As part of their Survey on the Spot mobile application, On the Spot Systems, a mobile systems provider based in Boston, recently rolled out a custom-branded and designed survey tailored for salons and spas.

With this app, iPhone users can give feedback about their salon/spa experience while they are literally in the chair getting their hair colored or their nails filed.

The Survey on the Spot app has been used in restaurants already and On the Spot Systems’ CEO thinks it will be a great success in the salon/spa environment where business so heavily relies on customer satisfaction and feedback. A popular Boston salon has already announced its partnership with a custom Survey on the Spot survey which launches this month.

So what happens when a customer is sitting in the chair and through the software says, “I have no idea what this person is doing to my hair right now but I am pretty confident they don’t have a clue either,” or something of the like? Perhaps the consensus is that business owners with any doubt whatsoever about their product would never use the software, hence proving that those who do must have a pretty darn good product (or a lot of confidence) in what they’re selling.

The potential for better quality experiences that could come from something like this is immense. There’s no better motivation to shape up your act than when people start sharing bad experiences, and also no better motivation to keep up the hard work when people are sharing good ones.

Take the recent implementation of letter grades in NYC restaurants for example. Restaurants across the city started being reviewed and given letter grades of A, B, or C, all of which are showcased to clientele, displaying how strictly they adhere to health and safety standards. When some popular restaurants received a C mark, they rushed to the nearest Health Department rep to beg for mercy. Why? Not because this would eventually spread across the community, but because it immediately would.

The Internet and mobile devices have made it impossible to keep such news from going viral. When your once loyal following is suddenly filing a slew of bad reviews about your establishment, how will you answer back?