If your salon has a steady stream of loyal guests coming through its door, you can probably stop continuously chasing new customers and focus a little more on your salon client retention rates. You’ve done all the hard work already! Plus, a mere 5% increase in client retention can boost profits by 25%.
Huge, isn’t it?
First-Time Client Retention In A Nutshell
When tracking your salon’s numbers, your client retention rate should be considered just as important as your service revenue, retail revenue, and employee retention rate.
First-time salon client retention is the percentage of first-time customers that return for a second visit within a specified period (usually ninety days). The metric measures your salon/spa’s quality score and your consistency. This figure can be calculated manually or by using a salon software system such as Phorest, which calculates it automatically as part of its reporting functionality.
Say, for example, If your salon/spa’s first-time retention rate is 40 percent. That means that 60 percent of the first-time clients you fight hard to attract are not returning. That rate also indicates that your salon/spa might lack customer journey consistency and gives a great benchmark of what’s working well vs what needs to improve.
Based on Phorest’s research of the salon industry, we’ve calculated the following approximate salon industry benchmarks that are good targets to aim for.
- New Client Retention: 30%
- Existing Client Retention: 68%
- Overall Client Retention: 58%
How Can I Boost My Salon Client Retention Rates?
Another important number to keep track of when it comes to your salon business is request tracking, which is not necessarily the same as client retention. Request tracking measures what staff members are being requested by certain clients, not how many first-time clients return to your business for a second visit. A client coming back to your salon, but to a different stylist, for example, will not affect your salon’s retention rate – but it will change your stylist’s personal retention rate. Keeping tabs on this can show what staff members are doing well, offering excellent customer service, and helping increase your client retention rate overall. These staff members should be rewarded for their work and can help train team members who may be lacking when it comes to client retention
Our Top Tips for Boosting Client Retention include:
Offer to pre-book every client, every time
Don’t be shy to ask your client when would suit best for the next appointment. It’s not pushy; it’s more like a “we want to make sure to keep your beautiful color, so let’s top it up in 6 weeks.” The more you know about your client’s booking habits, the easier it’ll be to pre-book. Even if a client isn’t ready to rebook while in the salon, organise some pre-scheduled salon marketing campaigns that encourage them back in when they are due.
Make sure to listen
Every client that walks in your salon door wants to feel heard. It all starts with a consultation, and continues with top-class communication throughout the service that your staff provides. Your client needs to receive what is asked and feel like they are being listened to during their service. Catch on to your customers’ cues, desires, and interests, and they will be more likely to rebook.
Make a good first impression
When your team has policies and guidelines to follow, your services and experience will be more consistent across all platforms. Ensure staff training is up to date and hold regular catch-ups with your team to ensure protocols are being followed to make every client feel like they’ve been treated with the same care. You’d be surprised to see how quickly you can lose a first-time client because of a difference in service and attention. Similarly, when clients trust that a service will be of a certain level every time they avail of it; they’ll be more likely to return.
Make the salon experience easy on your client
You already know this, but your clients are busy and stressed. They want to visit a salon that feels like a relaxing escape, not another task to tick off their to-do list. Writing down their habits and preferences (it can even go down to how they like their coffee!), and offering any other little things that make their experience incredible will have a direct effect on your salon client retention rates. Similarly, offering features like Online Booking or a salon app/ barber app to allow clients to book on their own time makes the experience easier and more enjoyable; encouraging them back.
Get feedback
Feedback from your team and customers can help you see what needs to be improved on while developing your teamwork and increasing retention at the same time!
The Phorest Salon Software Client Retention Formula
Step 1: Identify (Target)
The first step to client retention is to track who is coming back and who isn’t. You’ll also need to identify why they are or not coming back. The more you pay attention to this step, the easier it’ll be to reconnect with them admitting they start lapsing. This can be found in the reporting section of your Phorest system.
Step 2: Reconnect (We’ve Got A Feature For That!)
If you are a Phorest client and haven’t tried it yet, Client Reconnect is a leading tool in the industry to increase salon client retention.
Case study: Last summer, Baroque Hair in Harrogate sent an SMS to a select list of clients using Phorest’s Client Reconnect tool in the marketing section. It was a super smart campaign by the team of stylists (they knew exactly who they were targeting and why). Firstly, they targeted two client categories: cut and style and also color clients (i.e. clients who have had one of these services with the salon in the past). From just £5.06 of sent SMS, they generated over £5000 by getting clients back in!
This could be the case of your salon too!
Step 3: Reward (Loyalty Programs)
Phorest’s salon-specific loyalty program, the Treatcard Loyalty Program, is a fantastic way to attract loyal clients’. The program allows clients to earn points for every dollar they spend. Once they’ve reached a certain number, you surprise them with a free treat in the form of a service or product. However, here’s the key to its success: you only reward them with something they’ve never had before. This way, you introduce them to something new and make them more likely to come back to buy that product or service at full price.
Interested in learning more? Contact us for more information! Not a Phorest Salon Software client? Why not book a demo to see what the hype is all about. Got feedback? Let us know either in the comments below or on Instagram.
Thanks for reading! #LetsGrow
This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
