For a moment, think about your favourite local businesses or multinational brands.
Why do you keep returning to them for more when you can get the products or services elsewhere? What keeps other customers like you loyal?
It could be their ever-responsive customer support, competitive pricing, service mastery, or the perks you enjoy as a returning customer. Whatever it may be, businesses that intend to stick around for a while must drive customer retention by inspiring loyalty in their client base.
The importance of salon customer retention can’t be overstated. It’s essential for sustaining, growing, and expanding your business. Developing customer retention strategies is one of the most crucial focus of marketing.
But what exactly does it mean to retain customers and what is a customer retention strategy?
This guide will answer those questions and more.
What is salon customer retention?
Customer retention describes how many customers return to do business with you after their initial patronage. As a beauty business, your goal is to get your clients to keep coming back to your establishment, time after time. The opposite of customer retention is client churn or client defection, which refers to when customers abandon your salon or spa for another.
Salons and spas experience a significant increase in revenue when customer retention goes up, but the reverse is the case when client churn occurs.
What are some benefits of salon customer retention?
Your beauty business should prioritise customer retention, including turning first-time customers into loyal customers, for the following reasons:
1. Cut marketing cost
Cost-effectiveness is one of the most popular benefits of customer retention.
It’ll cost your beauty business significantly more money to acquire new customers than to service and retain old ones. An increase in customer retention drives up revenue significantly because, on average, returning customers spend more than new ones.
2. Reach even more customers
Typically, people go to their friends, family, and more recently, online communities, for beauty recommendations. Your potential customers are more likely to visit a salon or spa because someone they trust recommends it than to just stumble into one. The latter happens, but it’s rare. 7 in 10 Nigerian beauty customers discover new salons and spas through word-of-mouth recommendations, according to the 2024 Beyond Beauty report.
By retaining a loyal customer base, you already have brand evangelists you can encourage to refer you, share your posts, and send reviews. Some will even do it on their own.
3. Increase revenue
Reducing marketing costs and getting more customers translate to more money for your beauty business. Moreover, even a 5℅ increase in customer retention can boost profit by up to 95℅.
Also, compared to new clients, existing customers are more likely to try a new service, which will help you make even more money.
4. Secure profit
When you have a set number of returning customers, your salon or spa is sure of a certain weekly or monthly revenue, unlike when you have few or no repeat clients. It removes a lot of pressure from your business to meet its sales target, especially with little or no marketing.
The above-outlined benefits of customer retention are vital to any beauty business striving for success.
What is a customer retention strategy?
It refers to tactics and programs designed to keep customers engaged with your beauty businesses and encourage them to spend more money.
In the next section, I’ll show you exactly how you can achieve this.
How to increase salon customer retention [6 practical tips]
Here are six effective tips to help you get your existing customers to keep coming back and turn first-timers into repeat clients:
Tip 1: Give customers what they want
An essential aspect of customer retention strategies is finding out what your customers want and giving it to them. You can do so by simply asking them.
By now, you’ve probably done your market research and have some idea of what your ideal customer is looking for. That’s good. But nothing beats asking them directly.
Do the following:
I. Conduct effective consultations
Beyond ensuring you understand what services or products your customers want, find out what else they’re looking to get out of your salon or spa. It could be something as intangible as a sense of community or quiet.
II. Ask customers for feedback
Ask new and existing clients what they think about your salon or spa services, customer support, and establishment generally. Send out a survey form online or set up suggestion boxes around your salon or spa.
III. Train your employees to listen
Nobody spends more time with your customers than your staff. Encourage them to keep an ear out for complaints and suggestions when they engage with customers. Generally, customers feel more valued when they’re asked for their input. And this can keep them coming back.
Tip 2: Make good first impressions
As the saying goes, you won’t get a second chance to make a good first impression. In the beauty business, first impressions matter.
A new client who comes to your hair salon for the first time will form an opinion quickly after just walking in and interacting with your team. What they conclude will determine whether they’ll come back or not. Your job is to give them reasons to keep choosing your business.
You can achieve this by doing the following:
I. Keep the environment tidy and comfortable
Ensure your place is neat and comfortable at all times. Your customers can tell as soon as they walk in. A dirty and unpleasant salon or spa isn’t likely to have many returning customers; it’ll impact customer retention efforts.
Consider hiring standby cleaners and investing in high-quality furniture to make the place feel cosy.
II. Offer excellent customer service
From the moment a customer enters your salon or spa till they leave, aim to make their experience memorable. Welcome them and ensure they’re comfortable.
Be polite and offer to assist them, whether choosing a style or pointing to where they can charge their phones. Address concerns or complaints with empathy. Consider sending a personalised thank you text or email, birthday greetings, etc.
Most importantly, be good at what you do. In a recent report, 72.1% of Nigerian beauty customers chose the quality of service over all other factors as the aspect of salon and spa services that contribute most to their satisfaction.
Tip 3: Set up customer loyalty programs
Loyalty programs are one of the most effective and popular ways of promoting your business and retaining customers. The goal is to give customers something free or cheaper to incentivise them to stay loyal to your brand.
You can use loyalty programs to improve customer retention in the following ways:
I. Offer first-timers discounts
Your potential customers, like everyone, don’t mind getting more for less. Offering special discounts, such as 15% off for the first waxing session, can begin the process of turning them into repeat customers
Also, the strategy makes it easy for customers still deciding between your beauty business and your competitors to choose you.
II. Reward existing customers
Also, you must strive to keep existing customers by rewarding them for their patronage. It could be a 20% discount on a massage session after spending a set amount, a free haircut after a certain number of visits, or cashback for every successful referral.
Use a salon and spa management tool like Splice to create and manage your customer loyalty program, automating the rewards.
Tip 4: Motivate your staff
Your team is your most crucial ally in your mission to improve customer retention. They spend more time with your customers than you. It’s wise to pay attention to them, even as you focus on your customers.
The following are ways you can motivate them to work harder and do better:
- Create a positive work environment.
- Set clear job descriptions and expectations.
- Recognise their achievements and reward them accordingly.
- Compensate them fairly and promptly.
- Avoid micromanaging and second-guessing them.
- Provide them with growth opportunities (e.g., ongoing training and promotions).
The more satisfied your employees are, the more motivated they’ll be to do their jobs. Motivated employees provide customers with better experiences, ultimately boosting retention.
Tip 5: encourage customers to pre-book appointments
Asking your customers to pre-book is an effective way to ensure they return. It entails recommending that they secure a spot for their next appointment as they wrap up their session.
Contrary to what you might fear, most customers appreciate the offer to pre-book. Among other things, it suggests that you value their patronage. Moreover, for many customers, it removes the stress of keeping track of future beauty schedules.
A simple “Would you like to book your next appointment in advance” can do the trick.
A management tool like Splice will help you send them reminders to ensure they keep to their appointment.
Tip 6: Use salon and spa management software
Management software helps your beauty business manage appointments, oversee staff schedules, track inventory, process payments, enhance customer management, and provide business insights.
For many customers, however, management software can be the difference between choosing your shop or going elsewhere. To drive customer retention, your salon or spa should offer an easy, quick, and convenient way for existing and potential customers to book appointments anytime, anywhere.
Splice can streamline appointment booking for your customers and increase the chances of repeat business.
Conclusion
Customers are the backbone of any business, including salons and spas. Therefore, customer retention is vital for every owner to understand and master. The practical tips in this salon customer retention guide will show you how to build relationships with clients, help you improve your retention and expand your business.
Let Splice help you automate your business operations as you embark on your makeup business journey.
