If you are in the beauty industry, you already know the competition is tough. Not only do you need to work hard to get noticed, but you also have to keep your clientele constantly satisfied if you don’t want them to simply walk to the other side of the street. If you’ve been struggling to make progress, here are a few tips that will help you boost your salon business and keep clients coming in.
Be present online
Nowadays, a huge chunk of the world’s business is done through the internet. And while your salon will always remain brick and mortar, you can get an incomparable advantage if you invest in your online presence. There are so many ways to put yourself on the map and in front of your target audience. The first step is opening a Google My Business profile and making sure that all the information about your business is accurate and up-to-date when your potential clients click on you. Secondly, it should go without saying that your salon needs to have a stylish and informative website. Your potential clients will most likely check out your website before deciding on your salon, so making a professional impression is paramount. Add a business blog to your existing website to get more traffic and establish yourself as an industry expert. Finally, social media is a must nowadays. Keeping your profiles active will make sure your followers don’t forget about your existence and posting valuable content will compel them to share it with their friends, earning your word of mouth.
Keep your bookings full
Making sure bookings are constantly coming in is a sure way to boost your salon’s revenue. But how do you go about this? In fact, there are several strategies that can help you get more regular bookings. First of all, facilitate the booking process as much as possible. Make sure online booking is available through your website, and consider even implementing a mobile booking option that will make it easy for your clients to get an appointment whenever and wherever. Making a phone call is not always an option, and these innovations solve this issue at once. In addition, consider offering different discounts for repeat clients. For instance, give your loyal customers 10% off their second booking, and 20% off their third one if they make all three appointments at the same time. This is a great way to ensure they will certainly come back.
Sell products and gift cards
The next easy way to give a boost to your salon business is simply by introducing retail to your assortment. Your clients will often ask you for advice and recommendations when it comes to the products they should use. Why send them to a different place when you can offer to sell these products to them yourself? Retail is an effortless way to boost your revenue, so it’s a great way to earn a secondary income. In addition to selling products, you can also consider adding gift cards to your offer. There is literally no downside to this addition. Make sure your clients know that they can purchase gift cards, and as long as they are satisfied with your services, there is no reason why they would not do so. Selling a gift card gives you an immediate cash boost, so make sure it’s available through all channels (online, too).
Introduce something new
Offering your usual treatments you’re already good at is completely fine, but it will only keep on bringing new clients for so long. With trends changing at the speed of light, you too should stay in the loop and constantly update your repertoire. For instance, this year, French manicures are coming back in style with a creative twist. Since you can expect more and more people asking for it, it’s a good idea to come up with your own unique designs and have everyone in town sport colored tips. Or if your salon offers lash extensions, take a look at the current statistics and see what style is the most popular. Russian Volume lashes have been overwhelmingly popular thanks to celebrity icons, so enrolling in a Russian lash course could give a refreshing boost to your business this year.
Try upselling
Sometimes, boosting your salon business’ revenue is not about quantity but rather, quality. Getting the most money out of each appointment beats over scheduling yourself and spending more time on earning the same amount of money. This is where up selling comes in. The act of up selling involves convincing your client to choose a more expensive (and of course, higher quality) counterpart to the treatment they were going for. Very often, up selling attempts are ineffective, however, if you don’t overdo it but showcase your expertise and gain the trust of your customer, this tactic will work out well. Make sure that what you offer is always something that truly benefits your client. Moreover, never push it; if your client does not have the capacity to spend more, your up selling attempts will only put them off. Make sure you learn about the art of up selling so that it works both in your and your client’s favor.
Show off your work
Finally, no matter how great you are at what you do if people do not see it. To boost your salon, you have to make sure your work is visible. Updating your website and staying active on social media have already been mentioned, but they are of great importance in this aspect as well. A picture is worth a thousand words, so ask your clients whether they are comfortable with you taking a photo of them after their appointment. You can also encourage selfies and remind your clients to tag your profile on their pictures, so that everyone knows where they got their hair done, for instance. Besides photos, you should also encourage reviews. People believe online reviews as much as if they were coming from their friends. So, making sure that your web pages showcase all the good things clients have said about you is paramount. Sometimes, people simply forget to write a review. Sending a follow-up email after an appointment is a great way to ask them to fill out a quick survey or leave a few words.
If you want to take your beauty salon to the next level, it’s not enough to keep on doing what you do. You need to constantly work on bringing in new clients and keeping your work top-notch. Hopefully, the aforementioned tips will come in handy in your efforts.
