Developing great relationships with your clients is an essential part of running a column and a salon. This is a two way street – you need to have a solid, regular repeat business clientele, and clients need a salon they can rely on.
There is also the hard business face that an unhappy client can easily take to social media and broadcast their poor opinion of you. You may not even know about this until bookings mysteriously drop off.
Therefore, it is vital make sure your clients know how important they are to you.
Top 9 tips to ensure that clients know how precious they are and always want to come back for more.
1. Become a great listener. Listening also means researching and asking focused questions, knowing your clients concerns and coming up with the very best solutions. Teach your team to listen carefully to what your clients have to say, paying complete and respectful attention to their answers. Clients will appreciate this level of attention.
2. Interact – being a salon professional gives you the advantage over a larger business, in that you are always dealing with clients on a one to one basis. Your level of personal interaction is very high, and make sure to leverage this. For example, know the name of your client and use it. Or, if a client offers information, remember it
3. Offer more – you can always offer extras for a little more, just ask your client if they are interested. You will be surprised just how impressed they might be.
4. Create trust - fundamental to creating trust is that if you promise something, you deliver on it. Set realistic goals for your clients. Take time to ensure you understand exactly what the client wants and remain sensitive to their needs. Be transparent in your dealings. If you are asked for an opinion, be polite, positive and truthful. If you ever let the client down in any way, the first thing you should do is apologise and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. Any apology needs to be sincere, which means really thinking about what you are going to say.
5. Get feedback – one good way to show you truly care about your clients is to proactively ask for feedback. The fact that you have asked helps to show they matter. You can get feedback in various ways such as surveys, social media or online questionnaires. When you get feedback, (good and bad) it is important that you act on it because if you don’t do anything with that information, you will disappoint your client.
6. Keep in touch and keep it personal. For example, send clients you haven’t seen for a while a postcard. The effect that such a personal gesture has is proportionate to the level of effort that it takes to make it. It does take time to choose, to sign and post a card, but it takes a very unusual client to ignore or forget such a personal outreach. Especially in our modern digital age, it is a good way to stand out and be remembered.
7. Give your clients a birthday gift. A birthday is a great reason to connect with your client and make them feel extra special. You could send them a personalised voucher for a service. You will always stay on your client’s radar when you are generous with your gestures.
8. Chat with your clients online. Adding a live chat widget to your website allows you to address clients enquiries instantly and gather information about them. For example live chat tools can show you where the client has come from, how much time she spent on your website, what pages were viewed and for how long. With so much information on hand you can provide much more efficient help and strengthen your salon/client relationship.
9. Send transactional follow-up communications. For example, you can send a post-service email to you client and thank them for their custom. It is good to personalise your messages based on the information available to you. Additionally, you can include other personalised product recommendations based on their purchase transaction.
Never forget just how much your clients love to buy homecare products. This is an excellent way to build relationships with your clients, as it ensures your clients achieve the results they desire, while helping to increase the services you offer. It also provides another revenue stream for your business with unlimited potential, increasing turnover and improving cashflow.
Teach your team to get closer than ever to your clients, so they are empowered to tell them what they need long before they realise it themselves.
Winning loyal clients doesn’t take huge marketing budgets. When it comes to client loyalty, it is the small gestures that get appreciated and remembered.
Adding a simple personal touch to every transaction you have with your clients will have a great impact on how they perceive your salon and your bottom line. Loyal, repeat and happy clients are the lifeblood of your salon business.
Remember: ‘the only mile that matters, is the extra mile’!
Liz McKeon
Liz McKeon is the Founder of The International Salon Business School, and internationally renowned Business Expert, Bestselling Author, Speaker, Salon Coach and Trainer. Liz has an extraordinary track record in transforming businesses (from individual salon to salon chains, distributors, stockists and brands across the hair, beauty, aesthetics, spa and barbering sectors) and has helped over 5,000 business owners to maximise their profits and achieve business success. Many of them have doubled their turnover.
