Sponsored feature: how to perk up your salon’s retention rates
Zoé Bélisle-Springer, social media and content executive at Phorest, on the fool-proof methods that will boost your client retention rates.
If your salon has had more than 3,000 clients through its door, then it’s time to stop continuously chasing new customers and focus a little more on your retention rates.
You’ve done all the hard work getting clients in but it’s a natural thing to lose customers. According to CTL Europe, a 2% increase in client retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%. Huge, isn’t it? Client retention and customer loyalty are very much related.
So, now I want you to imagine your business as a magic beanstalk – stay with me. Your customer, on the first visit, starts at the bottom and what happens after that – whether they climb up or not to become a loyal client, or better, advocate for your business – depends on how the customer experiences your salon.
First-time client retention – what it means?
First-time client retention is the percentage of first-time customers that return for a second visit within a specified period, usually 90 days, measuring your salon’s quality score and consistency.
If your first-time retention rate is 40%, that means 60% of clients you fight hard to attract are not returning, indicating that your salon might lack in customer journey consistency.
5 fool-proof strategies to boost your retention rates:
While putting these strategies to work, remember to get as much information as possible from your customer – don’t stop at their initial contact details. You’re selling more than a service; you’re building a relationship. The more information you have, the more personable you can be and the more ways you have to target them.
- Offer to pre-book every client, every time
Don’t be shy about asking clients what time/date would be best for their next appointment. It’s not pushy, it’s showing a level of care. The more you know about your clients booking habits the easier it’ll be to pre-book. - Be all ears
Your clients visit may start with a consultation but make sure there’s communication throughout the service. It’s about catching on to their cues, desires and interests. - Make a good first impression
The more your staff have policies and guidelines to follow, the more consistent your services across all platforms will be. Every client should feel like they’ve been treated with the same level of care. You’d be surprised at how quickly you can lose a first-time client because of a difference in service and attention.
- Make the experience easy
You already know this but your clients are busy and stressed. Write down their habits and preferences – it can be as easy as how they like their coffee – because any little thing that makes the experience incredible will have a direct impact on your retention rates. - Get feedback
Improve on what can be improved and develop your teamwork at the same time. Apart from that, as a salon owner, you need to know your numbers, and remember, client retention isn’t the same as request tracking.
Request tracking measures “who requests who”, not how many first-time clients return to your business for a second visit. A client coming back but to a different therapist, for example, won’t affect your salon’s retention rate but it’ll change your therapist’s personal retention rate.
Have you tried Phorest’s Client Reconnect?
If you’re a Phorest client and haven’t tried it yet, Client ReConnect is a true revolution regarding increasing salon client retention. In fact, wait until you hear about this amazing SMS campaign by Baroque Hair in Harrogate this summer.
They sent an SMS to a select list of clients using our Client ReConnecttool in the marketing section. It was a smart campaign by the team of stylists as they knew exactly who they were targeting and why. Firstly, they targeted two client categories: cut and style and colour clients. From just £5.06 of sent SMS messages they generated more than £5,000 by getting clients back in.This could be the case of your salon too.
