This article will show you how to make Online Reputation work for your business.
Online Reputation is a great way to boost your presence online, see all of your reviews in one place, and even respond to them directly using this tool!
First Steps!
First, you will need to Set up your Reviews. Once this is done, you can get started setting up Online Reputation.
In this Article
Setting Up Online Reputation
Online Reputation is a dashboard in the Marketing section of Phorest that pulls in all your reviews from Google, Facebook & Yelp. You can respond directly from this feature back to your client's reviews (which is recommended) & they're prompted to leave their 5-star Phorest review online.
Note: Online Reputation is managed through Phorest on your desktop computer and unavailable in PhorestGo.
The first step is to connect your social media accounts.
Go Marketing > Online Reputation.
Next, connect your account(s) by clicking Connect.
Yelp is no longer available in Online Reputation due to changes made by Yelp
You don't need to connect every account for Online Reputation to work. You only need to connect at least one.
You'll need to sign in to the Facebook account associated with your business account and likewise with your Google Business account.
How to set up a Google Business Account
Auto Boost Reviews
By default, your clients will automatically be prompted to share their 4 or 5-star reviews to Google, Facebook or Yelp. You can adjust the message and the auto-boost settings by clicking the Auto Boost Reviews button.
First, your client will be asked to leave a review through the regular Reviews Email/SMS prompt.
Then, after clicking Submit Review, they will immediately be prompted to share that review on Google/Facebook/Yelp (provided their review meets your Auto Boost settings).
The client's review will automatically be copied for them, and they will have to click paste, or they can rewrite it if they prefer.
Online Reputation will only prompt clients to share a review on one channel. The channel priority order is Google, then Yelp, then Facebook. For example, if you have your Google & Facebook accounts connected, Online Reputation will prompt clients to share their reviews on Google. To prompt for Facebook, you must disconnect Google by clicking the settings button (cogwheel icon) next to Email Clients.
Any reviews you receive (including reviews that weren't left through Phorest) will be shown automatically on your Online Reputation dashboard.
You are encouraged to respond by pressing the Respond button on the right-hand side of the page. Try to respond to the bad reviews, too (hopefully, you won't have many of them!), as this shows you are open to growing in areas clients were not happy with. Based on where the review was posted, you will see the response to it, i.e. if the review were posted on Google, you would see your response come from your Google account.
Automatic Review Posting
Why don't my reviews automatically go to Google, Facebook or Yelp?
You won't be able to post reviews for a client. This is what makes reviews so valuable! The client is redirected after they've given a 4 or 5-star (depending on your selected option) Phorest review & brought to your Google or Facebook review box. They then paste their review, select the stars & click paste. Clients do this willingly because they are happy with the service.
Targeting Past Clients Who Left Reviews
Can I target past clients who left a 5-star Phorest review?
Yes, you can do this by clicking Email Clients within Online Reputation. You likely won't use this feature often because the auto-boosting will reach most of your clients, but it is a great way to target past clients who gave a 5-star review. You can also use it if the salon feels they haven’t received a review in quite a while or received a negative review on one of these platforms.
To send this email, click Email Clients -> Choose the template you want to use in the Email Template dropdown. The settings automatically target clients who have left at least 2 5-star reviews in the last 3 months. Change the 2 to a 1 to increase the client base and go back to 4 or 5 months. Click Send to send the email.
It is not currently possible to edit these templates.
Responding to a Review
After a client has left a review, you can click the Respond button to reply to it. The reply will automatically be posted to the page where the review was left.
You can only respond to a review once with your Phorest system. If you want to continue replying to the client, you can reply via your Facebook/Google/Yelp page.
To learn about more areas like this in your Phorest system, enroll in our Online Reputation Manager - Get More 5-Star Reviews course in Phorest Academy - online, on-demand, and on-the-go learning for busy salon professionals.