7 June 2021
In order to maintain a steady growth in your salon business, ensuring you retain the clients you already have is arguably more important than finding new business. This article will discuss ways in which salon owners can increase their client retention rates.
High client retention rates are the driving force behind a salon’s growth and can help you expand your business. So – what is client retention and why is it so important?
Client retention is creating a strategy to ensure that your customers come back to your salon for appointments regularly after their first session. For clients, finding a stylist that they trust can be difficult and many customers, once happy following a successful appointment, will be loyal to a particular salon, returning for regular touch ups to their style. If they enjoy your salon they may even recommend your services to family and friends as well.
For most salons, the vast majority of their income comes not from first time or one off clients, but loyal customers that come back year after year. Many clients have a preferred member of staff who always does their hair and who they trust to keep them looking fabulous. Other salons rotate their stylists between clients, but keep records of what was done for each past cut to ensure that their style remains consistent.
Great customer service and high standards for your staff performance is key to keeping your clients coming back. Working on a client retention strategy is a great way to ensure that your salon business continues to grow. There are many tools, including salon software, that can be used to help with your client retention strategy.
One of the best ways to encourage your clients come back regularly to your salon, is to offer to rebook them for another appointment as soon as their treatment is finished. This gives them a solid date in the diary for their next appointment and ensures that the client is retained.
Making an offer to rebook clients a matter of policy will give your staff a firm guide on how to operate. Using SMS messaging or an email service to remind customers of their appointment, or to ask them if they want to book a new appointment with a link to an online booking service, can also be very effective at making sure your clients know you are thinking of them.
Offer a consultation
If a client is thinking of making a big change to the colour or cut of their hair, offering a pre appointment consultation, either over the phone or face to face is a fantastic way to gain customer confidence and loyalty.
Taking the time to discuss hair care routines and styling products that can help your clients make the most of their style is another excellent way to connect with your salon customers. Your staff members are highly trained styling specialists, prompting them to share that insider knowledge of hair care and the products sold at the salon is an excellent way to boost sales.
Sometimes it’s the little changes that make the biggest difference when considering your client retention strategy. Small changes, such as those listed below, can make a huge difference to your customer’s impression of your salon:
These are all simple ways to improve your customer service and ensure clients leaving your salon are happy.
It seems like a small detail, but asking your clients for feedback, whether through a review online or a paper slip asking for what the client thought was good and what they would like improved is an important way of communicating with your customers.
Asking for their opinions and then acting on the information gained not only lets your clients know that you are listening to their concerns, but will help you improve your service. Using this data to build a service that your customer base enjoys is incredibly important when establishing your salon.
Communication
There are four main ways that salons communicate with their clients:
Social media can be a great method of communication for a salon. Not only are most social media accounts free to set up, but the vast majority of your clients will have at least one account. Placing updates on Instagram and Facebook about any new hair treatments or products will give your clients a reminder of your salon and when they need a new cut. The more information you give your clients about the salon the more invested they will be in your success.
Building a loyal following takes time to nurture. Email is a fantastic way to send reminders about salon sales or offers and build a strong connection with your client. But make sure not to inundate your clients with too many emails, as this can have the opposite effect.
Many salons now use salon software to send reminders to clients about up and coming appointments, this is to ensure they remember the time and date of their session. Other uses involve sending requests for reviews or news about new products and sales that are now available for the customer to try. Having an open line of communication can help salons retain clients by making sure they feel that you are putting effort into ensuring they have a good customer experience.
Beauty is an extremely visual industry, creating a stylish website with a lot of pictures of your salon and staff will help to bring new and existing customers to visit. Having an easily accessible online booking function, as well as a price list for treatments and products, can make booking much simpler for clients, increasing the likelihood that you will keep your customers coming back to your salon. Blog posts offering haircut and style information are also fantastic ways to increase your client retention, as they give your clients easy access to your salon’s expertise.
Package deals are a fantastic way to bring your clients back to your salon by offering competitive prices. Concessions such as offering a 20% discount when your clients book in for a haircut, dye and dry will help you fill your calendar rather quickly. Family discounts for parents and children booking hairdressing appointments together is also a great way to expand your salon client base.
Reducing the cost of haircuts by offering student discounts is another way to win loyal customers that will return to your salon.
Offering rewards to customers who return to your salon is a fantastic way to help you retain customers. From paper loyalty cards offering a free product as a reward, to using salon software creating a rewards system using an app, loyalty cards are a fantastic way to make things exciting for the clients. They can also offer games to clients, such as raffles and sales to loyalty card holders to keep your clients coming back to your salon for years in the future.
Loyalty cards can also be used to set up a referral system. With offers such as bring in three new customers and receive 50% off your next haircut. This truly is a winning scenario, the salon gains new clients, and the rewards encourage the loyal customer to come back for another visit.
If you are interested in SalonIQ’s salon software as a way for your business to increase client retention rates, then please contact us here. Our staff will be happy to discuss the details of our solutions and how they can ensure the success of your salon business.
Call a member of our team today on 01892 280 123
