Customer Retention & Loyalty – 6 Simple Strategies to Keep Them Coming Back for More…

As a busy salon owner/manager, you’ll be more than aware of the time, energy and effort that goes into finding new clients. The pressure to keep appointments filled, and conjuring up a constant stream of marketing ideas to attract new clients can steal huge chunks of your precious time.

One way of reducing this is to focus more on your current clients instead. After all, whether clients have visited your salon once or a hundred times, you have already broken the ice with them. They already know what to expect from their salon experience, they have a feel for the staff, and they have started to get to know the expert who’s looking after them.

So why not continue to keep them happy, encourage them to stay loyal to your salon and your brand, and focus on building long-term relationships with them that secure the future of your business, too?

There are heaps of ways of ways to do this and here are 6 tried and tested strategies for you to consider and implement in your own salon.

1. Keep in touch with your clients between salon visits: it’s your job to stay in touch with your customers and remind them that you’re there for them – not the other way around. One way of doing this is to ask for your clients’ email addresses at their first visit and send them a weekly/fortnightly/monthly communication or email campaign.

2. Give your clients a nudge every now and then: put a reminder system in place so that when your clients haven’t been to the salon for a couple of months or so, you give them a little nudge. This nudge may be a discount voucher, or an invite to an exclusive VIP event in the salon to bring them back into the fold.

3. Ask for customer feedback regularly: whether you set up a short, online survey for your clients to complete after their salon experience, or you ask for feedback via email or text, all feedback (good or bad) is helpful for you to see your business through your customers’ eyes. It’s important to take the feedback on board, too, and act on it.

4. Offer first-class customer service if you want brand loyalty: we all look forward to some ‘me time’ and a trip to the hair/beauty salon/spa is a great excuse to be treat like a queen (or king!) for a few hours. So treat every one of your customers like a VIP, every time they visit.  Making their salon experience an enjoyable and relaxing treat from start to finish will keep your customers coming back for more.

5. Always exceed your customers’ expectations: when you go out of your way to make a client feel special, go that extra mile, upgrade your coffee machine, offer them a glass of wine if they have a late night appointment, or fit them in at short notice, your client will remember the extra effort and how you made them feel. In turn they’ll be more likely to share the ins and outs of this experience with their friends and family, and when they hear what a fabulous salon you have, they’ll be picking up the phone to book an appointment, too.

6. Get to know your customers: spend time chatting with your customers from the outset. Finding common ground, shared interests, and demonstrating a genuine interest in their lives can be the start of a great friendship but it’s also an opportunity to build up trust.  And once you’ve got that, your customers are more than likely to return to your salon time and time again.

Remember, it’s all about the customer when it comes to our industry, so go out of your way to provide an excellent service, keep in touch with them if they go quiet, and with a bit of special attention, those clients will easily convert to happy, long-term clients who wouldn’t dream of setting foot in another salon!