Managing your spa’s reputation is integral to its success. If you want to attract new customers, and build loyalty with your existing clients, you need to have a rock solid reputation for excellent services and for being responsive to customer feedback. And while it used to be that you only had to foster your word-of-mouth reputation, these days your online reputation is every bit as critical. Managing your spa’s online reputation might seem like a daunting task, but it’s actually very easy when you use spa management software. An all-in-one spa scheduling software empowers you to effectively manage your spa’s customer feedback and online reviews to help you build the five star reputation that reflects your spa’s services and your dedication to your customers.
Why Customer Reviews Are A Critical To Successful Spa Marketing
More than ever, spas rely on published reviews to help convince potential customers to choose them over another business in the area. Word-of-mouth marketing is still very important, but these days the customer journey to your salon more than likely begins with an online search of local spas. The post-service reviews that your spa’s customers provide for others to read can be the deciding factor that leads new clients to your door – or to another spa. Let’s take a closer look at how online reviews can boost your business, bring in new customers, and help you grow your spa’s reputation.
Reputation Management
Reputation management is your direct path to building trust with both new and existing clients. The more reviews your spa has, the greater the impact that they will have on your spa’s reputation. So, it’s critical that you make every effort to impress your clients and then provide them with convenient ways to leave feedback and online reviews about your spa, your service providers, and their overall experience at your business.
For any business, there is always the potential for feedback that isn’t what you hoped to receive. When you use spa software to help you manage feedback and reviews, there are steps you can take to control what is published (more on this below). And in cases where you can’t control what is published, you can still prove your dedication to your customers by responding to their review and taking action to ensure they have a stellar experience the next time they visit your spa. This will give them the opportunity to leave you another review that will demonstrate your spa’s responsiveness to customer feedback and willingness to make changes where needed.
Attract New Clients
Reputation management features are an extension of the marketing tools in your spa booking software. These tools can be used together to build brand awareness, attract new clients, and grow your spa business.
When your customers leave online reviews of your spa, it not only impacts your business’s reputation – it also contributes to your rankings on search engine results pages. The more five-star reviews you can earn from your customers, the more potential you have to rank higher on a Google search. This has two direct outcomes: greater audience reach and trust in your business. Both of these outcomes will help attract new customers to your spa.
Your spa software marketing tools can also be used to bolster your social media presence. You can seamlessly share your marketing campaigns to your social media pages such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, to reach a wider audience. Many beauty industry businesses intentionally use social media not just to showcase their services but as a path to increase business reviews with the end result of attracting new customers.
Improve Client Experiences
As mentioned above, there will be occasions when the feedback or review that you receive does not reflect what your spa is capable of delivering. It happens to every business, but it is still disappointing nonetheless. The best way to tackle these situations is to respond to the feedback or review as quickly as possible, and then you can determine your next steps.
Whether the review is published online or sent via a customer feedback form, if it contains a valid issue that you can take action to address, thank the client for bringing it to your attention and let them know that you will take steps to remedy the situation promptly. This will show your client that you care about their experience and feedback, and (if the review is published online) potential future clients will see that you are dedicated to improving the customer experience. You can even take this a step further to invite the client to return with a discount on their next service, and ask them to review you again after their spa appointment. A positive follow-up review can make a significant impact on eliminating concerns for potential new customers.
Using Spa Software For Feedback And Review Management
The best spa software has tools to help you effectively manage your customer feedback and reviews. With these features you can request reviews following a service appointment, set parameters to determine which reviews get published, review the details, and make notes on following up with your customers. All of these will make it easy for you to build a positive reputation and improve customer satisfaction with your business. They’re fully integrated to save you time and incredibly user-friendly, even for beginners. Once you’ve got them set up with the parameters of your choosing, the software and reporting features will do all of the heavy lifting for you. Let’s check it out.
Ways To Collect Reviews From Customers
You can easily request reviews from customers who have visited your spa by sharing Leave A Review URL link in these ways: a post-service email or SMS text, via marketing campaigns, on social media, or on a 3rd party marketing platform. The more opportunities you provide for feedback and reviews, the better your chances of building a solid reputation worthy of your business.
Follow Up Messages
When you set up your online booking to send automated appointment reminders, you can also set it up to send an automated follow up message. This will be delivered to the customer, post-appointment, in the same way that they receive their appointment confirmations and reminders. In your customized message, you can thank the patron for visiting your spa and request that they leave a review (by visiting the link that you will include).
Email Campaigns
Email marketing campaigns are a great way to make a big push to increase reviews from your loyal customer base. With the convenience of software integration, you can generate client lists to target any population among your customers (dates visited, services received, packages or classes purchased, etc.). Then, you can quickly create a campaign for these customers. Request a review of their recent visit or experience with your spa and include your Leave A Review URL link.
Social Media And Third Party Sites
Always keep your Leave A Review URL link in the bio of your business social media accounts and any third party marketing sites that you use.
If you have a Google Business Page, a Business Facebook Page, or Yelp Business page, you can also ask your customers to leave a review on these sites as well. These sites may have a specific link to share with your customers. Google reviews are very effective for ranking higher on Google searches!
Managing Customer Reviews And Feedback
You can set preferences in your software to determine which reviews get published on your website. For example, you can tell the software to automatically publish all reviews, those that are three stars or above, or only the five star reviews. You can also select an option of when to recommend third party review sites. These tools can help you prevent negative feedback from impacting your business’s reputation by addressing it privately with the customer.
Once you have your review links and settings complete, you need to provide the software with an email address to notify you of submitted reviews. When this is in place and a review has been submitted:
- An email will be sent to the email address noted on the Setup Reviews page with all the details of the review.
- The review will be auto-published to the reviews page in alignment with your auto-publish reviews setting.
- The review will be added to the Review Management page.
The Review Management page is where you can track reviews left by your customers, see if the review was published, read the review details, and make notes for following up. It’s very similar to how you use the other report generating features: you’ll enter a beginning date and an end date and then click the Generate button. The results will display any reviews left during the date range. From there, you can review customer feedback and determine if any follow ups are necessary. You can also choose to publish a review that didn’t meet your settings by simply clicking the Publish Checkbox – or remove a published review by unclicking the Checkbox.
STX Spa Management Software Simplifies Customer Feedback And Review Management
If you own a small business, you know that reputation can make or break your success. This guide for managing feedback and reviews will help you reach a wider potential customer audience, build the reputation you deserve, and improve customer satisfaction.
All of the tools and features discussed in this blog post are included in STX Software for Spas, Salons, and Fitness Centers. If you need a great solution for boosting your reviews, managing customer feedback, improved appointment booking, integrated credit card processing, and more, you need a powerful all-in-one software designed for spa businesses.
You can give us a call at (800) 766-4778 or visit our website to book a live demo with our team. Contact us today to learn more about STX!