Your opinions matters! 5 reasons why you should review the beauty businesses you visit

How often do you leave reviews after visiting a hair or beauty salon? Is it each time you have an appointment? When you are super impressed with the customer service? Or maybe the only time you ever left a comment on a business was when the service left you unsatisfied?

Salons and solo practitioners seek your opinions on their services for a good reason. The consumer voice really matters when it comes to any businesses in the service industry, but the health & beauty sector is especially affected by their influence. To put it bluntly, what you say (or what you choose to keep to yourself) can make or break a business. Let’s take a closer look at how leaving reviews on your favourite (and less so) beauty businesses can help them deliver the quality you want.

1. You can show which elements of the service were brilliant…

Your favourite salons are your favourites for a reason. They may employ especially talented professionals, be specialised in exactly the type of service you were looking for for a long time, use products that really work for you, provide outstanding customer service, represent values close to your heart… all these different factors may appeal to different people, as we prioritise different things. Yes, we come to a beauty business to get a beautiful haircut, makeup or Brazillian wax, but most of us expect more than that. And when our needs are fulfilled to a T, it’s important to state it out loud.

Why? It lets the business in question know that what they do matters. if they do something above the standard, they definitely put a lot of work (and financial resources) into it. If there is no positive feedback in that regard, in the worst-case scenario they may simply give up on these elements altogether.

What’s more, by publicly raving about these pleasing things you let other clients know what to expect. If they are on a hunt for their new favourite salon and value similar things that you do, you may help them out immensely. And it goes both ways – reading descriptive reviews left by other people you can finally find what you were looking for.

What are the good things worth mentioning in your review?

• How good the customer service was
• The level of professionalism shown by the service provider
• The extensive knowledge and level of excellence shown by the service provider
• The ability of the service provider to work with different types of hair, skin or nails
• The ability of the service provider to listen to and respect clients’ requests
• The ability of the service provider to give good advice and recommendations
• The feeling of being respected and left in good hands
• The salon being LGBTQ+ community-friendly, with gender-neutral pricing
• The salon being eco-friendly, using solutions that reduce the negative impact on the environment
• The salon being kids-friendly or pets-friendly

2. …and which left something to be desired

Businesses are created by people, and people are not perfect. However, people also have the ability to learn and to change. If you visited a new salon and overall had a good experience, but there was something that failed to meet your expectations, it’s super important to mention it. You may think that most people prefer to hear unconditional praise, but in the reality, constructive criticism can be much more beneficial. How is the business supposed to develop if they have no idea which elements require working on?

Now, mind the word “constructive”. If your review will be aggressive or ridiculing in tone, it will be received as an attack and will probably fall into flat ears. However, if it will be straight-to-the-point yet respectful, there is a big chance that you will become a catalyst for a big change for the better.

And what if the business owner reacts negatively to your (polite) critique? Well, it will be an important signal for you that the business may not be the best place to visit any longer!

3. You allow great businesses to flourish (and bad ones to fade into obscurity)

When you are looking for a new salon to visit, what affects your choice the most? You probably look at the prices, the localisation, the range of services… but most importantly, you look at the reviews.

It’s difficult to make decisions, even on a small scale. Reading reviews helps our brains immensely with the whole decision-making process. We generally tend to trust the public’s opinion, at least to some extent. If we see that a business has bad ratings online, or that there are not many of them, we get suspicious and are much less likely to visit the place. Furthermore, good and bad reviews affect the way we perceive things, as our brains like to confirm what they earlier assumed based on information they received.

This gives you the opportunity to promote salons and solo professionals that are truly excellent, making them stand out in the crowd. How does that benefit you? Well, first of all, you ensure that the business you like stays in the game. Secondly, if they stay relevant, they are less likely to be forced to start saving on product quality, employee salaries or the quality of customer service. Finally, they will be able to keep developing, introducing new services, investing in additional courses and employing new talented people.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have businesses that deserve to not be promoted – to put it lightly. You know which ones we are talking about. There are unfortunately places where clients are treated with a serious lack of respect, where the owner saves money at the expense of the working conditions of their employees, and where botching treatments is almost a daily occurrence. Reviews give you a chance to warn other consumers and force the business to either change or tank, eliminating competition for better businesses as a bonus.

4. You have a real influence on the development of the industry

You may think that your opinions may be just “a drop in the ocean” that may change things on a very small scale at best, but that’s not true. They say that consumers vote with their wallets – which is true, but reviews, comments and recommendations are also a vital part of forming the industry. If you are vocal about your needs and expectations, you encourage other consumers to do the same – and vox populi is an unstoppable force.

It’s important to use this power for the good and promote just and genuine practices. For example, by loudly appreciating salons for being LGBTQ+ community-friendly, you are sending a clear signal that such an attitude should become a standard in the industry and that business owners should demand from themselves more in that regard. Your opinions can make the beauty industry a better place for a wider range of people and that is a beautiful thing.

5. You can get rewarded for your constructive opinions

Finally – reviewing your favourite businesses can bring you personal, tangible benefits. Many business owners decide to reward their opinionated clients with small tokens of appreciation, such as discounts, add-on services or freebies. This is a great way to say “thank you” to clients who put effort into writing well-thought-out reviews. Make sure to check whether your favourite salon is doing so and if not… maybe it’s time to suggest it? ?

On a final note – it’s not only the way you are wording your reviews that matters, but also the platform you are using to publish them. Both Yelps and Google are great, but come with some unavoidable flaws. Any person can write anything about a business on these platforms, so their reliability is not the best. On the other hand, you have platforms such as Booksy, where only customers that physically visited your salon have a voice – thanks to this, you can trust the comments you read, as Booksy makes sure they are 100% genuine. Furthermore, when you are using Booksy to book your appointments, you can count on getting a reminder after your visit that will ask you to rate your experience. This way, you will always remember to publish your honest opinion and there will be no need for you to roam around the Internet to do so. Yet another reason to use Booksy and download our handy Booksy app!