10 January 2023
Sick of clients telling you they’ll rebook later? Looking for another way to increase your salon revenue in the next 12 months? Here’s your in-depth guide to salon rebookings, with doable tips to help you get more clients returning for treatment this year.
Last time we checked, hair and skin need regular maintenance and most people want to be in the salon several times a year.
In the 21st century, you have SO many options available to make sure you get more clients back in YOUR salon seat, it’s almost criminal if your rebooking rate isn’t somewhere up around the 60% mark.
…So long as you know how.
Grab a cuppa, take ten and read this guide to increasing your salon rebooking rate over the next few months.
Your rebooking rate isn’t quite as simple as a client coming to your salon and then returning some time in the future. If you really want to make your salon a success you need to get down into the nitty gritty, which means giving yourself some strict targets to achieve.
So when we talk about your rebooking rate, we mean a client booking their next appointment within 24 hours of the last one.
60% of your clients should be booking their next appointment within 24 hours of their last one.
Being a salon software company, you can probably guess, we’ve got a good idea of who’s doing what when it comes to rebooking. These statistics make some pretty interesting reading, and they form the basis of why we think you should be aiming for 60%.
So we think a target rebooking rate of 60% makes sense – it’s clearly achievable, we’ve seen plenty of salon owners succeed far above that level, and we know how to make it happen.
In this article, we’ll draw on the experiences of real-life salon owners to show you exactly how you can overhaul your rebookings and get your clients back in the seat more next year – even if they don’t rebook while they’re in the salon. Keep reading.
When you’re running a salon, you’ve got a number of different ways available to you to up your revenues.
You could increase your bookings and your rebookings, you could look at your average customer spend, you could work on your referrals or your reactivations – or if you’re smart you could even reduce your no-shows.
But if you’re REALLY smart and you want to smash your growth targets for the year, you can do all of these things.
And the beauty is, each area can feed into the others. Increasing your rebookings won’t just mean you’ve got more opportunity to increase your average customer spend – you’ll improve your relationship with that client too, which means they’ll be more likely to refer you!
It’s a glossy circle to salon success – and we’re going to show you how to make it happen.
(SalonIQ software supports salon owners to slam-dunk their targets in every growth area every year – if you’d like a free, no-strings-attached demo, click here.)
Let a client fall outside of that circle though, and you’re running a risk. Chasing new business is crucial if you really want your salon business to grow this year, but don’t let that be your sole focus. If you can crack rebookings too, you can save time and money on marketing and increase your revenues this year.
Your clients are going to need to repeat their treatment some time – if they’re not rebooking with you during their appointment, there’s nothing stopping them from booking with your competitor instead next time their split ends need doing.
But my team don’t like rebooking clients…
Too pushy? Too “salesy”? Quite a few salon owners tell us their staff don’t like the idea of rebooking clients during an appointment and seem to let it fall by the wayside as a result.
Thing is, booking the next appointment before your client leaves your salon is actually probably what your client is expecting.
Even more importantly, when you ask about the next appointment, you don’t just fill another slot in your calendar, you show your client that you care that they keep getting the same fantastic treatment you’ve just given them.
It’s a great way for your staff to build rapport and develop relationships with your clients, rather than letting your receptionist reel out the awkward old chestnut, “can I book your next appointment?”
Sometimes, all it takes is a team meeting or two, focused on rebookings to help your staff understand why they’re so important. After all, it’s a win-win strategy – for the client, for the business, for the team.
The benefits of rebooking clients in your salon
For the team
For the business
For the client
In a mo, we’ll take you through our step-by-step guide to increasing your salon rebookings over the next year. Doesn’t hurt to show you that these tips do actually work though, so here’s what a couple of our clients have said about using our support to increase their salon rebookings…
“SalonIQ works well with our team to ensure our rebooking rates stay above 70%, using the system we can send out personalised marketing campaigns to ensure our clients are rebooking back in within x amount of weeks of their previous appointment.
“We regularly run campaigns with £5 off when a client rebooks an appointment which works very well for us.
“I also incentivise my team members to ensure they reach the minimum of 70% with extra if they hit 80%.”
“My team and I always encourage our clients to rebook at the end of their appointment and SalonIQ helps with this massively.
“It shows us if they have not rebooked when we finalise their payment, and we then say to the client would you like the same time in x amount of weeks.
“We know that when clients get home from their appointments, they’re busy so they forget to rebook so we always encourage them to do this before they leave the salon.”
When it comes to rebooking, the most important place to start is in your salon, where you’ve got the best chance of converting the client into a return visit.
When they’re admiring the luscious new locks in the mirror and feeling full of the salon experience, THAT’s when you want to offer the rebooking.
Over several decades, we’ve found there are two main things that need your attention if you want to rebook more clients while they’re in the salon: your staff and your client experience.
Let’s talk about supporting your staff to increase your rebookings first.
We mentioned those issues staff frequently cite as reasons not to attempt a rebooking – it’s too pushy or too salesy. Thing is, the more you do something, the easier it gets.
By regularly talking to your staff about the importance of rebooking (including the benefit to them) and – crucially – showing them the tangible impact rebooking has on the salon, you can start to create a culture where they really understand why this has to be part of their day-to-day.
Using targets and bonuses as a motivator can be really useful here, but nothing’s going to change unless you give your staff the tools and confidence they need to actually do the job.
Your staff will find it easier to rebook the clients with whom they’ve got the best relationships. Which means you need to help them forge strong relationships with every client they service.
Moving the client to a position where they’ll want to rebook starts the moment they walk through the salon doors, so if your team need a lesson in customer experience, don’t shy away from it. Everything counts; from the subjects they talk about to the body language they use – so show your staff how they can best put clients at ease throughout the appointment.
Role play is super useful here, to help staff build their confidence in asking for the rebooking. And, of course, some questions are better than others!
“That was fun! When are we doing this again?”
“Do you want the same thing doing ahead of Christmas or will you be going for something a little bit extra?”
“This cut will look its best with a touch-up in 6 weeks – is a Monday or a Tuesday better for you?”
”Can’t wait to find out what your holiday was like – shall I book you in a couple of weeks after you’re back?
“I’m away next month so I’m getting the calendar sorted now – don’t want you to miss your Saturday morning appointment, shall we get that slot secured now?”
Leaving it up to the team member who actually worked on the client to discuss the rebooking (rather than your receptionist) makes a huge difference, since they’re the ones with the relationship.
The receptionist can still do the physical booking, but be sure to educate your team that the rebooking needs to start during the appointment and you’ll see change.
When you run a salon, client experience is everything. Removing friction from every process you want your clients to carry out will do you a lot of favours – including rebooking.
For example, if they’re at their most comfortable when they’re talking to their stylist in the chair, give the stylist a way to rebook them there and then.
With software like SalonIQ you could use a tablet on WiFi to rebook anyone anywhere in the salon – or better still, you could simply hand it to the client and let them select their own appointment!
With our branded salon apps, you can give your clients another way to book their next appointment, and you could use our SMS messaging function to prompt clients to head into the app.
Click here to book a free demo and learn more about increasing rebookings with SalonIQ.
We’re always banging on about this in every area of running a salon – when you’re measuring your performance you’ll quickly see where change is needed (and where you should be doing MORE of something that’s already working).
It’s just as important when it comes to rebookings.
Not only can you measure performance to feed into motivational staff competitions (which will in turn increase the rebookings you achieve) but you’ll also be able to see where staff are simply nabbing all the new leads and offer assistance if they need help improving their own rebooking rate.
(A word on those competitions too – you’ll get more out of them if you reward the most improved rebooking rate each month, rather than the highest. It keeps everyone interested AND it quickly shows you who needs more support to increase the overall rebookings of the salon.)
How to convert the clients who didn’t rebook in the salon
Now we’re not saying you should be rebooking every single person that comes into your salon for treatment – we suggested that 60% target for a reason. Some clients will always just want a one-off. Others will move on, and still others just won’t be organised enough to come and see you on a regular basis.
But there are things you can do to try and recapture the ones that get away – all it takes is a well-organised marketing plan.
Start with immediate follow-up
Use offers to pull in lapsed clients
Keep up the relationship even if they’re not booking
Remind your clients how easy it is to book
If you’re already a SalonIQ user, you can measure performance and keep tabs on your salon rebookings within your SalonIQ dashboard.
When you’re logged in, head to menu > dashboards > salon dashboard and use the date toggles to see how many clients have rebooked between your selected dates.
There, you can view your rebookings percentage across all clients and see your average frequency (the weeks between a client’s visit) and the average bill from the salon too.
Of course, you can also run SMS and email campaigns from within SalonIQ to prompt lapsed clients to rebook and to prompt a rebooking within the initial 24 hours after an appointment.
With the right approach in your salon, you can create a culture where your staff do the important up-front work to increase your salon rebookings during every single appointment.
The most important thing is showing your staff how important it is to get clients coming back again and again – not just for the salon, but for their own enjoyment (and salaries!) too.
With a systematic approach, that starts while the client’s in front of the mirror, you can increase your rebookings and realistically achieve a rebooking rate upwards of 60% – but it takes careful planning, education and commitment to make it happen.
Get your staff on board, formulate a thorough follow-up plan and make it ridiculously easy for your clients to book their next appointment, and that salon rebooking rate will start creeping up quickly.
When our founders were running six salons, they discovered the hard truth you already know: there’s SO much more to making a salon successful than scheduling bookings, pushing stock and taking payments.
You’ve got the appointment reminders, the client nurture, the referrals and – of course – the rebookings… Then there’s the marketing to new customers, reducing the no-shows, and trying to sell more products at the same time…
And that’s before you spare a thought for your staff – how do you keep on top of all those tasks and motivate your team at the same time?!
Enter SalonIQ: the all singing, all dancing, cloud-based booking software that takes care of salon success from top to toe, rebookings included.
If you want to amplify your salon re-bookings and referrals, cut your no-shows by 99%, and draw better performance out of every employee, you’ll do it on autopilot with SalonIQ – whether you’re the biggest name in the business or a plucky solopreneur.
True salon success doesn’t result from endless to-do lists or clunky systems. If you want a smoother operation, more salon rebookings, more time on your hands and bigger profits, click here to book a demo or call 01892 280123.
Call a member of our team today on 01892 280 123
