How to get the most from client feedback

We always want to be offering the best customer service and the most important source for feedback is with our clients, says Mary K Roberton, founder of Successus. Although it can be a scary process it is vital to improving your business, meeting your clients’ needs and resulting in higher client retention and more profitability. Asking for client feedback is not only an invaluable way to improve business practice but giving your clients a voice makes them feel valued and says that their opinion matters. On average only one in every 10 unhappy clients will make a complaint, the other nine will walk out the door and not return. We all have lost clients, some for reasons out of our control, but on the most part the reason is that we have not met their expectations; these issues can normally be very easily resolved and prevent us losing more clients in the future. There are a number of ways to obtain feedback from your clients; the Quicktap survey is one of my favorites. ‘Quicktap survey’ is a great app that can be downloaded for free. You can tailor it to research any area of service you would like as you pick all the questions, the layout, how many questions you would like to ask, whether you want multiple choice, written or yes/no answers and many more features to make it unique to your salon. Here are some guidelines to get you started:

• The survey should be able to be completed within 60 seconds
• It can be a great way to build your client data, if your email count is low, by adding a request for email address at the end you can then transfer these daily in to your salon software
• Keep the Ipad on the reception desk and when the client is checking out I would suggest having it scripted in to the receptionist dialogue and introduced at this stage
• Make sure that every client is being asked for feedback at checkout, this will ensure you get a well balanced report from a cross section of clients
• Make it an entry based competition which will help Incentivise the client to engage
• For the competition create a POS that can sit on the counter next to the Ipad offering maybe a free cut and color, or if you have a new salon service or treatment menu, this would be a great way of introducing this to your clients.
• Make sure the team are behind it and that they understand it is not there to catch them out but for us to be able to look at ourselves and improve, as there is always room for improvement
• Run it for 6 – 10 weeks to ensure you have asked the majority of your return and new clientele
• At the end of the survey term, present the results in a team meeting, it will be a really positive experience for the team as it will highlight all the things that you and they are doing so well at the same time as the things you can work on collectively to improve as a team.

  With extensive experience in consultancy work in Los Angeles, many years in salon management for some of London’s most celebrated and high profile brands Mary K Roberton set up her salon consulting service, Successus