When running a small business it is often difficult to juggle everything that comes with the title of “Salon Owner”. On a typical day, you have anything from 5-10 things going on at once! (Even more on Saturdays, don’t get us started with those.) With so much going on things can begin to slip through the cracks, even the most important things like customer care.
If your salon has a General Manager how often are you and them going over sales and revenue? Every Month? Good. Every week? Better! Now how often are you breaking these sales down into categories? (And we mean beyond retail and services). Many owners make the mistake of not knowing every detail of their business, including what percentage of their revenue is coming from both new and returning clients.
If you are spending a sizable chunk of your business’ income on marketing and advertising to new clients, it is important to know where you are overspending and where you can cut. Especially when it comes to bringing in new business. Before bringing in new business becomes your focus, it is very important to know how much of your current revenue is brought in by returning clients. After finding this out, where the numbers what you thought they would be, or much lower? If your salon is having some trouble getting clients to come back, then there may be something wrong in your business! And Envision is here to help. Keep reading to learn how your salon can recover lost clients and bring in additional revenue when you need it most!
The Break-Up
It happened and you didn’t even realize it, or did you? Make sure you are doing weekly check-ins with your staff to ensure the success of their appointments and whether they noticed if any of their clients went home unhappy, we can always tell, or didn’t seem completely satisfied in some way with the experience. Once a customer is in your chair and happy with the experience you’ve pretty much got them. It’s actually harder to get them not to come back than it is to keep them as a customer. So make sure you are talking to your stylists about their appointments and any clients you see of theirs that hasn’t been in for a while (i.e. 16 weeks).
Often times there are signals during the visit that the client is unhappy or some life change is going on at home. Are they talking about a new job with crazy hours during the shampoo or their husband’s new job that’s farther away from their home? Hair Stylists have relationships with clients like no other and especially if someone has been going to you for a while, you happen to know a little something about their personal life. Whatever it may be, make sure your stylists are aware of when a client talks about a big life change that could keep them from coming to the salon as often as before, because when this happens with several customers at the salon time. It can spell trouble for your business.
Or maybe the unimaginable has happened, the client walked out unhappy. Let’s say their haircut was too short or they were hesitant about the final color. If your stylist didn’t offer to rectify the situation then your salon can risk a bad review, which can make for a bad public image, or worse, your stylist didn’t notice the client was unhappy, which may show more about your staff and the training involved more than the client.
We are also understanding of those more difficult clients with crazy requests that simply won’t leave happy no matter what anyone does but often times those seem to be more of one-off situations.
The Facts
Did you know that targeting new clients can cost you upwards of 5 times the advertising and marketing dollars of targeting recurring clients? Save that revenue and make sure your clients are happy by doing consistent check-ins and making sure everyone leaves with a smile!
Also, research shows that increasing your customer retention by just 5% your profits can increase by between 25-95% Especially if you are targeting those high-end clients.
And if you’re needing another reason to focus on what you have, on average existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and customarily they spend 67% more than new customers! Especially if someone has been coming to your stylist for a while, they come to trust their judgement and take in their advice as an expert, often taking the bait for additional services or products. With can really help increase your ticket during the slower months of business.
Winning Them Back
Not all good things need to end. There are several ways to get clients to return especially with the Marketing features in Envision! By implementing the following practices in your daily business you can get those lost customers back and even prevent it from happening again in the future.
Client Profiles
This is often one of our most overlooked features in Envision but possibly one of the biggest insights into your business. With Client Profiles in Envision you can see every purchase from that person, and thus begin to track how often they visit and what kinds of purchases they usually make. If you start to review these profiles and notice those regulars haven’t been in a while it could be time to introduce them to our next feature...
Automated “We Miss You” Email
With the automated “We Miss You” Email Marketing feature in Envision you can target those clients that haven’t been in in a while by selecting one of our “We Miss You” email templates and attaching a special offer for that client to return. You can even target clients that haven’t been in for a specific period of time you select such as 60, 90, or even 120 days. The choice is yours and the possibilities are endless. This is often all the encouragement a client whose life has gotten very busy needs to get back in your chairs. But don’t just give up after one attempt! Retarget these clients for a couple of months until you feel they are a goner.
Pre Book Alert at Checkout
This method can be implemented by simple training of your front desk staff and can stop clients from not coming back by enticing them to Pre Book their next appointment right away. When checking out a client from their appointment, Envision Salon & Spa automatically takes into account the needs of the service they received and offers a Pre Book option at the time they would need it next. Roots touch up? The prompt will PreBook for 4 weeks from that date and so forth. With this additional reminder and the right person checking them out, your clients won’t disappear!
We all have those clients that make or break our day when we see their name in the appointment book. Regardless of how crazy they can drive their staff, they love them because that client has remained faithful and loyal to your stylists and thus your salon. Keep them coming back with Envision! And make sure if you have any other business questions you reach out to us on social or by email at social@ennoview.com We’ll see you here next week on Envision Pulse!
