4 ways to increase customer loyalty in your salon
Tessa Stevens, owner of Tessa Stevens Health and Beauty Clinic in London, which won Professional Beauty’s Regional Award South East Large Salon of the Year 2017, explores client buying habits and how you can tap into them to ensure high retention levels at your salon.
Are clients becoming fickler with their decisions on where to have their next wax, manicure or facial? Are they looking for the next offer, or a relationship with a therapist?
Twenty-two years ago, it was less of a challenge to hold on to a client. The high street wasn’t saturated with salons, discount site Groupon didn’t exist and clients really looked up to their beauty therapist.
But now the game has changed and our efforts to keep clients committed to us long term is harder. They’re now driven by offers, deals, social media platforms and a high street that offers more than ever.
So, if the habits and loyalty of our clients have changed, what can we do to ensure salon retention is strong?
4 ways to increase client loyalty:
1. Offer courses of treatments
Encouraging clients to purchase a block of treatments is the ideal way to keep them committed to you for six months to a year. A block of treatments could be for anything on your service menu and you could offer a discount to make it more attractive.
Another idea is to offer the client the option to pay it off in two instalments. Once the client has committed to purchasing a course, they then have no reason to shop around or be lured in to other offers.
2. Put a loyalty scheme in place
Client loyalty schemes do work and there are ways to encourage clients to get involved, like making sure your loyalty card fits in their purse so they always carry it around.
Also, ensure the reward is enough for them to want to collect points and return to your salon. You could even offer double loyalty reward days as an added treat.
3. Be welcoming to existing clients
Sometimes clients take a break from visiting your business if they’ve been given a voucher for another salon as a gift or they went through a life changing circumstance.
In that time away, they might have tried somewhere new and felt they didn’t get the same great service they receive at your salon, but feel awkward returning to you.
Ensure that your team gives them a warm and welcoming reason to return, for example, in your marketing material tell them “It’s been ages since you’ve been in, we miss you,” and then entice them in with a discount.
4. Same faces, same staff
Clients love seeing the same face. It makes them feel welcome and that they have a connection to your salon as soon as they walk in. Your salon becomes their home away from home and it’s because clients buy into your staff – not just the brand.
As a salon owner, you may feel uneasy about your clients’ relation with the team, but encouraging customers to be committed to at least two therapists helps, especially during times of annual leave, staff sickness or any other absence.
Making these simple changes can really help to secure client retention and loyalty. So, go on, what are you waiting for.
See the full list of winners from the Professional Beauty Regional Awards 2017.