Build staff and client loyalty to boost your salon business

Generating staff and client loyalty is the key to building a long- lasting brand that everyone wants to be part of, says Valerie Delforge. Most of the time we are so busy with day-to-day operations that we tend to lose sight of the goal we had set. The message gets lost and with it your staff and customers. It is important to take a step back and look at the 5 aspects of the business which will generate loyalty for your brand: 1: Define the vision and the mission A vision is the goal that you are setting for your business, the mission is how you will achieve that goal. The clearer the vision, the clearer your brand becomes. People cannot fall in love with something that only exist in your head. Create a vision for the year and define a mission per quarter. By doing so, ensure that you have a vision and a mission for both your staff and customers. 2: Who are your customers and who do you want to attract? It is important to really understand your database so you are able to target your marketing. By doing so, your strategy becomes targeted and the message you are sending out is a lot more focussed to the customer groups and has a lot more impact on increasing conversion. 3: Consistent message across all your platforms Too many messages KILL the message. By defining your strategy, you will be able to keep a monthly theme, even if the way you deliver the content differs depending on the platform, at least you will ensure that you do not talk about too many varied topics that are confusing the customer. Each month you should think: what is my theme and what can I create around it for each platform? (Platforms: Social media, website, mails, text and in salon) 4: Manage your ORM (Online reputation management) One of the most important aspect of your business. It is how you deal with each of these reviews or comments about your brand that will give you a good reputation. Keep professional, remain positive and ensure you create a way to manage this daily. 5: Your opinion matters Of course it is difficult to measure loyalty, however there are factors that can define the success. If you adopt this mentality: “your opinion matters” you can create brand loyalty from both staff and customers. At the end of the day, you can answer with “the business needs”, one of my favourite sentence! When was the last time you created a customer survey and learnt from it? Generating loyalty goes beyond the loyalty card, it is a mentality that you adopt by being very clear about your goals. I was offered a loyalty card the other day but was not asked how was my treatment, what is the point of that? If they didn’t assess that I didn’t enjoy my experience, they can throw what they want my way, I will not be coming back to them and their business. Their marketing effort becomes pointless. Passion breeds passion, vision breeds communication. The clearer your passion and communication, the more you generate loyalty. Valerie Delforge is founder and CEO of consultancy Delforge + Cowww.delforge.co