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How to find the best clients and keep them

Winning new customers can be hard and expensive for many salons, but keeping them is even harder. And yet, it doesn’t have to be that way.

All successful service businesses are built on customer loyalty and all have one thing in common - a commitment to delivering excellent client care. In the ethnic hair and beauty sector, however, a high level of customer service is not seen as a priority and, as a result, it is not uncommon for salons to lose hundreds of clients each year. In fact, the only reason why many salons stay in business is because they have reasonable creative skills and their competitors are just as bad at customer service as they are!

The good news is that it doesn’t take much for you to become a shining example of fantastic customer service, move ahead of your competitors and begin to reap the rewards. This article will start you on the way to improving your reputation, retaining more of your clients, delivering on your promises and making more money as a result.

Step back and take a look

When was the last time you took a good look at your business? Take a few days off from seeing clients – pretend you’re on holiday – and talk openly with staff, customers, suppliers and advisors like your accountant. Do your employees feel inspired, valued and well rewarded? How do your clients feel about waiting times, the salon environment, staff attitudes and the level of personal service they receive? Do you actually know how many active clients you have, compared with those who haven’t visited in the last 3-6 months or more? On average, are your clients spending more per appointment than last year and are they attending the salon more or less frequently?

If you can’t answer most of these questions, you are not in control of your business and a review is urgently needed. Taking time out to complete this exercise will give you an excellent starting point for improvement.

Make improvements and stick to them

Think of ways to improve customer service and begin to implement them immediately. One of the best ways to do this is to imagine how you would be treated if you were the buyer of a luxury product or service, like a brand new £80,000 Mercedes or a £5,000 designer dress or suit. One of my clients actually sends his staff to the finest stores in Bond Street, Sloane Square and Knightsbridge, just so they can see what excellent customer service looks and feels like.

What they find fascinating is how simple it is to make anyone feel special:

• Use their name at all times (makes it personal)
• Offer a seat and a drink (shows caring)
• Spend time finding out about their lifestyle and preferences (ensures your product or service is suitable)
• Always keep appointments and finish promptly (shows respect for their time)
• Explain what you are doing and why (adds value to your service)
• Offer maintenance or treatment products (to solve a problem or maintain a style)

The best clients are already in your salon

In case you haven’t already guessed, the best clients are the ones you already have. All you have to do is treat them as if they are valuable and they will respond by doing several things:

• Spend more money (on additional products and services)
• Return to the salon more often (as a result of better consultations and diagnosis)
• Recommend friends and family to you (more customers, zero marketing cost)

Let’s look at each of the above areas in more detail to ensure that you maximise each one:

Increasing client spend on each visit

Just ask - otherwise known as the ‘McDonalds’ approach to customer service: “Would you like fries with that? And would you like a drink? How about” Simply asking whether your client would like to add another complementary service is one of the easiest ways to increase appointment value.

Prescriptions – Spending time on consultations allows you to prescribe specific treatments and products to solve your clients’ hair problems. They will spend more and thank you for it.

Using unproductive time – this works particularly well if you offer beauty services. An hour under the dryer or steamer allows enough time for a manicure, pedicure or both.

Value packages – Going back to the McDonalds example, this is the equivalent of the ‘Meal Deal’. Try packaging 2 or 3 complementary services/products together for a specially discounted price, to give your client a better deal and yourself a better profit on the visit.

Product retail – easy to do after a thorough consultation or by talking about the products you use in the salon and explaining the benefits as you go along. Seal the deal by handing over the product and describing how and when to use it.

Increasing appointment frequency

• Loyalty programmes – Giving your clients points for each appointment and then rewarding them with discounts or freebies is a great way to increase both loyalty and frequency, because they are less likely to go elsewhere. If it helped Tesco become Britain’s biggest retailer, it might just work for you!
• Regular customer communications – A monthly newsletter, birthday greetings, special offers, seasonal promotions, new products or services, are all great opportunities to stay in touch with clients. And with the prevalence of email and text messaging, the cost can be minimal.
• Proactive appointments – The most effective way to increase appointments is to agree frequency during the consultation, based on the client’s needs. If done properly, it is then easy to finalise at check-out: “Great, we’ll see you in 6 weeks’ time. Would you like the Thursday or Friday morning or afternoon?”

Getting more clients from existing clients

Commonly known as referrals, this happens naturally when satisfied customers tell other people about your salon and recommend your services. That’s why we have focussed so much on improving customer service – to ensure that all your clients are talking about you in a positive manner. Research shows that satisfied customers voluntarily tell 2-3 people about their experience, while those who are dissatisfied may tell up to 16 people!

The key to success in this area is to set up a proactive ‘formal’ referral system – one that does not rely on your clients remembering to recommend you when someone asks for a good hairdresser. A formal referral system is simple to set up and should include:

Smart business cards - to make it easy for clients to pass on your details
Discount vouchers for new customers – even better than cards

Rewards for clients – so they keep on recommending you

Perfect timing – ask for referrals when clients are most satisfied. This is usually at the end of the appointment when their hair looks perfect.

The big pay-off

Expensive photo-shoots and advertisements in glossy magazines are a great way to build your profile and frighten the competition, but can easily be a hiding to nothing. Without great customer service, you won’t be able to capitalise on those new-found clients and make your investment a profitable one.

Paying more attention to your clients’ needs and providing them with the right solutions is a lot cheaper than constantly advertising to find new clients to replace the ones who have left. Satisfied customers are your primary source of profit because of how little you have to spend to keep them. The clients they refer to you are just as profitable because of how little you spend to acquire them.

For example, if you spent £500 on advertising you would need at least 20 new clients at £50 per head (assuming 50% profit) to break even (20 x £50 = £1000 x 50% = £500). However, using the strategies outlined above, 10 satisfied customers referring just 2 new clients each at £50 per head would result in £500 clear profit.

Take action now

Start implementing these strategies in your salon immediately and be prepared to adjust your approach until they work seamlessly. Once you’ve got the right formula, be sure to train each member of your team, juniors included, to use the same techniques, questions and phrases, for consistency of results.