Yes, times are tough – costs are rising and clients are feeling the pinch and yes…it’s winter

There are always challenges to success but, you know what, skilled businesses always survive.

We all know how important our clients are, however I think most salons believe the more clients you have the more secure your business is, right?… Wrong!

Having lots of clients will give you the perception of success and yes, if you have the right strategies to attract new clients, and if you continue to show clients how much you value their business they will stay with you (until the going gets tough). And if you consult correctly with your clients and grow the number of products and services they buy from you, turnover will grow.

But, at the end of the day, once you have done all that you can, one business principle remains – 20% of your clients generate 80% of your turnover.

Business Philosophy

In simple terms, business philosophy is made of three things – What?, Why?, and How?

  • What needs to be done – The mission,
  • Why it needs to be done – The motivation and,
  • How to go about getting it done – The Strategy.

So what can we do to make sure we don’t lose our top spending clients? Here are a few strategies you can use.

  1. Treat every client like a first-time-client.  Clients need to know how much you value their business and, once they do they will not easily move salons.
  2. Never stop trying to impress clients with your knowledge, experience and expertise. One way to guarantee a long happy marriage is to never end the ‘honeymoon’.
  3. Regularly monitor your top spending clients on your client data base. With MySalon Software you can pull a report that shows your top spending clients including the date of their last visit allowing you to pro-actively communicate with those clients that haven’t been back in a couple of months.
  4. Create a loyalty programme for your clients, especially your top clients, and educate them that they will earn loyalty points every time they visit the salon. You should award bonus loyalty points when clients refer new business to you.  To be successful, and for clients to fully realise the value of being on your loyalty programme, loyalty points must be redeemed for either products or services on a regular basis.
  5. Communicate with clients on a regular basis. This is where social media does such a great job. When you post on Facebook or Instagram, your name is out there and will be seen by your clients. SMS clients on their birthdays or when you have something happening in your salon you would like them to know about. Once again your software’s CRM will allow you to filter clients and to personalise promotional activity to specific client groups.

Ending with the 80/20 business principle, it is an unfortunate reality that 80% of clients that do leave you leave because of poor service. Just make sure that doesn’t happen to the 20% of your clients that generate 80% of your turnover.

For any further advice on this subject or any other business related query we invite you to contact any of our business consultants:

Terry – 0836500952 – terry@mysalonsoftware.co.za

Aletta – 0645046001 – aletta@mysalonsoftware.co.za

Sune – 0834842960 – sune@mysalonsoftware.co.za