listen and have those conversations.”
Just like other social media platforms, like Facebook
pages and blogs, Yelp is able to give you statistics on
how your account on Yelp is doing. Kovner showed examples of charts like the average monthly unique visitors for the quarter and cumulative reviews contributed.
Here are a few things Kovner says that are important
to do or have on your Yelp account. Claim page, about
info, contact info, salon images (lots of them!), review
dialogue and process, check regularly, and respond (especially to negative reviews).
How to capture consistent reviews.
Depending on your current process for getting referrals like a Dialogue (phone, stylist, reservationist),
Referral program, Point of Sale, Email Marketing, Post
service follow-up, you can always invite them to share
their reviews on Yelp. Kovner emphasizes that you
should never pay your customers to give you good reviews. “We are looking for authentic reviews. If I have
to pay someone to give me a review, then that’s not the
review that I want. Ultimately, people who are stoked
are gonna talk about it. That is the bottom line, guys.
Our jobs as businesses is to help facilitate that process. So, we’re saying to every single client when they
check out, or in every single e-mail footer of a newsletter, ‘your experience matters, we’d be grateful if you
shared it, that’s it!’”
“Dealing with an upset customer online is just like
dealing with an upset customer offline. When a custom-
er gives a call and says ‘I don’t like my hair’, how you
handle that is no different on Yelp. The key is to address
it, the key is to say, ‘you know what, Nina, we’re so
sorry that your experience did not meet your expectation. We would love to make it right, that’s it! Not ‘you
horrible person! How dare you leave an awful Yelp review!’ nope, that’s not how we talk to clients.” Kovner
explains, “[As for] Legit negative reviews, even ones
that break our heart and give us a stomachache, and
make us wanna to throw up, we have to take time to
get objective and say ‘you know what, this is not okay,
and we’ re gonna make this right.’ Yelpers read those
responses. YOUR RESPONSE to a one-star review has
more impact than the actual one-star review. People
understand that, and they want to see how you handle
these issues”
This event was produced by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) under
the direction of Kelley McCarthy, manager
of online education. To learn more about
PBA’s online education programming, and
to register for upcoming events, please
visit their website, probeauty.org/education. PBA is a non-profit association dedicated to the advancement of the professional beauty industry.
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