Revealed: the star rating that generates beauty salons the most money
Online reviews are the new word-of-mouth for beauty salons, with the star rating sweet spot for revenue reported at between three and four stars, found a new study from small business software company Womply.
The research, which looked at the impact online reviews have on revenue at more than 20,000 local health and beauty businesses, found that businesses rated five-star earned less in revenue than those with one to 1.5-star ratings, while those with a three-to-four-star rating earned 22% more in annual revenue than the average.
Also, the more recent the online reviews of your business the better, with salons that had more than four “fresh” reviews (posted within the past 90 days) earning 30% more revenue, while those with 12 or more recent reviews in that time period earning 35% more.
The businesses that didn’t reply to any reviews earned 5% less revenue annually, the report found. It was also discovered that an above average number of reviews on Google had the largest positive impact on revenue of all review sites.
Response rates and negative reviews
Your response rate to reviews also matters when it comes to having a top-notch online reputation. More than three quarters (77%) of health and beauty businesses don’t respond to any reviews, which is a problem since those that replied to more than 25% of customer postings earned 20% more yearly revenue than those who didn’t.
It’s also ok to have negative online reviews about your business as customers expect to see authenticity in people’s verdict of your business – if it’s all good then they make think some are fake or written by family and friends.
Currently, a fifth (20%) of health and beauty businesses experience negative reviews but those that average 25% to 35% negative reviews earned 20% more than the average business.
The importance of claiming your free listings
Beauty business owners who claim their free listings on major review sites such as Google, Yelp, Facebook and TripAdvisor average 22% more annual revenue than businesses that haven’t claimed any, while those who have listings on at least three of the major sites earned 38% more yearly revenue too.
Google came out top as the most important free listing site for health and beauty businesses, with more customers using Google Maps to find nearby beauty salons in their local area than ever before.