In a previous article on customer retention, I briefly touched on the importance of putting the customer first in your salon or spa. Now, I’ll show you how to improve customer experience for your beauty businesses. 

Customer experience describes how clients perceive their interactions with your beauty business.

Beauty clients can be demanding, and rightly so given the personal nature of the business. They expect your salon or spa to deliver an excellent, cross-channel customer experience (CX). And if you plan on staying in business long-term, you must give it to them. This can be difficult, but it’s not impossible since you’re reading this.  

This article will explain how to improve the customer experience for your salon or spa through practical strategies, including customer knowledge, technology integration, service personalisation, and loyalty programs. 

First, let’s see why you should even provide better customer experiences. 

Why should you aim to improve customer experience? 

Improving your customer experience could have a major impact on your revenue. 

An excellent customer experience results in satisfied customers. And satisfied customers typically return to spend more money. 

More than that, they refer their loved ones to your salon or spa to experience the same great service. Besides increasing revenue, it can also help cut the costs you would have otherwise spent to retain and acquire customers. 

Conversely, a poor customer experience will give rise to a long list of dissatisfied customers. And unhappy customers can cost you a lot of money. 

For one, they won’t return, which means a low customer retention rate. Additionally, they won’t refer people to your business, which translates into a poor customer acquisition rate. Worse, they’ll spread negative reviews about your business, potentially harming your salon or spa growth. 

5 ways to improve customer experience for your salon and spa 

Now that you know how improving customer experience is critical to the success of your beauty business, let’s see how you can ensure it. 

Here are five ways to improve the customer experience for your beauty brand:

1. Know your target customers

The success of all the strategies in this article depends on how well you know your customers and what they want. You can’t improve the experiences of customers you don’t know. 

Do the following to get to know your customers: 

I. Use your research

Before launching your business, I’m sure you researched your target customers — what they expect and hate. If you have yet to, now’s a good time. Use research to curate a pleasant experience for all your customers. 

II. Learn from similar businesses 

Find other salons or spas in your niche targeting the same customers and see what they’re doing successfully to improve customer experience. Pick the relevant strategies and apply them to your business. 

III. Actively listen to customers on social media

Customers know what they want better than anyone, even you. So listen to them. 

Active listening involves keeping tabs on what potential and existing customers say across all social media platforms. It gives you insight into how customers perceive your salon or spa and how you can serve them better. 

IV. Ask for feedback

Ask existing customers for feedback on their experiences so far. It’ll help you gather valuable insights into what they want to see more of and the things they dislike. 

2. Empower your employees

Many beauty businesses, unfortunately, neglect their teams in the bid to give customers the best experience. But salons and spas that excel at customer experience understand success starts with employees. Motivated employees translate to satisfied customers. 

Here’s how you can help your employees do better: 

I. Hire a great team

Employ skilled professionals who are motivated to give customers the best. Otherwise, all your efforts to improve customer experience are doomed to fail.

II. Train staff to do better

Employees can’t offer what they don’t have. If you want them to give customers the best, ensure they know how. Don’t assume they already know. Train them to do their jobs and serve customers better. 

III. Listen to your employees

Since your team spends more time with customers than you, it follows that they know more about what clients want. Encourage them to suggest strategies that can improve customer experience. Pay attention to their recommendations. 

IV. Remove roadblocks

Find out anything hindering your employees from delivering a great customer experience and remove them. You can do this by asking them one-on-one or through an employee survey.

V. Use employee management software

A management tool like Splice helps you automate and manage your employees’ schedules, eliminating the need for micromanagement while making them accountable for their work.

3. Deliver excellent customer service

The 2024 Beyond Beauty Survey saw 72.1% of Nigerian beauty customers saying quality of service contributes most to their satisfaction. 

Most customers will leave a beauty brand if they experience poor customer service, it doesn’t matter if they were previously loyal. But that won’t be you because you’ll learn how to improve customer experience through excellent customer service. 

Customer service is the backbone of a great customer experience. Once you know what your customers expect and your team is equipped to give it to them, you’re on the right track to provide unforgettable customer service, and by extension, a great experience. 

Here are some things you can do to ensure excellent customer service: 

I. Embrace an omnichannel approach

Omnichannel is a business strategy that engages customers across multiple channels, such as in-store, mobile, and online. 

However your customers prefer to engage with your salon or spa, you should be available. 

II. Respond quickly 

Customers don’t want to be kept waiting. One of the top things they expect from businesses is quick response. Hire a standby social media manager to handle all interactions across platforms and install a chatbot on your websites. 

III. Stay reliable 

Ensure you deliver on your promise to customers to build trust. Customers patronise beauty brands they trust. Or as they say on social media, your products and services must give what they are supposed to give. Don’t break trust as it can be difficult to rebuild.  

IV. Personalise interactions

Everyone, including your customers, loves to feel special. Customers stick with brands that give them this feeling. To achieve this, use what you know about your customers to understand their preferences. 

For instance, the Splice reporting and insight tool can give you an overview of their purchase history and personal details. 

You can use this information to make recommendations and develop special offers, e.g., a happy birthday message with a special birthday discount. 

4. Set up appointment booking software

An effective way to improve customer experience is to make it easy to access your products and services. Many customers will return to patronise your business if you make it simple enough.

A salon and spa appointment booking software offers potential and existing customers a simple, quick, and convenient way to book appointments anytime, anywhere. For many, it can be the difference between patronising only once and returning for more. 

Splice appointment booking software will help you automate bookings for you and your customers, increasing the chances of repeat business and revenue. 

5. Launch customer loyalty programs

Customers are constantly looking for beauty businesses that will give them the most value for their money. You, on the other hand, aim to increase revenue, while you ensure customers get what they want. Creating a customer loyalty program is the one stone to kill these two birds. 

A customer loyalty program is a system that rewards your customers to encourage them to keep doing business with you. 

Regular customers aren’t necessarily loyal to your business. At least, not yet. At this stage, a better deal at another salon or spa could be all it takes to lose them. That’s why rewarding your regulars is a sure way to turn them into loyal customers.

A recent report revealed that 67.4% of Nigerian beauty customers will choose a beauty business with a loyalty program over one without. If you’re not sure what type of loyalty program could work for your salon or spa, see our list of examples. 

Splice can help you create and automate any kind of loyalty program. See the image below: 

Conclusion 

Customers are the backbone of any business. So, if your salon or spa must thrive, you must plan and execute effective strategies to improve customer experience. The practical tips in this article, from customer knowledge and employee empowerment to excellent customer service and loyalty programs, will help you improve customer experience in your salon or spa. 

Let Splice, our all-in-one management tool, help you handle appointment bookings, manage staff schedules, simplify customer management, automate loyalty programs, and provide business insights for data-driven decision-making.