My coaching clients are encouraged to ask me as many questions as they want to find a solution to their problems. Probably the top question I get asked is “How can I get more new clients?”. I must admit I find this question a little frustrating. Not because the salon wouldn’t benefit from new clients, but more so why they continuously need more new clients, above all else. The questions that flow into my mind when I hear this are: • What problem are you trying to solve by getting more new clients? • Are there better ways to solve this problem? Let’s explore these alternate questions a little more deeply. I’m going to make an assumption here. That assumption is that the problem that needs to be solved is actually a lack of profit rather than a lack of new clients. Not just more money in revenue, but the real profit that’s left over after you’ve paid expenses and yourself. The reason I’m making this assumption is that without profit there is no business growth. Without profit, your business cannot sustain itself. Without profit, it’s almost impossible to maintain personal enthusiasm and momentum which are the core elements required for success. So the actual problem isn’t really about getting more new clients, but about using a multitude of strategies that will create a more profitable business. Here’s what I usually find when I dig a little deeper into the situation… In the majority of cases, salons are way too focused on gaining new clients and not focused enough on keeping the clients they already have. When I review statistics for salon owners who ask me about new client attraction, what I see in nearly all cases is a steady and reasonable number of new clients who find the salon organically. These are often clients who either see the salon as they are passing by, or are sometimes referred by friends. The other thing I see is that they are losing clients as fast as they are gaining them, which of course is the real problem. My approach to solving the real problem of profit deficiency is always multi-pronged and generally, goes something like this… 1. Dramatically reduce the loss of your existing clients. There are multiple strategies you can implement to help you achieve this, but whatever can be done, must be done. 2. Increase your profit margin. This means either reducing the expense involved in providing your services or increase your prices (or both). 3. Find ways to sell more to each existing client. This can be achieved through up-selling services e.g. Basic facial to an advanced facial, add-on selling e.g. Selling additional services to each client or selling product. 4. Source new clients to replace those that leave. This is probably the most expensive step in the entire profit-generation process. 5. Reduce expenses. Particularly wages (which are often one of the highest and most overpaid expenses in any business). As you can see, in my opinion gaining new clients is only a small part of the real solution to the problem of how to increase profits. It’s number 4 on my list of 5, so I don’t actually consider it to be anywhere near the top in terms of priority. If you’re focusing on just gaining new clients constantly, you’re ignoring the real solution to your actual problem and therefore not investing your time and money in the right place. So, if you choose to constantly try to solve your profit problem by sourcing new clients, then I leave you to do so. However, if you want to really grow your business in a more sustainable and realistic way, you must think past simply gaining new clients and instead focus on gaining more profit.

Clients disappear from your salon for all sorts of reasons.  Some things you can’t do anything about (like clients who move interstate or die), but other solutions, which can be incredibly simple, are often overlooked.

Replacing lost clients is actually one of the biggest expenses in any salon.  Did you know it costs at least 5 times more to get a new salon client than to keep an existing one?

If for no other reason (and there are plenty of other great reasons), retaining your existing clients should be very high on your list of ‘must do’ activities.

Here are some other very interesting facts about why existing clients are so much more valuable to your business.
• According to the authors of Leading on the Edge of Chaos, a 5% reduction in client loss, can result in much higher profits. Not just 5, 10, or even 20 % more, but a staggering 25 -125% increase.
• Research done by Gartner reveals that 80 percent of your salon’s future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing clients.
• Marketing Metrics states that the probability of selling to an existing client is 60-70%, whereas the probability of selling to a new client is only 5-20% (Source http://bit.ly/WAaE1x). That alone makes a significant difference in your ability to sell retail and additional or more premium services.

Clearly, there are lots of compelling reasons to keep existing clients returning to your salon, rather than constantly chasing new ones.

 

This leads us to the ‘how’ part of this article.

How to get your salon clients to stay without having to spend a fortune to do so is not as difficult, or expensive, as you may imagine.

In fact, there are many quite simple and cost-effective strategies that you can implement into your business in less than 30 days, that will substantially improve your client retention rate.

Let’s take a look at 3 of the major (but straight-forward) retention strategies that you can use…

Strategy #1

Treat your clients like you’re genuinely glad to see them.
This sounds ridiculously simple but is surprisingly often overlooked in favour of more technology based solutions.

To hit the nail on the head with this strategy, you can implement these key points:

• Greet every client by name, and expect all of your team members do the same. It’s essential that all of your team understands that clients don’t belong to just one therapist. The client belongs to the salon, and therefore it’s the responsibility of every team member to greet every client as they arrive. If they’re busy with another client, a simple but genuine smile and quick “Hi” (with the client’s name if possible) is all it takes. This creates quite a positive impact on your clients, and sets the scene for an enjoyable visit to your salon.
• Ensure that the client’s service provider has fully researched the client’s service and purchase history prior to her arrival, so she can discuss previous treatments and purchases to determine if improvements or changes are necessary. This line of conversation also opens up buying opportunities for the client.
• Never skip the client consultation part of the service. This is important because it’s when the client gets to tell you want she really wants from her service. Not everyone wants the same thing every time they visit (even though this is often what they get). Life is full of changes, and with that comes changing needs also. Consultations don’t need to be formal and lengthy at every visit, but they should be included before every service is provided or every retail sale is made.
• Make the client your sole focus while they’re having their treatment. There’s almost nothing more frustrating for a client than to have her treatment constantly disrupted by her therapist leaving the room to answer the phone or go to the reception. Whether it’s a haircut, a Brazilian wax, or a facial, the client has paid for your time and deserves your uninterrupted attention. You may need to introduce new strategies in your salon to accommodate this, but it’s something you must do if you’re to keep your clients satisfied.
• Supply everything your clients need to have optimal comfort during their treatment. If your treatment rooms get a little chilly, then make sure the client is well covered and stays warm. Make sure she has a comfy chair to sit in when taking off shoes and jewellery. Provide a jewellery bowl so she knows her items are together and safe. Each treatment area needs to have a mirror on hand – you know what some treatments will do to client’s hair. All small things, but important to your client and her level of enjoyment.
• Invite her back. Offer her a re-booking so she’s not disappointed in 4 or 6 weeks time when she needs to return, but can’t get an appointment to suit. Clients are no longer prepared to just wait and fit into your schedule. If they can’t get an appointment with your salon when they want it, there’s always another one to ring just down the road.

Revisit each of these areas in your salon to see where you can make simple changes that will impact on the quality of your clients’ experience.

 

Strategy #2

Stay in touch.
Do you receive local magazines and flyers at home? Well, so do your clients. And they’re chock full of advertisements from other salons that are trying to lure your clients away from you.

This means there’s a real need to maintain quality contact with your clients between their salon visits to ensure they stay up to date with your special offers, and of course, so they remain loyal to you.

Here are a few easy and inexpensive ways to do just that:

• A quick follow up phone call, especially to a new client, lets her know that you care about her needs and not just her dollars. For a 5 minute investment of your time, your new client will feel valued and that’s important when it comes to client retention.
• Treat your client to a card and salon voucher for her birthday. How many service providers that you deal with acknowledge your birthday? In fact, it’s pretty rare, and this is what makes it special in the eyes of your clients. A real card with a salon voucher included makes a big impact on how valued your clients feel.
• Send a monthly e-newsletter to keep your clients up to date on new services, products, promotions, and even team members. Keep your newsletter short, visually appealing, easy to read and not all about sales pitches. Make it worth their while to read it, with monthly special offers that will appeal to them. If you really can’t manage it on your own, get some help.

 

Strategy #3

Deliver first class service and treatments.
This should go without saying, but sadly many salons disappoint their clients by delivering treatments and customer service that don’t match their price point.

Begin by taking an honest look at your current standards (this may be a little painful for some), identify where you could do better, and from there start to implement the necessary changes.

Here are a few ways to get started:

• Google your salon name and look for reviews. Unhappy and disappointed clients are always the first to leave a review. These poor reviews hurt your business, so at the very least you should know what they are and learn a lesson from them.
• Revisit any client complaints you’ve had in the past couple of years. Did you do anything about them at the time? Was there a lesson in the complaint you didn’t take action on, but could now?
  Simply think about your own past experiences in other salons. What was great (these are the ones you should emulate) and what was terrible (make sure your own salon is not guilty of any of these).
• Ask your team members to share their past experiences at a team meeting, and get consensus on the changes everyone is prepared to make to improve your levels of service.
• When it comes to delivering a better experience to your clients, one of the best tools you can use is a Secret Shopper. Secret Shoppers can provide you with invaluable information that you could never normally access, and they don’t have to cost a fortune. Offer to provide some free treatments to a friend or colleague who doesn’t normally visit your salon, in exchange for her Secret Shopper duties. The secret to the success of this strategy is to ensure they have a comprehensive questionnaire to complete and return to you after their visit.

Delivering first class service and treatments doesn’t happen by itself. Salons that enjoy high client retention rates have also developed first class team members through ongoing training.

Like any athlete who wants to enjoy peak performance, skills, and service, training needs to be a regular occurrence.

Some salon owners reject the idea of investing in training because inevitably team members move on, and naturally take that training with them. However, to quote Zig Ziglar, “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them, is to not train them and keep them”. How absolutely true!

Training doesn’t need to cost you a fortune. Usually, the salon owner is the most knowledgeable person on the team and can, therefore, run productive training sessions with their team.

Product suppliers will often agree to come to the salon to run training sessions with your team members. And if you’re lucky enough to have some very talented team members in your salon, organise for them to run some training sessions with other team members also.

Successful training is like anything else…you must plan for it. Create a training schedule for your salon so that your team members understand the importance of keeping their treatment and service skills up to date.

Well trained team members deliver better treatments and customer service, which in turn provides better value for your salon clients. Clients who receive great value from their salons, rarely look elsewhere to have their beauty needs met.

Whatever your budget, build in time for training.

Gaining a new client in your salon is wonderful, but keeping an existing one is even better.

Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.
~ Tom Peters

  

I’ve just experienced six fabulous weeks touring part of the globe, and I’ve had some interesting customer service experiences.

Some places had fabulous surroundings and ordinary customer service, others had the reverse, and some managed to achieve top marks in both areas.

The one thing that really stood out, however, wasn’t the ‘place’ but the people. Times when people went out of their way to offer assistance – totally unexpectedly.

It reminded me that given everything else is good, what people really remember is other people and their actions – both good and bad.

This, of course, applies equally to your business.

Developing your team to deliver that exceptional service that clients simply don’t get elsewhere.

Implementing the things that only an owner/manager can.

All the little extra things that you can do to make your clients experience in your salon special are important, but not necessarily difficult or expensive, to provide.

Before I began writing this article, I’ve thought back over all my experiences in salons to what made them either great or totally disappointing, and I’ve made a ‘great’ and ‘not so great’ list to share with you.

 

My ‘great’ list…

I once visited a therapist who used to massage my feet and pop on warming booties during my facial. No matter how busy she was, she never skipped this little pampering step, and I loved it. I was very sad when she moved to a new location that was too far away for me to visit.

After she relocated, I went to a salon that always gave me a warm scented foot bath before my facial, during which time we had a casual catch-up where she asked about my current needs and concerns. Dimmed lights, candles, soft music, and a warm foot soak, and I was already totally enjoying my experience before my facial even began.

My current salon provides home-made biscuit bites with a cuppa. They are always delicious, and I look forward to that part of my visit. Just something small but special.

In the same salon, every therapist and stylist in the front area greet me by name and with a smile when I arrive. It feels great to be part of that salon family.

Another salon I visited provided all the little extras in the treatment room. Comfortable chairs, jewellery bowl, mirror, mineral makeup, comfortable treatment gowns and a cosy blanket to snuggle under during my treatment.

When I look back over my ‘great’ list, I really don’t see anything extraordinary or expensive. Rather, just a simple collection of things any salon can do to make their client’s experiences just that bit more memorable.

 

My “not so great” list…

One thing stands out above all the rest on my ‘not so great’ list. It’s when my therapist engages in a conversation with another team member about something totally irrelevant to me.

I find it so rude, and it makes me feel like I don’t matter one bit. This is definitely something that should be eliminated in your salon if you see it happening.

Second on my list is when the therapist talks all the way through my treatment. Especially when she is using my time to try to sell me something. There’s a time for selling and a time for treating the client, and they’re not the same time.

Let your clients enjoy the time they’ve paid for, and keep the sales pitch until later.

Finally, it bugs me a lot when I go to a new salon and they don’t bother to take my details or do a consultation. How do they expect to know what I want if they don’t ask me at least a few questions? And not taking my details kinda tells me that they don’t care if I come back or not. Some salons I’ve visited haven’t even bothered to find out my last name. Really?

If you want your clients to have a more memorable treatment in your salon, ask yourself today what you can do to make that happen. After all, it’s often the small things that can make the biggest impact.

 

We’ve all had them.

Those clients that drive you crazy, because they either show up late, don’t show at all or complain about every treatment they receive.

Do you really want to keep them? Or more importantly, do you really need to keep them?

Unfortunately, there’s so simple answer to that question. The fact is that some clients are worth a bit of extra trouble. These are the ones who spend heartily in your salon on a regular basis. Some others can have you pulling your hair out but just aren’t worth the stress.

So before you decide on your course of action (whether you keep a client or fire them), you need to consider how valuable they are to your salon, and whether it would be worthwhile to develop a few coping mechanisms to save the relationship.

 

Problem: The Late Client.

This client is late for everything. She’ll probably even be late to her own funeral. She is disorganised, and never leaves enough leeway to make sure she gets anywhere on time.

Solution: Tell her that her appointment is 15 mins before it actually is. This way, when she comes rushing through your door, puffing and panting and telling you how sorry she is to be late, you can smile serenely to yourself knowing she is actually right on time. Adjust the time frame to suit your individual late arrivers.

Problem: The No-show Client.

The regular no-show client will make you angry, especially if you’ve turned work away that you could have accepted had she cancelled in advance. These clients often believe that they’ve done you a huge favour; giving you time to put your feet up and have a coffee break. They have no idea about the carnage they’re creating, and simply expect to float back into your salon when they want another booking.

Solution: This client needs to be controlled. You must teach all of your clients how you expect to be treated. When a client simply doesn’t show for her appointment, phone her. If she doesn’t answer, then send a text. She must realise that you’ve noticed her no-show. Remind her of your no-show policy (you do have one, don’t you) and the consequences of the no-show. If she is a regular no-shower, refuse to accept anything but a pre-paid appointment in the future. She’ll probably complain, but don’t worry too much about it. She’ll either pay you in advance or go to another salon and treat them with the same disrespect she’s dished out to you.

Problem: The Constant Complainer.

We all complain about something now and then, but there’s always the odd client who complains about everything, all the time.

The wax is too hot, the air conditioning is too cold, the salon smells funny, and on it goes. There’s just no making this lady happy, no matter what.

Solution: Clients like this have some personal issues. Maybe this is their only chance to be the dominant person, and so they take it out on you. The best and easiest way to deal with this client is to acknowledge what she says, make some kind of effort to ‘fix the problem’, and learn not to take it personally. Because it really isn’t directed at you at all.

The simple fact that she keeps returning means that she is actually happy with your salon and her treatments, so just keep smiling and taking her payments.

And that’s it. You don’t have to accept bad behaviour from your clients. Train them to treat you with the respect you know you deserve.