Salon Client retention is essential to ensure growth in your salon business. Competition for your salon clients is fierce. So, the key to keeping your salon a viable and healthy business is not only by maintaining but increasing your salon client retention rate.

By following the top 10 salon client retention strategies discussed below, you will boost your salon client retention rate and ensure an increase in business growth.

What is Salon Client Retention?

Salon client retention is the continuance of a long-term relationship between you and your client.

Your salon client retention rate is the percentage of clients who remain loyal to your business and continue to purchase services or products during a set period. Client retention numbers are reduced by the number of clients who don’t return during this same time frame, often referred to as churn rate.

Why is Salon Client Retention so Important?

Your business relies on a regular income from your clients, which is why salon client retention is vital to the long term health of your business.

Client loyalty is a key component to ensuring client retention. A high client retention rate is a sign that you are taking care of your clients consistently and meeting their needs.

But don’t take my word for it! Here are a few statistics to show you why salon client retention is so important;

• A 5% increase in client retention can lead to an increase in profits from 25-95%.
• A 2% increase in client retention is the equivalent to cutting costs by 10%
• 80% of future profits come from just 20% of your existing clients.
• Existing clients are more 50% more likely to try a new service or product than a new client.
• An existing client will spend, on average, 31% more than a new client.
• Loyal clients are more likely to refer new clients to your salon, and these clients are 16% more valuable than a new non-referred client.

Get the picture? Your existing clients are worth their weight in gold and should be treated as such.

Read on to learn how to improve your salon client retention rate.

The Top 10 Strategies to Boost Salon Client Retention.

 

Provide Exceptional Client Consultations.

To ensure the best outcome for your client, you must provide an exceptional client consultation. Most salon owners think they provide a great consultation, but they often lack consistency in this area. A thorough consultation should accompany every service.

You must be on the same page as your client to avoid poor outcomes. You may perform the best service, treatment or style, but if it isn’t what your client wants, then it’s not a great result, regardless of how great a job you think you have done. Moreover, poor results are sure to reduce your client retention rate.

So, you must take the time to review your clients’ expectations at each appointment. Consultations may seem time-consuming but will pay off when your client is happy. And happy clients return!

Furthermore, happy clients won’t hesitate to refer friends and family.

 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work.

Without a reliable team who are all on the same page, chances are, your business will suffer. It’s essential to educate your staff about client retention to ensure they know all the strategies you will be implementing.

Encouraging teamwork in a salon is a positive and effective way to provide a stimulating and fun work environment. Remember the mantra, your staff work with you, not for you. Treat your team with kindness and respect while remaining firm regarding your expectations.

Proactively encouraging a positive workplace culture helps to keep staff wanting to perform at their best. Providing a little incentive is also a useful tool to have up your sleeve.

Incentivising your staff can help to stimulate more interest in meeting your salon business goals. There are numerous ways of incentivising staff, but you must find an option that is right for your team and budget.

 

Here are a few ideas to consider when staff reach a goal;

Commissions.

• Bonuses.
• Key performance indicators
• Competitions and prizes.
• Try a gamification app.
• Offer movie tickets or a mystery gift.
• Provide a free service or product in your salon.

Konnect has all the tools you need to track the performance of your staff members. You can search your database for each staff member and pull up records for numbers on individual sales, client numbers, client retention rates, number of no-shows and attendance records. To learn more on our reporting tools, click here.

Regular Client Engagement.

Client engagement is a great way to keep your business on your clients’ mind. There is a multitude of ways that you can engage with your client without being invasive or annoying. Regular client engagement, done right can make your clients feel special and improves loyalty.

Here are a few ways to increase engagement;

• Send birthday messages with a discount code
• Send a thank you text after each visit
• Send a regular newsletter with upcoming specials or events
• Entice former clients back with a return discount
• Send holiday or special occasion package deals

Client engagement is a cheap but very effective way to build upon relationships with your clients.

Keep your correspondence light and in-line with your brand. Every interaction counts, so think about these engagement tactics carefully to reap the rewards.

Provide VIP Treatment.

The salon customer experience must be consistent and of a high standard. Clients often come to a salon expecting to be pampered and to unwind from their day to day monotony.

Many salon owners or staff make the mistake of providing a stellar client experience for the first time client but don’t continue this special treatment at subsequent visits.

Consistently excellent customer service and outcomes are vital to ensure client retention numbers increase.

Let me back this up with some pretty revealing statistics;

According to a study on why customers leave a business, 14% did not return due to dissatisfaction in the service, whereas, 69% did not return because they felt like the staff did not care about them.

69% is a pretty significant percentage, and it shows just how important excellent customer service is to maintaining client retention.

So roll out the red carpet for each and every client. Treat them all like VIPs, or they are sure to go to your competitors.

Look out for my next blog on how to provide the best salon client experience.

Ask for feedback.

You don’t know what you don’t know. Therefore, knowledge is power!

If you know where you are falling short in your customer service or treatment outcomes, you have a chance to improve. But, the only way you can find this out, is by asking your clients.

You may like to send a “thank you for your business” text with a short rating system. However, most clients will feel awkward giving negative feedback, even if it is truthful. A good way around this is to have an anonymous feedback option on your website to gather client insights. You may also like to give out client feedback forms and ask your clients to send them back anonymously.

This type of information is extremely valuable, so take these criticisms as sources of learning for you and your staff. After all, keeping your clients happy is one more step to improving your salon client retention rate.

Start a Loyalty program.

Salon loyalty programs are a great way to incentivise your clients to keep coming back. Everybody likes something for nothing. You do! I do! We all do! It’s human nature to feel pleasantly surprised and more valued when we receive a gift or discount from a business. Loyalty programs are one of the best ways to cement loyalty and in turn, increase salon client retention.

In fact, 81% of clients say a loyalty program encourages them to continue going to the same business. Furthermore, clients will even spend more to unlock more rewards.

Konnect has an easy to use loyalty points program that takes all the hard work out of managing such a program. Take a look at our article, The Benefits of a Successful Loyalty Program, to learn more about how to go about implementing a salon loyalty program.

Make use of this great Konnect feature to increase your client retention.

Package Deals.

Want to guarantee repeat visits from your clients? Then package deals are your answer!

Package deals are a great way to keep clients coming back and allows you to work on making great relationships with your clients.

In combination with a loyalty program, you can’t go wrong. But wait! There is something you must remember here, and that is consistency! This is your chance to show your client how every visit is as good as the last. If your standards slip at each subsequent visit, your clients will go elsewhere.

Remember the previous statistic? 69% of customers left a business because they felt like the staff didn’t care about them. So always keep this in mind at each and every visit.

Use these visits to educate your clients and promote take-home products while you are at it. Always recommend products that you are confident will benefit your client to build trust. Building trust is essential to improving client retention.

Always Re-book and Pre-book.

 

One of the most overlooked strategies to maintain and increase client retention is to always re-book and pre-book your clients. Try to make sure every client does not leave your salon without re-booking their next appointment.

Teach your staff to plant the seed of re-booking during treatment. Educate your clients on the importance of maintaining the results of their treatments with repeat visits. Also, always ask your client to re-book before taking payment at the point of sale, as this tactic has a higher re-booking success rate.

Pre-booking is taking bookings in advance. Pre-booking works well in conjunction with selling package deals but can also be work very well in the lead up to Christmas.

Think ahead for your client and show you care by pre-booking from September on, to guarantee they have an appointment before Christmas. Explain to your client that if they want to look fresh for Christmas, they need to book ahead to avoid disappointment. This technique encourages pre-booking and helps to improve salon client retention.

Be Consistently Consistent.

Now I know I have mentioned this before, but it is worthwhile repeating to make sure you take consistency seriously. The key to success is consistency! Small efforts repeated day in and day out will lead to the growth and success of your business.

Consistency in your work ethic and customer service improves client trust, loyalty and retention. Why? Because your clients want predicable and reliable service and treatment outcomes. Even if you are having a bad day, it is essential to keep your work attitude positive. Always treat your clients with respect and kindness, even when they are downright annoying. Deal with complaints calmly and politely. Always make eye contact with your clients and greet everyone with a smile. Addressing your clients by name is also essential.

You can be sure that consistent action creates consistent results. Consistency is the backbone of a successful business with a high client retention rate.

Measure your Results.

Implementing the above strategies are a great way to increase your salon client retention. But, how do you know if all this extra effort is paying off? As I said before “Knowledge is Power!” Set a quarterly time frame and track all the numbers since the implementation of your new strategies.

Konnect makes this super easy. You can search your database for any information you wish. Bring up client retention numbers. Have they improved in the last quarter? If so, why? Is your new loyalty program making an impact? Are you selling more package deals? Have your pre-booking rates increased?

These are all areas you can track and compare easily with Konnects fantastic reporting capabilities.

Furthermore, as your Konnect database is accessible anywhere, anytime, you can do this research in your own time. Kick back at home with a coffee as Konnect comes with convenient mobile access.

Conclusion.

Salon client retention is a key indicator of the health of your salon business. A high client retention rate indicates you are doing a great job, whereas a low number can mean you need to lift your game.

The statistics given in this article are proof that any increase in client retention results in the growth of your salon business.

Striving to provide the best customer service and treatment outcomes with consistency, is your key to success.

Konnect has all the tools you need to help you reach these new heights by boosting salon client retention.

Konnect provides you with the simple, easy-to-use tools to successfully run day-to-day operations in your salon.

Not using Konnect Spa and Salon Software?  Sign up for a free demonstration today.

Jump on board and let us help you take your business to new heights.
Konnect Spa and Salon Software – the simple, affordable key to making your business brilliant.