Do you really know what clients want right now?
Published
11th Oct 2020
by Kate Woods
Do you really know what clients want right now is the key question to consider. COVID-19 has completely shifted clients' expectations and business coach McKeon says it's essential to adapt to clients' new demands and give them a customer experience they won't forget.
Customer experience has always been at the heart of everything that happens on the hair salon floor, but the impact of COVID-19 has resulted in the term quickly evolving. Clients’ expectations have shifted and experiences within salons have changed. Salons all over the world are adapting to a client base who have a new set of priorities that may be significantly different to the first few months of 2020.
What do clients want right now – an understanding of new buying behaviour
2020 has prompted a lot of people to change their usual buying behaviour. This presents new challenges for salons, who must now adapt their customer service experience to fit in with changing priorities and a very different world.
The current situation has forced everyone to change in some way or another. Everyday routines have been disrupted, whether it’s the way we interact with clients, the way they search and choose a salon and how they prioritise the importance of attending a salon.
This uncharted pandemic experience is capable of changing clients’ opinions overnight. Without the means to keep an eye on these changes you run the risk of assuming the old rules and ways of doing business still apply – which just isn’t the case. Salons who focus on this insight can use it to adapt their customer service and support clients through these times. If you make necessary changes and improvements now you can continue those important client relationships when all of this is finally over.
What do clients want right now – to see you adapting to the new normal
As the ‘new normal’ evolves, you will need to become even more customer service-focused than ever. It has to be about fine-tuning every detail of your client’s service journey because this situation has brought the real value of your salon brand to the forefront of your client’s mind. An excellent standard of customer service is no longer ‘a nice way to do things’ – it is essential if you want to keep hold of your existing client-base and attract new ones.
Clients are a lot more focused on what they want from a salon in terms of what a brand represents, what it offers, how it communicates with customers and what your salon stands for. This means you need to reassess how you bond with your precious clients and the secret is always to under promise and
over deliver.
In times of crisis everyone’s focus moves towards their values and priorities. This prompts a shift in client expectations. The challenge is working out how to tap into those expectations in the best way. To get this right, start collecting feedback both from your staff and clients. Salons should never underestimate the effect that positive customer feedback can have on staff morale, job satisfaction and general wellbeing. By collecting feedback from your team and clients, you will get to know the processes and aspects of your salon which are doing well and which parts require some revision.
Five ways to tap into clients' new habits
- Introduce an online retail shop on your website to capitalise on the increase in clients wanting professional and result-driven hair products.
- Customers are increasingly shopping at night. Time your newsletters to meet this change in behaviour and offer limited-time special discount promotions from 11pm-6am.
- Optimise your website for mobile devices so you can capture every opportunity to sell online. Streamline the shopping cart so you can buy in three clicks.
- Consumers are demanding privacy and appointments timed to suit their new work and home regimes – adapt your opening times to match.
- Early morning and late-night appointments will always be in high demand. Introduce these to meet demand while charging a premium for the service.