I have some questions to ask: are you keeping up your beauty industry health regularly? Are you updating tools or techniques? Is the marketing strategy able to convert new ones into regular customers? Chances are, my questions have made you think twice!
Of course, as a beauty industry owner, you are busy handling several day-to-day operations. But, at the same time, it is important to maintain the salon’s growth. And that is possible when you follow the right strategies. With my research and experience, I have prepared some of the influencing methods that can keep your beauty business running smoothly, resulting in a higher customer retention rate and profitability. Know them below!
Tips for managing Beauty Industry Success
#1. Keep Google My Business Listing (GMB) up to date
As the beauty industry is profiling at a higher rate and the searches on “Salon near me” are increasing, it is essential that you are visible to the visitors. When someone searches on Google for your business to book an appointment, check the opening and closing times, or know the location, the reviews from the existing customer show up.
Ensure that the mentioned details of contact and location are updated. It is best to link to the best services and products from the GMB listing. Include the positive reviews from your customers on the GMB page. Hence, ask the loyal and satisfied customers to give reviews on the services they have taken or the products they have bought. Additionally, remind them of the same via SMS or email; you can also insert the page link to the message you are sending.
#2. Improve the Salon customer base
I do not think I need to remind you of the importance of customers for your business. Do I have to? Customers are responsible for your salon’s success! Without them or losing them can result in the loss of several business opportunities. So, nurturing them is quite an important thing.
Each customer added to your salon impacts the salon ROI directly. Therefore, the number of customers served each month could be considered a key performance indicator (KPI) that you have to track.
Certainly, there are many ways in which you can improve the customer base. Yes, you can include new customers and maintain the loyalty of the existing ones.
By measuring the number of customers, the staff performance can also be measured. Giving a target to staff to serve the customer could grow the customer base as well as grow the salon business. The number can be defined considering the type of beauty industry you are in and the pace of your business. Here, one piece of advice I would like to give is to prioritize existing customers rather than engage new ones. Positively, the powerful yet promising solution to engage 50% new salon customers is to have a salon website and reliable salon booking software.
#3. Upsell your existing customers
If you want real value for your efforts and money, then, give importance to existing customers. See, you have converted them into your regular customers! So, what better than taking leverage from this already engaged audience? By upselling customers better, more costly services and products, you are gaining more profitable results without even spending an extra penny.
And, to do so, there is a need to prepare an engaging speech. Of course, the existing audience would not like to listen for hours to something that they already know. The consequence is that your salon customers leaving you while they get irritated. Hence, make a one-shot speech related to the benefits of the best serving services and highly sell products to make them more interested.
#4. Increase sales and sell products on every visit
On every customer appointment, you can sell Salon’s products and services and grow. Always remember that simple changes result in big differences. If your staff is able to sell on every appointment, then sales can increase from 30 to 100%. There are several factors to improve the percentage of sales on every customer visit. Find them out below:
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Providing add-on services
Assure to have several services on the salon menu that can be simply added on and served quickly during the appointment.
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Offer a different retail variety
The simple way to improve the percentage of products sold is to provide retail items complemented with salon services.
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Sell Salon products proactively
I have heard many times that staff members do not like selling products. Definitely, they are not! But, what is wrong with marketing for those items that you are applying to customers and even possess in beauty industry. I didn’t mean to push them to purchase from you. But, instill in them the value and define it as if you are giving them a personal recommendation.
#5. Reward and Cultivate Salon Staff
The staff members are on the same page as your customer. They are as important! The stylists are the ones who are making customers regular and potential ones. They can either make or break your business. Hence, it is essential to nurture them so that they give their best for future services.
Competitive benefits and pay are vital to making the best-performed employees permanent, and, flexible appointments are also crucial. Their job is physically and mentally demanding; therefore, they require work-life balance. They have friends, family, or other tasks to complete that require time. So, you must give them rewards and recognize them for their work, loyalty, time, etc.
#6. Remain updated with advanced trends, and tools
Whatever equipment, tools, or techniques your salon is using will fade away one day. Therefore, it is essential to update the inventory and the software solution. In the competitive market of the beauty industry, remaining ahead is difficult, but it is possible when you are using and giving the best possible measures.
For your customers, make booking an easy task. Implement the online booking software in your software and let them book with you anytime and from anywhere. However, the solution makes the salon owners keep an eye on the inventory, employee performance, reports & analytics, etc. The best part is that it saves plenty of time by handling the salon operations manually. And give you the privilege to make the salon more successful.
#7. Make your Existing Customers Visit Regularly
Of course, you have good customer footfall. But, how regularly are they visiting a salon. If you are able to compel customers to make their visit to you at least ten times more than eight, I call it a 20% boost in salon income.
Many things are there that you can perform to improve the customer frequency. Some of them are defined below:
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Re-book the customers
Let your employees ask customers for their next visit to you. Ask them what the right time is for their next visit. Engage them with some offers or discounts.
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Take advantage from Salon booking software
The salon software these days is fully-featured. They own the feature of a reminder and notification system. Using SMS or email, you can send notifications to customers about current deals, or offers. Or ask the customer for their feedback on the services they have taken. Also, check out the features the software holds and know if they are all that Salon requires.
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Leverage email newsletters
It is also one of the best ways to maintain communication with the customer when they are not visiting. Of course, the newsletter should not be sales-oriented, but promotional messages can be included. This act will insist that the customer schedule an appointment with you.
#8. Set up paid search ads
For salon owners, it is a must to be visible so that they can get noticed. Ensure that whenever visitors search, you will come up. Are you wondering how this is possible? Take advantage of paid search ads.
So, remain specific while running the search ads. If you are paying each time the customer clicks on your link, you will like to show the campaigns to those who can schedule with you. Probably those targeted who are located nearby your salon. Also, particular words can be defined that the visitors use to search. It could be the services you are offering. By using ad copy to target, you are improving the chances of clicking the ad and booking.
#9. Include a Facebook or Insta-friendly room in Salon
When it comes to social media, sharing matters. Why? Usually, the audience tends to share content that is useful, productive, and valuable to others as well. You can gain business opportunities from this act. Customers sharing the images (before and after) of their services turns out to be beneficial.
Create a room or space for customers to take selfies. Get a ring light for them to have the best picture. Ask the customers to tag your salon while sharing the image on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. Give rewards or discounts to those customers on their next visit.
My advice is to create a check-in location and hashtags for your salon. The selfie room induces word-of-mouth marketing and can give your customers more. You can call it a contemporary type of testimonial.
#10. Start your YouTube Channel
In the fashion of social media handles, we cannot overlook YouTube. It is one of the mediums that many big giants follow to market their salons. Many find it time-consuming, but it is still profitable. Undeniably, YouTube captures the attention of almost 2 billion visitors daily. So, why not take this opportunity?
Make videos of stylists styling customers, or you can also make tutorials to make it more interesting. Assuredly, it will approach and adapt more. If you are thinking that you are not a professional at making excellent videos, then, don’t worry! Usually, the audience likes those videos that are authentic and real rather than highly edited content. Consider the fact that videos are more popular than images.
Concluding Remarks
It does not matter if you are new to the beauty industry or established your presence a long time ago. What is desirable is to stay ahead of competitors. The market size of the beauty industry is huge, hence, maintaining a salon position has become difficult but not impossible.
All you require is the right plan or strategy, the best staff, important factors for smooth functioning, the right salon software, etc. Give your salon the height it deserves!Is there any other strategy we missed? Have you implemented any of the above? Do let us know!
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