3 Tips to Increase Customer Loyalty

“If you want consistency in customer service, satisfaction with services and client retention, you must use systems in your salon,” confirms Neil Ducoff and his team at Strategies. Let’s face it—when you walk into a salon that appears to run smoothly, you get a lot of attention and receive great service; you can’t wait to return, right?

If your day to day systems are designed well, and salon team members follow them, you have the best chance of retaining clients, building your referral business and keeping salon staff productive and happy.

In his best-selling book, “Wake Up”, Neil advises, “If you’re lacking systems or they’re poorly designed, then clients don’t receive the highest quality service. Phones may not be answered correctly, or clients wait on hold too long, problems aren’t resolved professionally and quickly, and in the end, your client retention rate suffers. Here are three important tips to power up customer loyalty and help your business run smoother.

1. Collect client information and use it.
Keep a data file on each customer that includes their service and purchase history, birthday—just month and day is fine, favorite activities and foods, and any other information that can help you tailor each customer’s experience. For their birthday month, send a card with a gift, such as discount or free products. When they’ve reached a certain level of purchasing, reward them with a free service or gift set of products. Getting to know your customers makes their experience more personal and thoughtful, which makes them want to return to your salon and tell friends about their great experience at your salon.

2. Deal with customer problems professionally and promptly.
You must create systems to make sure that problems, even the smallest ones, are recognized, documented and then resolved with the client as quickly as possible. Set up procedures that include: team member writes up a short description of complaint and dates it; establish standard responses for different types of problems that have your approval; communicate with client as soon as possible on what your procedure is for addressing a problem.

3. Timing is everything.
Set standards for client contact. Everyone seems to run short on time, so respecting your clients’ time is critical. Establish time standards for each type of client contact. Phone calls are answered within 3 or 4 rings—even if to place on hold; clients are greeted and acknowledged within 30 seconds of entering your salon; never leave a client on hold for longer than 2 minutes. Walk through each step of your clients’ salon experience and set reasonable time limits for each time their needs should be met.