Respond to online reviews quickly, kindly, and specifically to build connections with clients and grow your self-care business

If you run a self-care or beauty business, you have an online presence. Even if you never create a website or set up a social media profile, you’ll show up on Google and Yelp, which means clients can leave reviews. Some of those reviews will undoubtedly praise you and your staff for the excellent service you provided, but others will be less favorable. For savvy business owners, all reviews, both good and bad, are opportunities to grow your business and improve your services.

Responding to these reviews is a great way to show your current clients that you take their feedback seriously. As potential clients research your business, they’ll also see that you care about the quality of each visit.

Don’t ignore positive reviews, because they’re a chance to show you appreciate your clients and don’t take their business for granted. Don’t ignore negative ones, because they’re a golden opportunity to improve your services and deliver even better experiences in the future.

Why respond to online reviews?

Imagine that you’re visiting a new town and need a last-minute haircut, manicure, or spa treatment. What’s the first thing you’re going to do? If you’re like 97% of potential clients, you’re going to check online reviews. Word of mouth goes a long way, especially from locals who probably have lots of different choices in the neighborhood. 

Positive reviews really can draw in new clients. Negative reviews really do drive them away.

Your first instinct may be to ignore negative feedback, especially if most of your reviews are positive. However, negative reviews — especially if they’re polite and reasonable — can be a gift. Fixing legitimate problems will only make your business better in the long run. And if you can convince unhappy clients to give you a second chance, you might find them singing your praises online afterward.

Responding to reviews is worthwhile for a few reasons:

• Activity: Replying to reviews builds your online presence, just like updating your social media pages. Clients see that you’re actively building your business and that they can get in touch with you.

• Attention: People like feeling seen and respected, especially in the self-care space. If you ignore online reviews, clients may feel that you’re taking their business for granted.

• Authenticity: There’s a real person behind the review. There’s also a real person behind the response to it. Responding gives you a chance to live your values — and your clients a chance to see it.

While you don’t need to respond to every single review, you shouldn’t ignore them entirely, either. If you don’t reply to positive reviews, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with your most loyal clients. If you don’t reply to negative reviews, new prospects may think that your business screwed up — and that you don’t care enough to fix it.

Tackling different kinds of feedback

If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve probably received three kinds of reviews:

• Positive reviews are from clients who loved your service and your staff. On a five-star scale, these will be four or five stars.

• Neutral reviews are from clients who liked some parts of their session and didn’t like others. These are usually three-star writeups.

• Negative reviews are from clients who had a bad experience. On a five-star scale, these will be one or two stars.

While each review requires a slightly different kind of response, you should always:

• Reply quickly: Whether you respond to a review the next day or a week later, clients will notice. Be as timely as you can reasonably be.

• Address the client by name: Addressing someone directly is polite, and people like hearing their own names.

• Be specific: Talk about what service the client had and when they came in. They’ll know you didn’t just copy and paste a stock reply.

• Provide a follow-up step: Happy clients should come back. Neutral and unhappy clients should also come back — after they tell you what you could do better.

A note for medspas

While salons and spas should reply to reviews with specific, detailed information, medspas have to do things a little differently. Clients at medspas are technically medical patients. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), providers can’t reveal a patient’s protected health information (PHI). That includes their name, their location, and whether you’ve ever worked with them.

Suppose you left this reply for a positive review:

“Mary — Thank you for coming in last Saturday! We’re thrilled that you enjoyed your laser therapy session.”

This short response contains at least three HIPAA violations — naming the patient, revealing appointment dates, and confirming medical treatment.

While medspas are allowed to respond to reviews, they have to keep it extremely vague. You can say “thank you” for positive reviews or “please contact us” for negative ones. While you may be tempted to go into more detail, your client’s privacy has to come first.

How to respond to positive client reviews

If your business gets a lot of positive reviews, you’re doing something right. Not only did your clients love your service, but they sacrificed some of their free time to write something kind. If you connect with them, you could win lifelong clients.

Positive reviews are easy to deal with. Thank the client for coming, as well as for leaving a review. Say that you hope to see them again. If the review praised a particular staff member, be sure to pass along the kind words.

Keep in mind that most clients probably won’t take the time to write a review, even if they’re happy. As long as your clients are happy in-person, don’t stress too much over how many of them are leaving good reviews.

How to respond to neutral client reviews

Neutral reviews can be a bit tricky, but they serve two important purposes:

• Clients know that your business is getting real reviews — fake reviews tend to be extremely positive or negative.

• They give valuable feedback without any anger or frustration.

The first thing you’ll want to do is to thank these clients for their honesty. If a client left any suggestions on how their session could have been better, ask yourself whether they have a point. You can also invite these clients to share more thoughts via phone or email. If they do, offer them a discount and ask them to come back. They may update their neutral review to a positive one, and that tells prospective clients a lot about how you run your business.

How to respond to negative client reviews

Negative reviews are probably the toughest type to tackle. Clients may be disappointed, angry, or even insulting.

The first thing you need to do is determine whether a negative review even merits a response. Clients may be upset, and that’s fine. But once they start hurling verbal abuse at you or your staff, they’ve crossed a line. Most review platforms don’t allow vulgar language, slurs, or personal attacks, so go ahead and flag these for removal if they don’t get deleted automatically.

Otherwise, you’re on the hook for a response. First, determine whether the client has a legitimate complaint. If they wanted a service you don’t provide or wanted you to bend the rules for them, you can simply say that. You should be as kind and professional as possible, but you have every right to set the record straight.

If a client really did receive subpar service, then you should at least try to make it right. Acknowledge what went wrong, and explain why it happened. (Don’t throw any of your staff members under the bus, though.) Give the client a way to contact you. If they follow up, see if they’d be willing to come back for a discounted or free service. Don’t discuss the review during their session. Just focus on giving them the best experience possible. If they do update the review, be sure to thank them for it.

Responding to negative reviews can be unpleasant, but you can stay calm, address specific complaints, and try to fix the problem. Even if the upset party never takes you up on your offer, you've done everything you can do. That makes a big impression on prospective clients.

You replied — now what?

Once you have a steady stream of reviews coming in, you’ll want to read and reply to them often. If you live and breathe social media, you can get alerts for every new review and reply right away. Otherwise, you can set aside some time every few days or once a week. You don’t have to do it all yourself, either. Other staff members can probably handle positive or neutral reviews themselves, although you might want to step in for the negative ones.

Whether you get positive or negative reviews, your clients cared enough to share their feelings with you. A thoughtful response shows that you take their feedback seriously.