How a Valencia hair salon doubled its Google Maps reviews in 5 months

A new chain, 200 reviews in weeks

Silvia Torres has run Peluquería Silvia, a four-station salon in Valencia's Ruzafa neighbourhood, for six years. Loyal customers, reasonable prices, a waiting list on Saturdays.

When a national chain opened two streets away, Silvia noticed something worrying: within weeks, the new franchise had accumulated over 200 Google Maps reviews. Her salon had 31 reviews with an average of 4.3★.

"I couldn't understand how they had so many reviews so quickly when they'd just opened. Then I realised they had a system. I'd spent six years trusting my clients to do it on their own," Silvia explains.

The problem was clear: in Google Maps searches for "hair salon Valencia" or "hairdresser Ruzafa", the new chain appeared first. Volume had outweighed years of accumulated quality.

Why email doesn't work for hair salons

Before trying ReseñasYa, Silvia had attempted to request reviews by email. The result was discouraging: of every 100 emails sent, approximately 10 clients opened the message, and barely 1 or 2 left a review.

"The problem with email is people open it when they're at their computer, not when they've got their phone in their hand and are in the mood to do something. By the time they reach the computer, they've forgotten," she reflects.

With ReseñasYa and WhatsApp, the response rate to the first message jumped to 68%. Of those positive responses, more than half ended up leaving a Google Maps review.

The system: WhatsApp at checkout

Silvia integrated ReseñasYa into the checkout process. When a client paid, the receptionist noted their name and phone number if not already registered. The WhatsApp message went out that same afternoon.

The message asked how the service had gone. If the response was positive, the system sent the review link with a warm, natural message.

A key factor: recency. Google rewards businesses that receive reviews consistently and recently. Accumulating 100 reviews in a week and then stopping doesn't work.

"Before, in a great week I might get two or three reviews. With the system, it's eight to twelve a week, consistently," Silvia says.

The results

At 2 months

The salon had gone from 31 to 83 reviews with an average of 4.7★. The gap with the competitor chain had narrowed considerably in terms of rating, though the volume was still lower.

At 5 months

Peluquería Silvia had 140 reviews and an average of 4.8★. It had overtaken the chain in the local Google Maps search for "hairdresser Ruzafa". For broader searches like "hair salon Valencia", it also appeared above in several results.

New client traffic from Google Maps increased noticeably. Silvia attributes part of the growth to the fact that recent reviews mentioned specific techniques like balayage or keratin treatment, reinforcing her relevance for those specific searches.

Recency as a competitive advantage

One of the key lessons from Silvia's case is that the recency of reviews matters as much as volume.

A chain that received 200 reviews in its first month but then stopped asking actively starts losing ground to a business receiving 10 new reviews every week consistently.

Google interprets recent activity as a relevance signal. A business with reviews from this week appears more active and trustworthy than one whose last review was three months ago.

Conclusion

Peluquería Silvia's story shows that large chains have an advantage in resources, but not necessarily in the relationship with their customers. An independent salon that activates a review collection system can match and surpass franchises with far bigger budgets.

WhatsApp isn't just the most effective channel — it's the channel that most closely resembles how customers already communicate with their favourite businesses.