01
Asks in hours, not days
The completed appointment triggers the text while she is still checking her brows in the car mirror. That window is most of the difference between a 10% and a 30% response.
Review automation for salons
More five-star reviews. More new clients in the chair.
Your happiest clients would leave a review if anyone asked. Acumen asks for you — one text after every appointment, in your own words — so you never have to turn a paying client into a favour.
- First month free
- No contract
- We set it up for you
Appointment completed
Priya · brow threading · 2h ago
Sent for you, in your words
“Hi Priya! It's Richa — could you share a short review about your visit today? It really helps my small business.”
Never reviewed before
Cleared to send
New review
★★★★★
Reply drafted · awaiting approval
Never asks twice
Richa's Threading Salon · the first Acumen salon
See it month by month~22
reviews a year for twelve years, before Acumen
+67
new reviews in five months · 270 → 337
28
in the first month it ran on its own
5.0
average rating across every review it earned
Why good salons have quiet listings
Nobody wants to ask a client for a favour.
You just charged her for an hour of your work. Asking her to go home and write about it feels like asking for something extra — so it comes out apologetic at the desk, or it doesn't come out at all. Then the week gets busy and it stops entirely. Your rating ends up reflecting who happened to be asked, not how good you are.
Richa, asking by hand
27 texts in two busy months
6 reviews
Richa, with Acumen on
130 texts in one month, sent for her
28 reviews
Her real numbers, Jan–Feb 2026 against March 2026. Nothing about the salon changed except who did the asking.
What you actually get
The asking, the answering, and the judgement in between.
Most tools just fire a text at everyone who walks out. The value is in the decisions around it — who should never be asked, who should be routed away from Google, and what to say back when a review lands.
02
Never asks the same client twice
Your existing reviewers are matched and permanently excluded, with a 90-day cooldown behind that. The client who already wrote you five stars never gets nagged for a sixth.
03
An unhappy client reaches you first
The text asks how the visit went before it asks for anything public. If it fell short, she lands on a private form that comes to you — a problem you can fix, instead of a review you have to answer.
04
Every review answered in your voice
Each new review comes back with a warm, specific draft reply already written. Approve it in a tap — or once the drafts have earned it, let them post on their own. You decide, per salon.
05
You can see exactly what it earned
Requests sent, reviews gained, rating over time, and which services clients praise by name. One dashboard, one weekly summary, no reporting to build.
06
It reads like you, because it is you
Your name, your services, your tone — approved by you before a single message goes out. Clients read a note from their salon owner, which is exactly what it is.
Richa's Threading Salon · Parkville, MD
Twelve years of reviews. Then five months.
Richa built about 270 Google reviews over twelve years — roughly 22 a year, arriving on their own. In the five months after Acumen went live she added 67 more, and every one of them was five stars. The interesting part is not the total. It is which months they arrived in.
Month by month
Manual asking faded. Automation did not.
Nov – Dec 2025
Manual mode. Richa pressed send herself while the habit was new.
29 reviews
Jan – Feb 2026
The salon got busy. 27 texts went out in two months. The asking quietly stopped.
6 reviews
March 2026
Auto-send switched on. 130 texts sent themselves. Richa did nothing.
28 reviews
Richa's Threading Salon, Nov 2025 – Mar 2026, measured from her own Google listing and send logs. Your numbers depend on visit volume, how many clients have already reviewed you, and how many phone numbers are on file.
See what your salon is leaving on the table
Free, takes us a day, no call required.
Pricing
The first month is free. Then you decide.
Not a trial with a card on file and a date you have to remember to cancel. We set the whole thing up, run it for a month, and at the end you have your own number — requests sent, reviews gained, rating moved. If that number is worth paying for, we talk about price. If it isn't, we switch it off and you owe nothing.
What you pay in month one
Nothing
Setup, message wording, Google connection, and the sending itself — all included.
What you do in month one
One call
Twenty minutes to approve how the message sounds. After that there is nothing on your list.
No contract, no notice period, no cancellation fee — ever, not just in month one
Clients who already reviewed you are excluded from the first day
Nothing sends until you have read and approved the wording
We never publish your salon's results without asking you first
One appointment, one clean loop
Four steps you will never have to think about.
01
The visit ends
We read your calendar and see the appointment marked complete. Nothing to log, tick, or export.
02
The ask goes out
Once the suppression checks clear, one short text goes out in your voice — never to someone who already reviewed you.
03
The answer is routed
Happy clients go straight to your Google listing in one tap. Anyone who is not goes to a private form that reaches you instead.
04
The reply is ready
The new review arrives with a draft response in your tone, plus a weekly summary of what moved.
Pairs with Erica
The same care, one step earlier.
Erica is Acumen's AI receptionist. She answers the calls your team cannot take, books supported appointments directly in Phorest, and confirms the client by text. Review automation picks up where she leaves off — the appointment she booked becomes the review you earn.
Meet Erica
One client, end to end
01
Erica answers the call
Saturday 11:04 AM · every chair busy
02
Appointment booked and confirmed
Saturday 2:30 PM · stylist notified
03
Review requested after the visit
Reply drafted for your approval
Before you ask us
The questions salon owners actually ask.
Cost, spam, bad reviews, approvals, and what it puts on your plate each week. Straight answers, no call required.
What does it cost? +
The first month is free, setup included, with no card on file. At the end of it you have your own numbers and you decide whether to carry on — and we quote you then, based on your visit volume. For context, the platforms built for multi-location chains run $299–$599 a month before add-ons. We are not built for chains, and we are not priced like them.
Will my clients feel spammed? +
Each client is asked once. Anyone who has already left you a review is permanently suppressed, and a 90-day cooldown sits behind that. One short text, no follow-up chain, and opt-outs are honoured immediately. This is the rule we are strictest about, because your client list is worth more than any review.
What happens if a client had a bad visit? +
The text asks how the visit went before it asks for anything public. A client who says it fell short is taken to a private feedback form that reaches you directly. Nobody is blocked from leaving a public review if they want to — the private route is simply offered first, so you hear about the problem while you can still fix it.
What if I already have a lot of reviews? +
That usually helps. We match your existing reviewers and exclude them, so requests go only to the clients who have never been asked — which in most salons is the large majority of the book. Richa had 270 reviews before we started and still found 67 more in five months.
Do I have to approve every review reply? +
Your choice. Every new review comes back with a draft written in your voice. Approve them one at a time from the dashboard, or once the drafts have earned your trust, let the straightforward ones post on their own. You can change your mind either way, whenever you like.
Do I need Phorest? +
Phorest is live today. Other booking systems are scoped with you before anything starts. The requirement is simple: if your system can tell us an appointment was completed, Acumen can take it from there.
How much work is this for me every week? +
None, by design. Requests send themselves off completed appointments. The only recurring owner action is reading a weekly summary — and glancing at reply drafts, if you have chosen to approve them yourself. Richa's best month was the one she did nothing in.
How long until I see new reviews? +
Usually within the first week, because you are asking people who just left the chair. The compounding shows across the first full month, once every completed appointment is flowing through — which is exactly why the free month is a month and not a week.
Free review gap
Find out what your listing is costing you.
Send us your Google listing and we will come back with the real picture: how many reviews you have, what comparable salons in your area carry, and — based on your visit volume — roughly how many reviews a month are going unasked. It is free, it takes us about a day, and there is no call unless you want one.
A real analysis of your listing, not an automated score
Yours to keep, whether or not you ever work with us
No sales sequence — one reply from a person
If you like it, the first month of Acumen is free
Got it — we're on it.
We'll look at your listing and email your review gap within a day. One reply, from a person, no sequence.
While you wait, see Richa's numbersNot ready for that?