To have a successful salon, you MUST have a basic understanding of how you attract clients and more importantly how to convert them into your clients.
Most salon owners put a lot of time and effort into attracting clients, but pay little or no attention to keeping them.
Remember, you are nothing without clients.
Two key elements that you should be obsessing over when owning your salon are
- Why do they leave other salons and why do they come to you?
- How many clients are returning to your salon and how often?
If you’ve been watching my webinars over the last couple of years, you would have noticed a pattern. I teach salon owners how to ‘attract’ the right client, how to convert that client to return again and again and how to ‘deliver’ a remarkable experience so they become loyal fans of yours.
Attracting new clients
When a good client decides to leave the comfort of their current salon they will shop around and look for a new salon that satisfies their needs.
People don’t just leave a salon for no reason. Something has happened. That salon didn’t deliver on their promise to the client and the client is in search of a new salon to help them get what it is they want.
This is as far as your marketing goes.
It just says “Hey this is what we do!”
If the prospective client is considering your salon as their next salon of choice they will not do it lightly.
They WILL check you out.
They WILL look at your sign above your salon, Google your website, they will head over to your social platforms and get some understanding about what your salon’s vibe is. If they like what they see and feel secure they will reach out and book an appointment with you.
After all, people don’t want to move from salon to salon, they want somewhere that is reliable and looks after their needs.
This is one of the main areas that you need to concentrate on.
You need to know why they left their last salon and why they chose yours.
These two important questions hold the key to attracting clients to your salon anytime you want.
This is so important. It’s one of the first things we teach you at Lifestyle Salon Systems in Module 1. It takes a little bit of effort, but once you master it you will see a huge increase in new clients.
Once you know what they’re looking for in a salon, you can start letting them know that you are an expert in it, or that it’s your passion.
It will open up a whole new market of people that will start seeing your salon, where you were previously invisible to them.
Client retention
Then there’s what we call ‘the leaky bucket.’
There’s no point in trying to fill your salon with new clients if you are losing them faster than you are attracting them. Sounds like common sense but it’s the number 1 mistake most salon owners make.
You are in a repeat business, business. Your sole aim is to attract clients that will love what you do and return again and again.
So why do so many salon owners get this so wrong?
Well it’s easier to throw out an ad or post to attract clients. It feels good to think that you can attract attention to your salon and it’s always nice to hear a client say ‘they chose your salon.’
But by focusing all your efforts on new clients and forgetting about the ones you have will have an impact on your salons takings. Your staff will always struggle to hit targets and you will always see gaps in your appointment book.
You need to take control of this and have a plan to get your clients back.
Some clients leave because you didn’t deliver on what they expected from you. This could be a marketing issue, where you’re attracting the wrong clients or your client journey is sub- standard and needs work. Take a look at both of these areas and decide which one is your problem that needs fixing.
The benchmark for new client retention is around 25% and for your current clients it’s around 76% so potentially you can easily be losing close to half thousands and thousands over the year.
Now that’s some major leak……
Most salon owners don’t know what to fix next and this is where having a coach separates you from the rest. Imagine being able to chat to a salon expert who has done all of this in their salon and lives and breathes these types of scenarios day in, day out? No wonder salon owners that have a coach make more money faster than salons owners that don’t.
But clients not returning is not the only leak you have.
Clients have started to drag out their appointments and visit your salon less and less.
This is having a MASSIVE impact on your salons takings and success rate. This alone is setting your salon back thousands and wasting years and years.
Look at the impact this is having on salons today.
This happened in my salon too.
Back in 2008 when the recession started to hit, my client visits between appointments were sitting around 8.2 weeks. That’s 6 times a year. I noticed more white spaces in my appointment book.
I always checked my client retention and I knew I wasn’t losing clients, so this baffled me. My computer system was telling me my client visits hadn’t changed but I knew something wasn’t right. You don’t start to get gaps that appear for no reason. I spent all weekend looking into my numbers round and round until ‘BAM’ I found it. I called my software company to check why their client visit number was different to mine.
I was shocked.
Their system only tracks the last 90 days, which is ludicrous. Of course, your favourite clients come back regularly, so that number is irrelevant. I suggest you call up your software company and ask them the same question. How long does my client visit track for?
As a salon coach, I get to see behind the scenes of all salon software companies and 99% of them only track the last 90 days. This is NOT good enough.
Ok, back to my story……
I had worked out that my clients were dragging out their appointments by a week. It doesn’t sound a lot and that’s why salon owners miss it, but the impact of going 9.2 weeks between visits translated to over $150,000 loss in revenue
Check out the impact this will have on your salons takings
Now I track this with all my coaching clients to fix this leak as soon as possible.
This is how we fixed these issues for my coaching clients…
I created a module called ‘The First 60 Days’. It’s a system that, for 60 days, ‘wows’ the client and makes sure they return. This fixes the new client retention issue, ensuring sure the client returns to the salon. See the plan below.
I also created a ‘305 days’ module, designed to stop clients dragging out their appointments. This is a set and forget system that encourages and rewards clients for visiting sooner.
Both these systems will fix the leaks in your salon.
Remember, the bigger the leak, the more new clients you will need, otherwise you’ll struggle to grow your salon.
Richard McCabe
‘The Lifestyle Salon Coach’
www.lifestylesaloncoach.com
When you’re ready here are ways I can help you…
- WATCH MY FREE WORKSHOP – Click here to get instant access
https://isaloncoaching.lpages.co/lifestyle-salon-plan/
- BOOK A FREE NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION- Find out how we can help you grow your salon faster and more profitable.
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