What one review taught me about wellbeing, boundaries and the people behind small
businesses.
By Julia Ball, Owner of Tonic Day Spa
Whilst recently taking some much-needed time away with my husband, I received a
notification that every small business owner dreads – ⭐ ONE STAR Google review.
Like many business owners, I immediately stopped what I was doing and read it.
My first thought wasn’t anger. It was concern.
Had one of our therapists had a bad day? Had we let someone down? Was there something we needed to learn from? Could we improve our service?
As salon owners, we genuinely care. Every review matters because every client has placed
their trust in us. We don’t just provide treatments; we provide experiences that are often deeply personal, and we never stop striving to improve.
What surprised me was that this particular review had nothing to do with the treatment received, the therapist, the cleanliness of the salon or the overall experience.
It was because an email sent at 10:40pm on a Saturday evening hadn’t been answered
before we reopened on Monday afternoon.
And it got me thinking.
Not about one review.
But about what reviews really say.
At Tonic Day Spa, everything we do is centred around wellbeing.
Whether we’re helping ease muscular pain, improving someone’s confidence in their skin, relieving stress or simply giving someone an hour to themselves, our purpose has always been to help people feel better than when they walked through our doors.
We encourage our clients to slow down.
We encourage them to switch off.
We encourage them to spend time with family.
We encourage them to rest, recover and prioritise themselves.
So isn’t it ironic that, in a world where we talk so much about mental health, burnout and work-life balance, there is still an expectation that small business owners should always be available.
At Tonic, we’ve made a conscious decision to protect our teams wellbeing just as fiercely as we encourage our clients to protect theirs.
Our therapists deserve evenings with their families.
They deserve weekends away from work.
They deserve holidays where they aren’t checking emails or worrying about online reviews.
Because therapists who are rested, supported and happy provide better care.
Looking after our team isn’t poor customer service.It’s one of the reasons we can provide great customer service.
Most people only see the review they’ve written.
What they don’t see is what happens afterwards.
Reviews arrive on our phones.
They appear whilst we’re having dinner.
They interrupt family time.
They pop up during holidays.
They become conversations between our team.
Every therapist wonders if they did something wrong.
As a business owner, you replay situations in your mind. You question yourself. You ask
whether there’s something you could have done differently.
That’s because we care.
We love reviews. The wonderful ones make our day. The constructive ones help us grow.
Every star tells a story.
⭐ ONE STAR – When something has gone seriously wrong
A genuine one-star review absolutely has its place. If a treatment was unsafe,
unprofessional, unhygienic or left someone genuinely dissatisfied, businesses need to know. Those reviews help us improve.
However, when a one-star review reflects frustration with business policies, opening hours or expectations outside the service itself, it tells a very different story and can
unintentionally mislead future clients about the experience they can expect.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ FOUR STARS – Help us understand why
Many clients simply don’t like giving five stars because they feel nothing is ever perfect. We understand that.
However, Google doesn’t see it that way.
Every four-star review gradually lowers a business’s overall rating. Over years, that can
reduce a reputation that has taken decades to build.
If your experience genuinely wasn’t five stars, please tell us why. Honest feedback allows us to improve our systems, our training and the experience for every future client.
Five stars doesn’t mean we’re perfect.
They mean we delivered the experience we promised. They boost morale, reassure our
therapists, help new clients trust us and make a genuine difference to a small independent business.
Behind every review is another human being reading it.
At Tonic Day Spa, we aren’t a faceless company. We’re a small team who care deeply about what we do.
Every day we help people relax, recover, feel confident and prioritise their own wellbeing.
All I ask is that, in return, people remember ours too.
We’ll always welcome honest feedback.
We’ll always listen.
We’ll always learn.
We’ll always strive to improve.
But we’ll also continue protecting the wellbeing of the people who spend every day looking after yours.
Because in a profession built on caring for others, we believe caring for our own team should never be seen as a weakness.
It should be seen as one of our greatest strengths.
