Two salons, identical 4.9 stars - I could still only pick one

Hello lovely,

Still deep in my hair spa research mission (yes, it's official now - I'm calling it that), and this week it landed me in a genuinely annoying spot.

I had two salons shortlisted for my next visit. Both a few km from each other. Both sitting on a clean 4.9 stars. Both with well over a hundred reviews. On paper, identical. I could not decide.

So I did what I've started doing with everything lately - I stopped looking at the stars and actually read the reviews.

Salon A's reviews all sounded the same: “Amazing!” “Best salon ever!” “So relaxing!” Lovely to read. Told me absolutely nothing.

Salon B's read differently: “Booked in for the scalp treatment and blow wave before a wedding, my scalp hadn't felt that good in months and the blow wave held for three days in humidity.”
“Went in nervous about grey coverage, (therapist name) talked me through the whole plan before we even started.”

Guess which one I booked.

Same star rating. Same number of reviews. Completely different amount of information - and it was the information that decided it, not the stars.

Now here's the part that stopped me mid-scroll.

If that's what tipped a human sitting there with two minutes and a coffee, think about what it does to an AI tool. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI to recommend a spa nearby, it isn't counting your stars. It's reading what your reviews actually say - which services get mentioned, which results get mentioned, whether real detail shows up again and again. A wall of “amazing, highly recommend” gives it nothing to work with. It moves on to the business whose reviews it can actually use.

Two weeks ago I gave you Foundation Element 1 from the Masterclass - how your business is listed, everywhere. This week, it's time for Foundation Element 2. (not giving anymore after today as that is why you should be in the marketing masterclass!!!!!)

Foundation Element 2: What your reviews actually say - not how many you have.

Most of us are still asking for reviews the old way: “Please leave us a review!” It's polite, and it's exactly why so many of our reviews read like Salon A's - generic, warm, and useless to anyone (human or AI) trying to work out what you're actually good at.

The fix is a one-line change to how you ask. Instead of the generic request, try: “Would you mind sharing which treatment you had and what you noticed afterwards?” That's it. That single prompt is what turns “amazing!” into “my scalp hadn't felt that good in months” - the kind of detail both people and AI tools can actually use to choose you.

The second half of this one costs nothing but a few minutes a day: reply to every review, good and bad, within a day or two. The research is consistent - businesses that respond to all their reviews are trusted and chosen far more often than ones that go quiet, and it's another signal that tells AI tools this is an active, real, well-run business.

HubSpot has a good breakdown of exactly why this matters for AI search specifically if you want to go deeper.

So here's my question for you this week:

Pull up your last ten reviews right now. If a stranger or an AI tool read only those, would they know exactly what to book you for? Or would every single one just say “lovely, highly recommend”?

Go check. Then go change the one line you use to ask for the next one.

Have a wonderful weekend rockstars!

Lots of love,

Marisa

P.S. That's two of four. Two weeks running, one small check has sent you back into your own listings - first, then your reviews. Imagine what the other two would do. These are exactly the foundations we rebuilt properly inside the Masterclass, and what now lives permanently in the Club portal.

P.P.S. Completely different question, and I want you to actually think about it rather than skim past it: do you find that some of your therapists are just naturally brilliant at retail, and others genuinely aren't - and if you're honest, do you actually know why? Because it isn't as simple as “she speaks well.” Something else is going on there. Here's the bigger one: what would it do to your business model if retail made up 50% of your total turnover, not whatever it sits at now? Do you actually think that's possible? Most owners I ask say no. It is but only with an actual model behind it, not talent and hope.