The biggest mistake spa and salon owners make is not staying in touch with existing clients! Once you’ve gotten a client through your doors once, it’s much easier to keep them coming back than to go out and find brand new clients. Following up with your clients makes you stand out from the pack and strengthens your client relationships. Your business grows through the relationships you and your stylists build with your clientele.
Why Should You Follow Up With Clients?
Following up helps with customer satisfaction and ensures their return to your salon. Not only will you get valuable information by asking for feedback in a follow up call, your client gets a chance to talk about her service. She’ll know you really care about her and her experiences.
A good follow up plan is key to lowering expenses and increasing revenue. It costs 5-7 times more for you to get a new client than to keep an existing one. You can lower your marketing expenses and boost your bookings by following up with your clients. The goal of the follow-up is to thank the customer and get feedback, but you can also use this time to offer additional services or book the next appointment.
Follow Up Key #1 – Create a Plan for Following Up
Documentation is a major key to helping your staff stay on track with follow up calls. When you implement your follow up plan, document it so all your staff knows what needs to be done. Your plan can include handwritten thank you notes or phone calls.
Although technology makes following up quick and easy, they are less personal than a handwritten note or phone call. Who doesn’t like a thank you note in the mail or a personal call to check in?
Follow Up Key #2 – Train Your Staff
Once you’ve created the plan for following up, you need to train your staff to follow up. It can be tempting to write a memo or simply announce your expectations, but you really do need to take that extra step to train your staff. Training is time and labor intensive, but very worth it! It builds teamwork and reinforces the messages that you want your staff to get across with all of their interactions.
To help your staff remember what they learned in training, use checklists to help them implement your plan. Make sure they know when and how to follow up, as well as which clients need a follow up touch.
Follow Up Key #3 – Revise Your Plan
After getting your plan in place and training your staff to do the right type of follow up, you need to review your plan regularly and make any necessary changes. Make it a point to review your plan every quarter. Check to see if your follow up system has had an effect on sales. If not, revise your plan and review the changes with your staff. Your staff may need to be retrained if they aren’t sure how the plan should be used or are missing out on important details.
A profitable follow up system makes it easy to show clients how much you care. By using a reliable and regularly updated system, you can make your business really stand out from the crowd.
