The Art of Clientele: Attracting and Retaining Customers in Your Beauty Salon

The same lingering question of how to increase salon clientele still manages to ooze through the cracks at the end of the day. And rightfully so if you notice a drop in your booking it’s time to introduce new changes in your services and booking process. Getting your beauty salon or spa accumulated with a group of loyal clients can be quite a demanding task. Here are some best practices to help you attract more clients:

First booking, the initial visit, you working like a dog to give your best first impression. All the efforts – from someone noticing your work and booking again your services can be tricky, intensive, and expensive. And it’s for this reason, we recommend focusing more on retaining existing clients than booking new ones. The bottom line is, client retention helps keep your business running and expanding.

Multiple studies have shown that it costs up to 5 times more to onboard new clients than to retain existing ones. A report by Stitch Labs teams also stated that repeat clients spend 120% more as compared to new buyers. We can go on and on about the value of repeat clients making it more evident that retaining clients should be your biggest priority.

Marketing Strategy

While you have a list of loyal clients who happily come back to your services on their own, many shoppers need nudges to do so. And whenever it comes to marketing there are so many appealing ideas that can easily distract you. There are various shiny objects to distract you in order to get more foot traffic, more online subscribers, more clients, and more money. And while there’s no time for experimentation, we’d like to share some basic tried and tested ideas that’ll always work for you.

• Visual branding
• Website
• Social media
• Google and Facebook Ads
• Google my business listing
• Email & social reviews
• Charity Events
• Youtube tutorials 
• Buy now pay later offers

Remember, attracting and retaining customers in your beauty salon is about standing out amongst the competition.

Craft an Amazing Guest Experience

Stellar customer service and attention to detail can go a long way when it comes to the art of clientele. From your receptionist to assistant to stylist, it’s critical to have the best customer service mindset. Beautifully decorated and aesthetically pleasing decor also plays a vital role in creating an amazing guest experience. Unfortunately, the guest experience is a never-ending journey. Constantly evaluating your services and quality, you’ll create more opportunities for them to enjoy your services. A pro tip is to ask for clients’ feedback regularly.

Offer a Membership Program

Membership plans are the best way to increase your beauty salon’s revenue every month. Many salons also offer loyalty programs for their devoted members. The loyalty programs offer discounts or free treatments once they’ve visited your salon for a particular number of times. You can start something like a Gold Card, pay $800, and get services worth $1000. Although this is the most famous package to offer; it’s famous for a reason. Make sure your staff is well-taught and updated about all the services and packages offered.

Word of Mouth Brand Promotion

Word-of-mouth is among the most effective ways to win trust and retain loyal customers in a beauty salon. This way of doing business is well-known for expanding your client base, increasing your visibility, and making you a market leader. Your most dedicated clients can act as ambassadors, communicating your salon through their word-of-mouth recommendations.. Your updos might be flawless, and nail work comparable to that of Kim Kardashian’s, but without promotion, you’re on a sailboat without wind blowing. The benefits you gain will be dependent on your level of creativity. Come up with new services and ideas, and reward clients that genuinely helped you through word-of-mouth marketing.

Make Your Social Media Standout 

In the US alone there are 1,394,483 Nail & Hair salons – not to mention home-based businesses, chair renters, and mobile services. In simple words, you’ve got competition. Social media is an efficient way to save time and money for your beauty salon to retain customers. Besides that, you might also try running ads on Facebook, Instagram, or Google for even better visibility and reach. Promote your point of difference – what experience do you have in the salon industry? Is your salon eco-friendly? Do you cater to children, elderly, or physically challenged people? Getting creative will involve knowing what and when to share on social media platforms.

Booking and Follow-Up 

Here’s a reality check for you about basic human nature – we’re mostly inclined to do things that are easy to understand in one go. Make it super easy to schedule an appointment with Picktime. Don’t hide your booking button in layers on the website or social media handles. Make that button eye-catching with Picktime. This cloud-based beauty salon scheduling software called Picktime simplifies the process of scheduling appointments with clients. Beauty, Nails, Hair, Spa, Yoga, or Fitness can serve every business. It has an easy-to-use interface and an easily customizable booking page with 24/7 access.

Research shows that more than 30 percent of bookings happen after office hours and Picktime is here to serve as your salesperson in those hours. It’s free to use and from sales to payment to team management it can handle all.

In addition, it offers users a Book Now button to place on your website with a unique URL. It’ll send automatic SMS & email reminders of bookings. You can access your dashboard from multiple locations on any device at any time. Users can have appointments booked from the real-time slot availability. Reduced no-shows, one-click booking, 24Hrs chat support, secure database, reports & dashboard, automatic timezone conversion, online calendar (Apple/Google/Outlook), unlimited appointments, customized emails, waitlist, and merge contacts. It has a never-ending feature list.

Not only this, but users can also have powerful integrations with other business tools including – PayPal, Stripe, Google Meet, Zoom, MS Teams, GoToMeeting, Booking Widgets, Email Marketing, CRMs, and so much more.

Conclusion

The art of clientele is not something that can be learned in one night. You need to actively learn, encourage, and repeat client retention strategies. Attracting and retaining customers in your beauty salon is a combination of your skillset, marketing strategies, booking process, and client services. By using a tool like Picktime, you can streamline appointments and enhance client satisfaction, helping you attract new customers and keep your existing ones.