I was recently staying in a hotel in Waterloo and wanted to find a local hairdresser to help sort my unruly locks. I put the hotel postcode into Google maps and searched for local places. It came up with about 8 suggestions. I looked at all the Google reviews for the nearest ones and clicked through to their websites to get some more info. There were some really good reviews for a nice looking place just near the hotel. So far so good.

So from a standing start I had spent a good 10 minutes looking at all my options and literally found this company based on Google alone. Must be a pretty cheap conversion and they didn’t even have to waste any other money on me to try and convince me to try their salon.

I then called them to make an appointment – the phone rang and rang and there wasn’t even an answer phone to take a message. I tried them again later that day and it just rang and rang. I tried a couple of times and eventually ran out of patience and just went with the number 2 option on my list.

Just goes to show, you can have all the best search and review mechanisms in place, but if your staff can’t perform the simple task of manning the phones and taking calls, who knows what additional sales will pass you by.