Ask before they leave the chair: Google review NFC cards for barbers
Nobody is better placed to ask for a review than a barber, and hardly anyone does it. After twenty minutes of chat, with the client watching you in the mirror, all a Google review NFC card has to do is be within reach when the hand mirror goes up.
When they tip their chin to check the back
There is one exact second in every cut when asking is easy. It is when the gown is off, you are holding the hand mirror behind their head, and they tip their chin to look at the back. Whatever they think of it, they have just decided. That is the moment to ask, not at the door, not while you are sweeping up.
The reason it works is that the judgement has only just happened. Three minutes later at the till they are on their phone, finding their card, thinking about where they are going next. The opinion is still there but it has gone quiet. Ask while they are still in the chair and you are asking someone who is actively thinking about their hair.
That means the Google NFC card has to be at the chair before the cut starts. If you have to walk to the desk to get it, you will not bother, and the moment is gone by the time you come back.
Where the Google review NFC card actually lives in a barbershop
Barbers work from one spot all day. Everything you use is within arm's reach of the chair, and the card should be no different. The usual place is the station shelf, propped up against the mirror or leant against the bottles where you can pick it up with the same hand that is putting the mirror down.
Some barbers keep it in the front pocket of the apron with the combs and pull it out at the same time as the mirror. That works well because the card goes where you go, so a barber covering someone else's chair still has one on them.
The one place it should not be is the drawer under the station with the clipper guards. Anything in there has to be looked for, and nobody goes looking mid handover.
- Station shelf, stood up against the mirror, in your eyeline all day
- Apron pocket, so it moves with you between chairs
- One on the desk by the card machine for the ones who pay and leave quickly
- Not in a drawer, not under the till, not blu tacked to a wall behind you
- Not stuck flat to a steel station, where a phone may not pick it up
Twenty minutes of chat already did the hard part
Asking goes wrong when it is the last thing you say. At the desk the money, the thanks and the goodbye land in the same few seconds, so asking for a Google review on top of that sounds like one more thing being taken off them. Behind the chair you are still mid job.
What makes barbering different is that you are not asking cold. You have had a full conversation about the football, the stag do, the car he is trying to sell, whatever it was. You are not a stranger with a clipboard, you are the bloke who has been cutting for twenty minutes. Said at the end of that conversation, the ask lands as one more thing you said, not as a pitch.
Keep it to one sentence and get back to the brush. If they tap, good. If they put their coat on and walk out, leave it. Saying it a second time while they are at the door is what makes it feel like selling.
Ask everybody, not just the ones who look pleased
It is tempting to only hold the card out to the client who is grinning at the back of their head. Do not do it. Choosing the ones who smiled at the mirror is against Google's rules, and it also gives you a page that reads nothing like the shop.
Twenty Google reviews that all say great fade reads as fake. A shop that asks everyone gets the fade, the beard trim, the one about the lad who is good with kids, and that mix is what makes it believable. Fair criticism is worth having too. If more than one person mentions the wait on a Saturday, that is something nobody says to your face in the chair.
And never offer anything for it. No money off the next cut, no free beard trim, nothing. The bought one is the one that reads wrong to the next lad scrolling shops on his phone.
Regulars and walk ins are two different asks
A regular does not need asking every visit. Ask once, and if he says he has already done one, that is it, remember it. Google only counts one review per person, so the lad who is in every four weeks has already done his bit, and asking again is just nagging him for twenty minutes in the chair.
Walk ins are the opposite. You may never see them again, so the chair you are stood at right now is the only chance you get. It is also the most useful Google review you can get, because a walk in found you the same way the next person will, off a search or off the street. When a walk in writes about turning up without booking and how that went, they are speaking directly to the next person doing exactly that.
So if you are going to be selective about anything, be selective about who you ask a second time, never about who you ask at all.
Getting your name into the review
Barbering is unusually personal. People do not book a shop, they book Dave, and they will wait an extra half hour rather than sit in someone else's chair. That loyalty is the whole trade, and it barely shows up in your Google reviews unless somebody writes the name down.
So ask for it. A quick "stick my name in it if you don't mind" is not a demand and nobody minds. What it does is give the next person reading something to act on. They walk in already knowing who to ask for, which makes the desk's job easier.
For the owner, named reviews are the clearest read you will get on how the room is doing. You find out which chair people come back for and what they actually value about it, which is not always what you assumed.
When one barber asks and three do not
This is where most shops fall down. One barber is confident and asks everyone, the other three never mention it, and within a couple of months the reviews all name one person. The shop reads online like a one man operation with some staff.
The fix is boring, but it helps. Put a Google review card at every chair so nobody has to leave their station, and let each barber shape the line to how he actually talks, then say it to every client in his chair from the next cut on.
Cover it with new starters on the trial shift, alongside the sweeping and the towels, and it just becomes part of how the shop finishes a cut.
Chair renters, two shops and cards in aprons
Order your Google review NFC cards programmed, with your review link in the basket note, and they are ready to go straight on the stations. A chair renter who might be cutting somewhere else by the spring is better off with a blank card he writes himself with a free phone app in about a minute, and can rewrite when he moves on.
Two shops is two jobs, even with the same name over both windows, because each has its own Google listing. The barber version of that is staff covering both sites: a card in an apron is written for one listing, so on the days that barber is at the other shop it sends reviews to the wrong one. Keep branch cards on the stations, not in aprons.
Settle a chair renter before he starts: whether the NFC Google review card at his station points at the shop's listing or his own, because whichever it points at collects the reviews.
- One link per shop front, two shops with the same name are still two listings
- Blank cards suit chair renters and resellers who write their own
- Programmed cards suit a shop that wants every station covered from day one
- Tap it on your own phone before the first client, so you find out at the station not at the mirror
What to say once the gown is off
One go from behind the chair or over the desk, then back to the brush or the till. Not one of them asks for five stars.
- “That alright for you? Tap your phone on this before you're out the chair and say how it went, whatever you thought.”
- “Before I get the brush, give that a tap and tell people what you make of the fade.”
- “Desk line, while the machine's going: tap that and say how you got on. It just opens our Google page.”
- “If you do write one, stick my name in it, helps people know who to ask for.”
- “Walked in off the street, didn't you? Tap that and say whether turning up without booking worked out.”
How many NFC cards a three chair shop needs
One card per chair, plus one on the desk by the card machine, plus a couple of spares. For a three chair shop that is five or six. The reason is simple: a barber will only use the Google NFC review card if it is already within reach of the station, because nobody is walking to the till mid handover. The desk card catches the clients who pay and go quickly, and gives whoever is on the desk something to point at rather than a speech to make. Keep a spare for the day a barber goes home with one in his apron. If you rent chairs out, work on the basis that each barber wants their own rather than sharing.
Google review card questions from behind the chair
Four mates are booked in back to back. Do I ask each one?
What if a client's phone is in their coat on the hook?
Who do I ask when a child is in the chair?
Can I tell which barber's card a review came from?
Packs for one chair or the whole shop
The 10 pack of Google review NFC cards covers a three or four chair shop: one per station, one by the card machine and a couple of spares.
1 card
£7.50
£7.50 a card
For a chair renter, or to try it.
10 cards
£50
£5 a card
Every chair, the desk and spares.
50 cards
£185
£3.70 a card
Four to seven shops, each with its own cards.
100 cards
£300
£3 a card
For barber chains and resellers selling to shops.
Supplying cards to other shops? Trade pricing starts at 50 cards.
Away from the barber's chair
The next lad choosing a barber on his phone reads what your last lot of clients wrote. Keep a Google review NFC card next to the hand mirror and asking is only ever one sentence away.