The Price of a Four-Star Rating
October 9th, 2007 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the importance of online reviews, and what some small businesses are doing to maximize their exposure in The Price of a Four-Star Rating:
How did Dine garner such favorable reviews? One thing that probably didn't hurt: It fed many of the reviewers free. Last August, Dine spent about $1,500 on an event for members of Yelp, a Web site where consumers post reviews and rate restaurants. The nearly 100 members were treated to an open bar, duck roulade appetizers and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. As a bonus, they all received certificates for discounts on subsequent meals. The result: a torrent of favorable reviews on Yelp.
Do you pay attention to the online reviews for your spa? Have you ever given a local blogger a free spa treatment? Do you encourage clients to do reviews?
October 9th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I pay close attention to my lash salon's online reviews and manage them actively. In addition, I have a "testimonials" section on my website where I post comments from clients. I also have applied lashes for free to people who I think are good referral sources, such as a stylist at a hair salon in my neighborhood and two local handbag designers who are attending a celebrity event in LA this week. My hope with these applications is to receive online and in person publicity and word of mouth referrals. I find that clients place a lot of stock in the testimonials on my site, as well as the photos of my work.
On a related note, my latest experiment is MySpace. I created a MySpace page, including a blog, that includes photos of my work. We'll see how that goes! Are any other spas out there on MySpace? If so, have you found it to be effective in garnering new clients?
Hope everyone is having a great week!
October 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Reviews keep me up at night. I stress out over the smallest bad review on the most obscure website. That assumes that their are bad reviews about ESSPA out there. Thankfully, there are very, very few bad reviews. But we must be doing something right because on the major review sites, we have more reviews that any other spa within 100 miles. It is one thing for people to take the time to write a bad review (someone who is mad will go out their way to vent their frustration). It is something completely different for someone to write a good review because most people who are content expect (rightly so) to get a good service and they just want to go on with their lives. The biggest thing I do with bad reviews is to personally respond to each review as soon as it comes in. I always take the time to thank a guest who has written a bad review for bringing their situation to my attention and that their willingness to tell me something bad allows me to ensure that whatever happened to them does not ever happen again. And every know and then, a client does come along that just can be made happy or is just being irrational (or just wants something for free). I also thank those people for calling and then give the phone to my husband so he can explain to them how the real world works.
Shooting for a sixth star,
Eva Sztupka-Kerschbaumer
www.esspa.com