This article outlines all of the features of the Online Reputation tool, and how you can make it 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 with 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 is not available in PhorestGo.
The first step is to connect your social media accounts.
Go Marketing > Online Reputation
Next, connect your account(s) by clicking Connect.
You don't need to connect every account for Online Reputation to work. You only need to connect at least one.
You will need to sign in to the Facebook account associated with your business account and likewise with the Yelp and Google Business accounts.
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 just have to click paste or they can rewrite it if they prefer.
Important to note that 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 review on Google. To prompt for Facebook you must disconnect Google by clicking on 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, ie if the review was posted on Google you will see your response come from your Google account.
Automatic Review Posting
Why don't my reviews automatically go to Google, Facebook or Yelp?
You are not able to post reviews on behalf of 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
Is there a way I can 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 are automatically set to 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.
Note: You can only respond to a review once with your Phorest system. If you need 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.