Hair Salon Google Reviews: How to Get More

Search "hair salon Dublin" and count the reviews on the top 5 results. It's almost never under 150. The salon at position 11 has 28. That gap is the entire game.

You don't need 1,000 reviews. You need more than the salon down the road, a 4.6+ average, and recent ones. Here's the plan.

The baseline: where most Irish salons get stuck

A typical independent salon in Ireland has 20–60 Google reviews after 3+ years in business. That's because "asking for reviews" usually means:

• A small sign by the till nobody reads
• Saying it once when the client is distracted paying
• A Facebook post every six months

Ranking at the top of local search needs systematic asking, and it needs to be dead easy for the client to follow through.

The ask that actually works

The single best moment to ask for a review is 2–4 hours after the appointment. Why? They've had time to see the result, maybe gotten a compliment, and they're glowing about it. Asking at the desk while they're pulling out a card gets you a "yeah, sure" and nothing.

The format:

"Hi Sarah! Really enjoyed doing your colour today — hope you love it. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review would mean the world to the salon. Here's the direct link: [link]. Thanks so much!"

Send it by SMS, not email. SMS open rates are 95%+, email is 20%.

The direct link is critical. "Search for us on Google" loses 80% of people. A one-tap Google review link loses almost nobody.

Automate or it doesn't happen

You'll forget. Your team will forget. Every time you forget, that's a review you don't get.

Set up a simple rule: every completed appointment triggers an SMS at (appointment end time) + 3 hours asking for a review. That's it. Don't send to clients who had problems — flag those manually and handle differently.

Chairpilot does this automatically as part of its retention flow — the same AI that handles rebooking also sends the review ask at the right moment, and knows not to pester someone who's already left one.

The private-first trick for problem clients

Not every client will be happy. Before the public review ask, run a quick private one:

"Quick one — on a scale of 1–10 how was your appointment today?"

• 9 or 10: follow up with the Google link
• 7 or 8: follow up asking what could've been better (and quietly fix it, no public link)
• 6 or below: reach out personally, apologise, offer a fix

This isn't about hiding bad reviews. It's about making sure feedback lands in the right place. Genuine complaints get handled in private where you can actually solve them. Public reviews stay above 4.6.

Handling the occasional bad review

You'll get bad ones. Sometimes fair, sometimes ridiculous. The reply rules:

• Reply within 24 hours
• Never argue the facts in public
• Acknowledge the feeling, take it offline: "Hi Jane, sorry to hear this — we'd love to understand what happened. Can you email the salon directly at [email] so we can make it right?"
• Don't delete it. Don't report it unless it's genuinely fake.

A calm reply to a bad review often sells more than a dozen 5-stars. It shows future clients you're a grown-up business.

What to do with the photos

Every 5-star review is content. With permission:

• Screenshot and post to stories
• Use in a carousel post monthly: "What clients said in March"
• Print the best ones and frame them at the desk

Reviews beget reviews. When clients see other people reviewing, they're more likely to do it themselves.

Ninety-day goal

Set a concrete target. "Get from 40 reviews to 120 in 90 days." If you ask every client (automated), and even 15% follow through, you'll hit it easily with a typical Irish salon's weekly bookings.

Once you're past 150 reviews with a 4.7+ average, you start outranking competitors with deeper pockets. It's one of the highest-ROI things you can do.

Try Chairpilot free for 7 days →