Developing great relationships with your clients is an essential part of running a salon. This is a two-way street – you need a solid, repeat business clientele, and clients need a salon they can rely on.
There is also the hard business fact that an unhappy client can easily take to social media or online reviews and broadcast their poor opinion of you.
Therefore, it is vital that your clients feel valued. Here are the top ways you can show them how important they are .
Be a Great Listener.
Listening means not only giving the client your full attention, but researching and asking focused questions, knowing their concerns, and coming up with the right solutions for them.
Take the time to ensure you understand exactly what the client wants, and remain sensitive to their needs. Teach your team to listen carefully to what your clients have to say, paying complete and respectful attention to their answers. Empower team members to make expert recommendations to clients who may not even realize what they need.
Personalize Your Interactions.
Salon professionals are always dealing with clients on a one-to-one basis, which gives the salon an advantage over larger, more impersonal businesses. Leverage this by ensuring that clients feel truly seen.
Always know their name and use it! Take notes on their likes and dislikes, or any personal information they happen to share, and keep them on file for reference before all their upcoming appointments. Get their birth date and send them a birthday gift — a special offer on products or services, or a complimentary gift.
You can even go the extra mile and drop an actual card in the mailbox to them on special occasions or milestones. Especially in our modern digital age, it is a good way to stand out and be remembered.
Foster a Sense of Trust.
Fundamental to creating a trusting relationship is the guarantee that if you promise something, you deliver. Set realistic goals for clients, then under-promise and over-deliver. Be transparent in your dealings.
If you are asked for an opinion, be polite, positive, and genuine. If you ever let a client down in any way, offer a sincere apology and do what it takes to make it right.
Ask For Feedback.
Use online surveys or questionnaires, or social media posts, to gather their opinions. The fact that you have asked shows them you care about their feedback.
When you get responses (good and bad), always acknowledge them and when possible, act on them. If you solicit their feedback but don’t do anything with it, that tells them their opinion doesn’t matter.
Chat With Your Clients.
Use AI tools to implement interactive texting and add a live chat widget to your website.
The latter often comes with more detailed information — how much time they spent on your website, what pages they viewed, etc. — and you can use it to provide more efficient help and strengthen your salon/ client relationship.
Send Effective Follow-Up Communications.
Always thank clients for their visit with a post-service follow-up email that’s personalized based on information available to you.
Consider customizing your follow-ups even more with product recommendations based on their service or retail purchases. Remember: 100 percent of your clients buy home-care products. They should be buying them from you!
Winning loyal clients doesn’t take huge marketing budgets. When it comes to client loyalty, it's the small gestures that get appreciated and remembered.
Adding a personal touch to every client transaction has a huge impact on how they perceive your salon. Remember: “The only mile that matters is the extra mile!”
Liz McKeon, a salon business coach and founder of The International Salon Business School, is currently offering a special deal on her "Successful Salon Formula" coaching program.
Liz is the author of 30 Days to Beauty Business Success. She can be booked for customized, in-salon coaching visits for one, two, or three days by emailing [email protected].
