Five quick ways to encourage repeat business in your salon
Published
21st Aug 2012
by rachael
Statistics suggest that it costs five times as much to attract a new client as it does to retain an old one - eye-opening stuff.
Nowadays, marketing seems to be designed to focus on offering the best deals to new clients (think of the advertisements for car insurance, for instance, saying that offers are not available to existing customers). But this is the antithesis of what most savvy brands do, deciding to focus instead on treating and rewarding loyalty and thereby encouraging repeat business, not going after the deal chasers.
Develop your own salon wish list - what would your ideal client have done? List all the services available in your salon that are open for her to experience, then train each team member to think about how many boxes each of their clients actually tick off the list so they can focus on recommendations, referrals, and detailed consultations. Ensure each loyal client is spending as much as possible before trying to attract a one-off newbie who may be shopping by price alone, especially in this difficult climate.
Here, Hellen Ward looks at five ways to encourage repeat business;
1 Hone your consultation skills
A great consultation is vital to ensure you have established the client's needs and can refer and advise with confidence.
2 Create a treatment plan
You'd never leave your dentist without knowing when you needed to come back and what for. It's crass to ask 'would you like to re-book?' when you can say 'I need to see you in six weeks for X and Y' instead. The first sounds contrived, but the second sounds professional and demonstrates expertise and technical excellence.
3 Cross promote and refer
No client is going to know all about what services you offer unless during the consultation you advise and recommend your services and colleagues. Buddying up with staff who promote other services and running referral incentives works well.
4 Create added-value marketing
Never discount your brand; there's nowhere to go from there. But adding value to services and offering incentives such as 'gift with purchase' doesn't damage your core price or brand values. Try 'experience X treatment and get Y service free' style promotions too.
5 Develop reward programmes
Every consumer likes to be thanked for their spend and brand loyalty. Spend your marketing budget in thanking and rewarding loyal customers instead, thereby increasing their potential custom with you, rather than trying to attract the new ones.
It can be lucrative to spend time and money training the team members to become experts in getting existing customers to spend more money and experience more services, both to strengthen their clientele and for their own financial reward as well as the salon's. Statistics tell us that the more services people experience the more loyal they become and the longer you retain their custom. This approach also ensures clients build relationships with several staff members, thereby lessening the impact if one should leave.
