud system. We do not share data with anyone else!

Our smart Back-up tool allows you to take actions of your salon security yourself. We recommend that you regularly save your business data at the end of the day to either an external hard-drive or USB drive. You can make duplicates of those or store them in a secure place. Always back up important information as soon as you can. Additionally we advise all customer to safe all software data on a secure cloud storage of their choice.

Be careful with your own details

How quick do we sign up to a newsletter or something that offers us something free. Most of us would not even think twice before typing in our names and email addresses. Therefore, be careful who you give your details too and make sure companies do not pass them onto other companies.


It is also important to keep client data safe at all times and therefore do not share data with anyone apart from the salon team members. Delete them correctly, if a client is asking for it, so that they can’t be restored either.

Keep your PC safe and updated

It is always a good idea to have everything password protected. Choose a strong and secure password and do not keep the same for the next 10 years. Avoid using family or pet names or Date of Births, as others can easily guess these.

Make sure you update your Windows software to the latest version and run regular smaller updates when they are available. Ransomware can affect your whole computer and not just your salon software. If your computer currently does not run on Windows 10, you should have a look into this sooner rather than later, especially if your computer is still running on Windows XP, which is not secure and supported by Microsoft anymore.

Due to that reason, Salon Tracker cannot support software that runs on a XP operating system. It is also important that you install a Virus protection software. Always be careful when installing things from the internet. Only install programmes that you know and can trust. If you get strange Emails, delete them and do not open any attachments. 

Use Salon Software

With Salon Tracker, we have implemented several security features in order for you to ensure that you have the best protection against ransomware.

If you want to prevent staff members from browsing the internet or access personal emails, we have a Secure PC feature build in. Once the feature is turned on, staff can’t navigate anywhere else on your PC other than Salon Tracker itself.

You can also create separate logins for staff members and control permission levels on the system. Do not share your own login details unless you completely trust them. Remember, you can always change your password on our system. If by any chance others got aware of your logins and been using your account, we advise that you get this changed as soon as possible.



If you are still unsure how you can protect your salon and wanting more advice on this topic, then please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us. One of our friendly team members will be happy to assist with any questions regarding our software and online security.

Get in touch now at info@salontracker.co.uk or ring our office on 0113 350 8230.


Salon Tracker x

Feature of the Month: Advanced Business Reports

One of the main gripes from salon owners when we were first conducting our research for software features was that they were struggling for the spare time to track business KPI’s and sales revenue.

This is why when we were designing Salon Tracker, we carefully implemented features in order to make salon owners lives easier and to also save you and your employees’ time.

So this month we’ve chosen ‘Advanced Reports’ as our feature of the Month for May. Especially as you’re all about to enter the peak season for salons in the lead up to proms, weddings, graduations and vacations, you’re going to need a bit of a helping hand in tracking your salon activity!

Salon Tracker’s advanced business reports enable you to find out clear and concise information on all aspects of your business quickly and easily. For those of you with multiple sites, this is a MEGA benefit, as it allows you to access the info from one location for all sites. Which this is great in allowing you to make decisions whilst absent from the salon and all those reports can also be accessed via our Site View app on your mobile phone or tablet. So if you’re on your day off, but still have a niggle about wanting to know your daily takings at the salon, you can have a look at the click of a button no matter where you are!

So, for those of you that have our Professional package or above you will already be familiar with some of the reports, but maybe you don’t utilise them like you could be doing? If you haven’t got our software, then here’s an overview of some of the reports that our system offers and how they can help you significantly.

Day End

Want information on your total daily takings, and in what tender? Maybe you’d also benefit from a tally of total bookings, new customers, new bookings and then information of the first time your system was logged in to and when it was shut down? We have implemented all of this data in to one simple ‘day end’ report for you, giving you a bit of a ‘daily overview’ if you like for your salon. And the bonus is this can also be printed off in receipt format so it is nice and compact for you to carry around.

Cashing Up

A really simple report, which is excellent for when you don’t have time to do the cashing up so you have a salon manager that will do this for you. It only highlights the simple information of how much you have taken in cash and card that day, but it ensures that any discounts, profits and subtotal’s are left out to ensure that this information is still protected from employees. If you require this detailed info, we have then created another separate report for business owners called ‘Sales Summary.’

Sales Summary

As mentioned above, this is your cashing up report with extensive detail, preferably the one you would probably hide from employees and make view-able to yourself only. This being because it highlights discounts given and any profits made on bookings and retail products. If you are a salon of multi-services: i.e. you offer tanning, hair and beauty treatments, this report is broken up by sector. Therefore this allows you to identify your total takings for each separate service/product type so you can monitor performance of one sector vs the other.

Sales by Hour

A relatively new report that we have introduced and an extremely successful one. Especially for marketing purposes. Our sales by hour report highlights your peak and quieter times of the day, in which this is a brilliant tool to use for planning your marketing strategy and implementing campaigns based on that. For example, if there is a particular time of the day that seems to be consecutively quiet day by day, you may choose to create a ‘happy hour’ offer that runs at the same time daily, offering clients particular treatments at a discounted rate. You could combine this with our SMS marketing suite and notify all of your clients of the offer by text message. You can then run the same report a couple of weeks after running the ‘happy hour’ event and see whether your sales have increased for that usually quiet period, to measure your ROI from the campaign.

Commissions by Staff

Keep an instant track of staff KPI’s and monitor upselling, as you can print off a report identifying the commissions generated on all booking services and retail sales per individual therapist. You can then identify performance for whom is generating the most commission and at what value dependent on the RRP of the products that they are selling! This is a great report for rewarding and incentivising staff, to ensure that they are constantly upselling but then also to make sure they are gaining relevant recognition for when they are making sales and performing above target.

So if you are currently a customer of ours, or if you are new and just enquiring into potential software, we hope that an insight in to our reports feature has helped you to understand how simple it is to track salon activity using our management system.

If you want some further info on how we can help you to improve your KPI’s or if you just want a bit of targeted marketing advice, get in touch! A member of our sales and marketing team would love to help! For any of you that are new to viewing our software, you can also ‘try before you buy’. Simply head to http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx to enquire for your free demo and trial, and a member of our team will be in touch with you soon!

Salon Tracker x

How Salons can Prepare for the upcoming Prom Season

As many are finishing exams and summer is slowly approaching, it is also that time of the year that many pupils look forward too: It’s Prom night! 

Sparkly dresses, golden skin and impressive hair up-do’s are all part of the night. For many pupils this is one of the most special times in their school life. Hair and beauty salons are especially busy during this time for a good reason, as they contribute significantly to the outcome of the night. As we move towards summer, there are plenty of opportunities for salons to increase their revenue. Anything from wedding season to May Bank Holidays can be used as a potential marketing opportunity to get new clients through the door and retain current ones. There is more to a prom night than just finding the right dress. A great dress has to be perfected with matching nails and hair. Prom season can be just as profitable as wedding season if you play your cards right and treat your guests like it’s the special day they want it to be.

Therefore, we are breaking down the best strategies this prom season and have decided to focus on SMS, Email and Social Media advertising:

SMS Messages

Pretty much everyone these days owns a mobile phone. Therefore, SMS marketing is still a very popular technique in order to get the word on any offers and special events out there. A simple SMS campaign can be a fast and easy way that ensures the promotional message reaches clients instantly. If you use Salon Software, even better. Many systems have an integrated marketing feature that makes it much easier to send out your campaigns. All you have to press is send and the system will do the rest for you. It’s that simple.

In case you are struggling with composing text messages, we have compiled three examples for you:


<< Attention Prom Goers! Treat yourself and a friend this month @ SALON NAME to a luxury manicure. Two for the price of one! Call the salon or book online <link> >>


<< Hi ‘CLIENT NAME’, Free Blow Dry when you book your Prom Styling @ SALON NAME. Limited spaces available. Book now on 0123456789 or on our website <link> >>


<< Hi ‘CLIENT NAME’ Looking for glam make up for your prom night? Book this week and receive a complimentary treat bag. BOOK NOW @SALON NAME!


Email

If you rather work with images then email is the way to go. Whoever says email marketing is a dead art form is mistaken. Pretty much everyone these days have access to an email account. Smart phones and mobile data make is possible to receive emails on the go, wherever you are. It is therefore a given to use this opportunity to reach out to mums and their daughters. A visually pleasing email campaign to capture the client’s attention can be just as effective as a SMS message. If you sign up with an external provider such as Mail Chimp you can upload prom inspired images and include any special offers. If you have pictures from previous years then it would be a good idea to include them as well in your template. This way clients can see what you offer and how the end product will look like.

Social Media

Facebook & Co. are great places to spice up your marketing game and get creative. Why not run special prom competitions. This can be something simply such as a selfie competition. Anything from best dress or most dramatic hairstyle can enter the competition. As prizes, you can have a giveaway of products and services. 

Even if you don’t think the idea of a competition is the right way for your salon, there are many more options such as a Look Book of popular hairstyles to get your customers involved and inspired to make an appointment. Include an obvious call to action within any promotion. For competition this can be must be redeemed within 3 months in order for them to return and claim their price. Alternatively, a simple book now will do the trick. Always include your phone number or website if you offer online booking.
REMIND your customers to take pictures in their dresses all dolled up. You can then collect pictures and use them in your portfolio or in ads for next year’s prom season.



We hope you found these ideas helpful! If you have any questions or would like more advice on successful prom strategies then please get in touch with the Salon Tracker team. We are happy to help you with any marketing queries. Happy Prom Season!


Salon Tracker x

How to Handle Customer Negativity and Bad Reviews

Negative feedback can be demotivating and emotionally draining, especially to the owner of a business. You are the founder of the company and sometimes it is easy to take those adverse comments as a personal attack.

The thing is, every business is bound to experience the odd poor review from time to time and this is just due to your clients' personal preferences. So this is the first rule when it comes to handling negativity, to not take things personally when it comes to poor feedback. Why? Because it can affect the way in which you deal with that negative review, especially if you are angry about the feedback that you have received. In the meanwhile, this can then have a bad impact on your business if you are to respond to a complaint in disagreement on a customer facing portal – like social media for example.

However that’s not to say don’t respond at all. Ignoring negative feedback again is one of the worst things you can do. Even if you’re ignoring it, the customer isn’t and neither are the other hundreds of individuals viewing your testimonial pages. So how do you go about rectifying the negativity and re-gaining that clients custom?

The first thing to remember is, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, no one is perfect and quite frankly it’s those little accidents that you learn from to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future. Negative reviews don’t mean that your business is bad. Sometimes it can just be one person’s opinion ‘vs’ another. Not every business is going to be perfect for everyone. It’s like anything, if everyone had the same taste in things then there would be no room for competition or differentiation. The same way if nobody complained, there would never be any room for improvement. So another point is that you shouldn’t let negative feedback deflate you. Instead, take it on the chin, act up on it and use the feedback in a positive way to create solutions so that it won’t happen again. Obviously strive to be the best always, but it’s a guarantee there will still be the odd couple of individuals who have a slightly different idea and therefore they find something to criticise. As we’ve said, this is natural so don’t beat yourself up about it.

Saying that, how should you respond to negativity? As we have mentioned above, the worst thing you can do is disagree with the complaint, even if you do disagree! By responding with an objecting opinion, this can just cause more conflict. As a result, if your review portal is public, this could end up in a long thread of argumentative comments which can then be harmful to your business profile - and you are also highly likely to then lose that client for good. Instead, take the feedback on board, apologise to the customer and offer them something in return for the negative experience. This way, you are keeping the customer happy and hopefully retaining their custom, whilst demonstrating to on-looking clients that you handle negativity well and strive to make improvements in the future. And we know nobody likes a negative review on their website or social media network, however 9 times out of 10 there is at least 1 or 2 poor reviews on every business website you visit, especially if they have reviews within the 1000’s. As we have mentioned, you can’t please absolutely everybody, as there will be always something that doesn’t quite fit someone’s taste. Therefore sometimes a couple of poor reviews actually make your company seem sincere and genuine, as long as you are acknowledging those reviews with an apologetic response.

However, on a very rare occasion, you could receive a review that is threatening, that could be personal to individual staff members and may be verbally abusive. These are the types of feedback in which are an exception to what we have mentioned above. You may need to launch investigations in to those remarks, as to what caused the client to react so aggressively. However, sometimes some of these reviews may be completely out of order, and therefore if you are linked up with a trustworthy review site, you can often appeal to have these removed. In these cases, deleting the review is sometimes the required option.

So how is it you then build back up from those poor reviews and overcome them? (With the exception of the uncommon threatening reviews that we have mentioned above, these should be dealt with in a separate manner)

Once you have responded directly to the customer, showing empathy and apologising, this then often makes the customer re-think their review. For example, if you resolve the problem by offering a small gift or discount on their next purchase or service, this may then prompt the initial poor reviewer to actually come back with a second response accepting your apology. New clients that are browsing your portals want to see positivity, and see any mistakes being resolved quickly, in which your apologetic responses to poor reviews reassure those new clients. Every business receives a complaint over time, sometimes generated from something as simple as the product/service wasn’t quite right for that particular customer. This is what makes a credible business! As your business expands, you are likely to have to deal with further poor feedback in the future. However, as long as you are seen to be empathising with complaining clients, this is okay. It’s like the old saying, if someone has a good experience somewhere, they’ll mention to friends. If someone has a bad experience somewhere, they’ll mention to friends who will then pass this on to other people – like Chinese Whispers. That’s why it’s so important that you use our tips to ensure that you acknowledge criticism and put faith in your clients that you will build solutions to prevent similar events from happening again in the future.

Salon Tracker x