If not, here is why you should!

Every business owner knows that getting customers to come back, again and again, is critical. It is even more important in sectors such as hair and beauty, where a loyal base can help build that essential bottom line.

If you haven’t yet figured out how often your customers are visiting your hair or beauty salon over a year, it may be time to take a step back and get a closer look at this revealing statistic.  Let’s say you have 100 regular customers. They average about two visits a year and spend around £50 on various treatments each time. That’s £10,000 in your business bank account, almost guaranteed.

But what if you put in a strategy to increase the frequency of visit for this demographic from 2 to 4? That’s £20,000 and more profit. Or 6? That’s £30,000.

Setting frequency of visit targets

Many salon owners ignore a vital metric like frequency of visits, believing that they can do nothing much to influence things. This is pretty far removed from the truth. You already know that these customers like your salon – why else would they keep coming back twice a year or more?

It’s useful to look at averages when it comes to the number of times your average customer books an appointment – making individual plans can work but are time-consuming and messy. If you have a plan in place, it can be a reasonably simple task to spot when your average visit starts to rise.

Creating a plan for rebooking

There are a variety of different ways to get existing customers to engage with you. You might, for example, want to introduce new services and put on special offers.

Any business needs to find out what their customers are thinking. This can be a great place to start when organising your marketing strategy. Carrying out a brief survey while someone is in your salon will undoubtedly reveal some great ideas. Ask loyal customers why they come to you, what other services they might be looking for and how you could improve things.

Your communication strategy is going to be key here. One of the most powerful marketing tools today is social media. Whether you are on a site like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, make sure that you post regularly and, more importantly, encourage customers to follow you online.

Another great salon marketing tool is email. This often gets a bad rap but is still one of the best ways to market your business, get your message directly in front of your customers, and have a strong ROI. You can even personalise messages and make them more powerful and effective.

It’s also essential to educate your salon team to look at rebooking for customers when they have finished a beauty treatment. Offering deals on similar products can also make a difference. It’s worth keeping details for customers such as when their birthday is so you can send them a card and maybe a voucher for a beauty or hair treatment.

Attracting new clients

Of course, you should do all this while you try to attract new customers to your business. One idea would be to create a VIP event for your existing customers and give them a free ticket to bring along a friend. Giving potential customers the chance to book online can also make a difference.