A review and a complaint solve two different problems. Here’s exactly where each one actually belongs.
Feedback and complaints get treated like the same thing half the time, but they’re solving different problems. A review tells the world — and future customers — what your experience was like. A complaint tells the business directly, in hopes something actually changes or gets fixed. Both matter. Neither works well if you’re using the wrong channel for what you’re actually trying to accomplish.
Know Which One You Actually Want
You want a fix
Refund, redo, or direct resolution — that’s a complaint. It needs to go somewhere the salon or corporate can respond and act: a phone call, an email, a direct message.
You want it on record
Warning or informing future customers, or just documenting the experience — that’s a review. It belongs on a platform others will actually see before booking.
A lot of people do both, in this order: complain directly first to try to get it resolved, then leave a review reflecting how that attempt went. That sequence tends to produce the most useful review anyway — “they made it right” or “they never responded” is exactly the detail future customers want to know.
Leaving a Review: Where It Actually Counts
The most visible option — it shows up directly on the salon’s map listing. Search the specific location, open its business listing, and post from a signed-in Google account. Make sure you’re reviewing the exact salon you visited, not a nearby one with a similar name.
Yelp
Still a strong second option in areas where people check it before trying somewhere new. Search the salon, open its Yelp page, and submit. New or low-activity accounts sometimes get filtered temporarily — that’s a platform quirk, not something you did wrong.
If the specific salon runs an active page, a review there tends to reach a more local, community-based audience than a broader search platform would.
ConsumerAffairs & aggregator sites
These collect reviews at the brand level rather than per-salon, with heavier identity verification. More useful for spotting brand-wide patterns than for a single-location experience.
What Makes a Review Actually Useful
A star rating alone helps almost no one. Reviews that genuinely help future customers — and that businesses can actually learn from — include specifics: which salon, roughly when, what happened, and how it was handled if you raised it at the time. “Bad haircut” tells the next person nothing. “Asked for a trim, got two inches off unevenly during a rushed Saturday visit” tells them exactly what to watch for. Positive reviews benefit from the same specificity — naming the stylist, describing what actually went well.
Filing a Complaint: Getting an Actual Response
Start with the salon
This is almost always the fastest path to resolution, for one structural reason: every Great Clips location is independently owned and operated. Corporate sets brand standards, but the salon itself usually has the authority to offer a redo, credit, or refund on the spot. A calm, specific complaint in person or by phone tends to resolve faster than people expect.
Escalate to corporate customer service
If the salon can’t resolve it
- Phone: 1-800-473-2825
- Email: customerservice@greatclips.com
- Online: the contact/support section of greatclips.com
Bring the same specifics you’d give the salon directly — location, date, and a clear account of what happened. Because of the franchise structure, corporate’s role is often to log the complaint and pass it to the franchise owner rather than resolve it directly, so don’t be surprised if the follow-up comes from the salon owner rather than headquarters. That’s normal, not a sign it was ignored.
File with the Better Business Bureau if needed
If neither the salon nor corporate gets you anywhere, a BBB complaint creates a formal written record and often prompts a response a phone call alone doesn’t. Search for the specific salon or the Great Clips corporate profile on bbb.org and file with the same details: location, date, what happened, and what resolution you’re looking for.
A Simple Template If You’re Not Sure What to Write
- Where and when. The specific salon location and roughly when you visited.
- What you asked for. A short description of what you wanted.
- What actually happened. The specific outcome, described plainly.
- How it was handled, if you raised it. Fixed, ignored, or handled well.
- Would you go back, and why. The single most useful line for the next reader.
A complaint follows almost the same shape, just sent privately: what happened, when and where, and what resolution you’re hoping for.
If the Business Responds
Many salons, including individual Great Clips franchisees, do respond publicly to reviews, especially negative ones. If you get a reply asking you to reach out directly, it’s usually worth taking them up on it rather than leaving things stuck in a public comment thread. If they follow through and fix it, updating your original review to reflect that is fair to the business and genuinely useful to future readers — an updated “they reached out and fixed it” note often matters more than the original complaint alone.
Reviews and complaints work best together. A complaint gives the salon or corporate a real chance to fix things directly. A review, whatever the outcome, gives the next customer honest information instead of a guess. Do both, with enough specific detail to actually be useful — that’s what gets you the fastest resolution and leaves the most helpful record behind.
