Introduction
Loyal clients are the heart of any business, including beauty salons. There are many ways to attract clients and almost all deal with loyalty programs. A loyalty program helps get more clients without difficulties, making your customers feel important. And we all like to feel so.
You may know that attracting a new client is ten times more difficult and expensive than saving an existing one. Plus, regular customers trust you more and are ready to spend much more. Statistics demonstrate that discounts and promotions are useful in a beauty salon business. You lose money but gain trust, which is the real goal.
Consider an intelligent marketing strategy if you want quality in developing your beauty business. It must include customer retention activities and steps to attract new clients. It is also vital to stand out. Feel free to add a dash of something unexpected to your marketing. One of the easiest and most effective ways of increasing the number of regular customer for salon owners is creating a handy loyalty program. Let's take a look at this way of promoting the beauty business.
A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue doing business with a company by offering incentives or rewards for their repeat patronage. Typically, customers earn points or rewards for purchases or other actions, such as referrals or social media shares, that can be redeemed for discounts, free products or services, or other perks. Loyalty programs are often used to increase customer engagement, retention, and brand loyalty.
Customer Relationship Management or CRM software can help create and manage a loyalty program by providing customer data management, personalization, marketing automation, reward tracking, reporting, and analytics. Businesses can improve customer retention and build brand loyalty by utilizing these features.
What is a beauty salon loyalty program
First of all, what is a loyalty program? It is a reward system offered by the company to its regular customers. These programs can offer the following:
Coupons, promo codes, discounts,
Gift certificates,
Birthday surprises,
Free products or early access to new beauty services or products.
All these notions help attract loyal customers, which is essential for effective business. Regular clients help to plan beauty salon activities as you know who will probably visit your place and how you should treat them. However, you have to be ready not only to attract clients but also to keep their attention. There are many beauty shops, so you have many competitors. So, investing enough time and money in good loyalty programs is better as they are the key to customer retention.
As usual, CRM systems offer a loyalty program. Just choose the proper software.
What do I need to create a beauty salon discount system?
Well, you need to know your customers. Remember that you work for people. That is why you must decide on your target audience and their needs. The first step is to understand the buying behavior of your customers.
Regular clients
People who come back to your beauty shop again and again.
Those who are happy with your services – rarely notice cons.
People who come back from time to time.
Customers who choose your beauty studio for a special occasion like, for example, a party, birthday, or wedding.
Clients who are quick enough to forget your salon due to poor service.
Casual clients
This type of guest enters the salon by accident. They often appreciate the location and need to learn about the quality of the services. They can quickly become your regular customers and loyal clients if you treat them well.
Referral clients
Clients who know about your salon from regular customers are referral guests. Usually, they expect much as your regular customers describe your place as the perfect beauty shop without cons. So be sure you will satisfy them. The good idea is to offer a promo code for the next visit or even some trifles like free coffee, tea, cookies, etc.
The most popular beauty salon promotions
We hope you understand that the client's trust is what we all need and how to get it. Further, we have prepared a few ideas for attracting new loyal clients.
VIP service
The good idea is to give your loyal customers a special VIP status, which we are sure, they deserve. The VIP loyalty program may include special bonuses for the most frequent and regular customers. VIP status makes your customers feel special, which you need. For example, make a card that gives access to the VIP services:
exclusive services for VIP clients,
special discounts on products you sell,
early access to new products and services, etc.
Point system
The point system is one of the most popular reward systems that beauty salon owners and their clients love, as it is understandable for both. First, you have to establish the price for 1 point, so there will be no problems with calculating later. It can be, for instance, 10 points for $1. Be clear on how and for what the points will be given. For example, you can provide points for visiting and attracting new clients, stories on Facebook/Instagram, etc.
You can give points for:
recommend your beauty parlor to a friend,
birthday,
posting a salon review on social networks,
visiting before/while holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving,
purchases on Black Friday,
online booking via the salon booking system.
A checkbook with marks
There are many types of discounts. One of the most popular is a coupon book or card where the administrator marks every paid service. Then, you can decide on the value. Usually, it depends on the service complexity, price, or number of services done at your beauty shop. For example, if a customer books a manicure and pedicure together, she'll get a 20% discount; while booking a hair care procedure – 30% discount on the hair products that are sold in your beauty studio.
A loyalty program must be simple and effective, just like the EasyWeek salon booking system. This way, you can reward existing clients and attract new ones. A typical salon practice is to issue a card or coupons with attractive promotions after the first visit. This will motivate a client to come back.
Bonuses for sharing a beauty experience on social networks
Nowadays, every beauty shop has an account on social media. So if you still doubt whether it is necessary – it is! Beauty salons work with a target audience that loves visual content, so sharing your works and services on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok will significantly help get more guests.
You can even build a loyalty program on social networks: offer bonuses for reviews and sharing about your beauty salon. Just create a tiny photo zone to take before/after photos and motivate clients to share their beauty experiences. A small discount, for instance, 10%, will be an even better motivation to share these photos with reviews. Create an original #hashtag and monitor this feedback to grow and double the profit.
The most popular promotions
There are many options for promotional offers. We have prepared several promotional ideas to attract and keep customers:
Morning discounts for some categories of people: students, pensioners.
Best friends discounts when visiting together.
Benefits for paying in advance.
Why a loyalty program is a must-have for a beauty salon
Let's examine why a loyalty program is necessary for any beauty salon.
Customer motivation
Loyalty programs reward regular clients and encourage them to get more services and products. For example, a bonus for early booking is a good reason to book a service in advance, especially for those who like procrastination. Purchase bonuses can motivate a customer to buy beauty products in your salon, even if he is used to purchasing the same products elsewhere.
Referrals
Word of mouth is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to attract new customers. Although paid promotional campaigns are not always successful, positive experiences, on the contrary, hit the spot. Reward your loyal clients for bringing their friends and relatives to your beauty salon. It's a great motivation, + we are sure you want to reward the people who love the beauty shop.
Contact information
Once a client signs up for a loyalty program, you can access the most critical data – phone number and email. It allows you to contact the person for feedback, offers a discount, and makes the client come back.
Conclusions
A loyalty program is a great way to keep loyal customers and attract new ones. When creating a salon loyalty program, it is essential to remember that it has to be user-friendly. We work with, and for people, so easy access is the key. Connect EasyWeek booking software to create and maintain your loyalty program effortlessly. Try it for free.