Guest blog: innovative ways to improve the client experience

Samantha Beatty is owner of Beauty at the Gate in Grimsby, which won the Professional Beauty Beauty Salon of the Year: Three Rooms or Fewer 2016 award. She reveals five ways you can make the client experience exceptional

Here at Beauty at the Gate we’ve built our business model and reputation on providing our clients with not just the treatment they booked in for but an amazing experience to go with it.

It’s important to realise that every client has their own story when they visit your salon – whether they’re a single mother looking for some peace and quiet or someone who is feeling lonely and looking for company.

A client’s experience is mainly based on how you make them feel and the truth is they need to feel that they are the most important person to you that day. We try to make every client’s visit exceptional and do that in a number of ways.   

1. Thoughtful gestures – we have a “Random Act of Kindness” box full of mini-sized products that therapists can give to clients for free if they feel, prior to the visit, that client has had a bad day or could do with a nice gesture that they may not have been expected. We have found it very effective in particular with clients who may not have been as sociable in salon as we would have liked.
2. Sparkles – we offer a free glass of wine or Prosecco to every client having a nail treatment to make their visit extra special.
3. Personal touch – personalising our service has been the key to enhancing the experience our clients receive and we utilise our salon software to help give them something to remember. We keep detailed notes from previous appointments – from family members’ names to if they are going away on holiday – so we can ask them how their trip was or how their mum is doing the next time they come in.
4. Giving them a voice – we involve our clients as much as possible in potential changes in the salon – from new treatments to customer service – and build offers around the feedback we get from them. 
5. Unusual concepts – last year we launched our own monthly magazine, Bulletin at the Gate, to help reinforce our reputation in the area. We regularly feature clients as case studies or in features about their businesses. The magazine is handed out to all clients visiting the salon, is available online and we have also built up links with local businesses (which have a similar customer demographic to us) who give out the magazine to their customers.

 As a result of these steps, our bookings are up by 90% on last year and we have seen our workforce increase by 35%.

Image: The Beauty at the Gate team