With the rising costs of acquiring new clients, salon and spa businesses must be innovative and proactive by engaging in effective client retention and rebooking tactics. According to a recent survey, acquiring a new client can cost five times more than retaining current clients.
What is the Difference Between Client Retention and Rebooking?
Rebooking and retention go hand in hand. They have similar meanings and are both important, but there are a few key differences.
Rebooking occurs when a client books any kind of appointment or follow-up service upon completion of their current appointment. It is a proactive strategy to inspire clients to plan future services and return to your salon. New Client Retention is when a new guest returns within 90 days of their first appointment. Client Retention focuses on building lasting relationships with your business’s clients over time.
Your team should rebook clients as soon as their appointment is over as often as possible. However, this isn’t always achievable. Businesses can benefit from offering various rebooking methods to meet clients where they are and inspire greater retention.
Need help with rebooking clients? Download our free “Rebooking Scripts to Make Every Client a Repeat Client.”
If a client has booked several appointments in advance, they are still considered rebooked after their first one is over, even if they’re not scheduling another one on the spot. Your staff’s overall goal is to get the clients to come back — either through rebooking or retention.
Fostering these ongoing relationships is essential for your salon’s brand and reputation. Every business should aim to understand why clients keep coming back and take action to inspire greater loyalty. With the right tools and a thoughtful strategy in place, you can improve salon client retention and rebooking while enhancing the service experience for your guests.
9 Tips for Better Client Retention and Rebooking at Your Salon:
A few tips can help your team enhance client experiences and brand loyalty for your business. Explore some top client retention strategies below:
A few tips can help your team enhance client experiences and brand loyalty for your business. Explore some top client retention strategies below:
1. Implement Guest Surveys
Whether pre-consultation, after the first visit, or before a new service launch, surveys provide guests a chance to share feedback and any concerns they may have about the service they received or are about to receive at your salon. This information can help you fine-tune the customer experience to be exceptional every single time.
Pro Tip: Use Meevo’s 5-Star Ratings feature to automatically alert visitors via email or text to rate their recent service during checkout. View their feedback in Meevo and choose which ratings get published to Google. This tool helps give owners, managers, and service providers deeper insight into each individual guest experience and if there’s an opportunity for improvement.
2. Utilize Client Notes
Details, while small, can make a huge difference in making your clients feel special and important. It’s also extremely valuable for rebooking and retention. Remembering life events, beverage preferences, how a client likes their hair styled after a cut, and their favorite products and services can make or break your client’s return. A whopping 71% of consumers say they expect personalization when working with a business.
Pro Tip: Encourage your staff to keep your clients’ files filled with notes and important information about visits, their likes and dislikes, personal interests, and anything else that might be valuable to recall during their next appointments. With Meevo’s client management tool, you can easily keep track of these important details and scratch your head a little less trying to remember each and every guest interaction.
3. Give a V.I.P. Experience Every Time
Get ready to roll out the red carpet the minute guests walk through your doors! Your clients should always receive dedicated attention and thoughtfulness, whether they’re first-time guests or it’s their 10th visit. As consumers, we tend to make decisions based on our emotions. Providing your guests with a warm, genuine, and truly enjoyable experience each time they visit will not only make them feel valued but will foster client retention and make them want to rebook right away.
Pro Tip: If you really want to WOW your guests, take their visit to the next level with Meevo’s 24/7 mobile access capabilities. Before a client even leaves their seat, service providers can complete check out, add other services provided and any products they wish to purchase. Now that’s a five-star experience worth coming back for!
4. Educate on Products
Build trust and become your clients’ go-to expert by educating them on the products used during services. Motivate your staff to incorporate dialogue about products during each service will help your clients feel less like they are being sold to and more like they are being taken care of by your team. The extra retail revenue is an added bonus!
Pro Tip: Want to maximize your retail sales? Take advantage of Meevo’s email marketing platform and start promoting your products like a boss! Create engaging email campaigns your clients will love and share things like seasonal retail promotions, new product drops, irresistible bundles, product reviews, and so much more.
5. Implement a Loyalty Program
What better way to rebook clients than to reward them for coming back? As consumers, we are motivated by the thought of getting something for free. Implement a loyalty rewards program and allow clients to accrue points towards free services. They will be much more likely to come back to rack up their points. In fact, 70% of United States consumers consider these programs to be a leading factor in determining which brands they support and remain loyal to.
Issue points and rewards for behaviors that benefit your business. Give points for providing a review, referring a friend, buying product, booking extra services. Have fun and be creative. The options are endless!
6. Create a Culture Around Rebooking
One thing your client retention strategy should always include is a rebooking discussion. When your team goes above and beyond for a new client and exceeds their expectations, they’ll be more likely to schedule their next appointment at checkout and become a long-term client.
Pro Tip: With Meevo’s chairside checkout, you can easily rebook your client’s next appointment without them having to get up and visit the front desk for scheduling. This convenient feature not only enhances the guest experience, but helps guarantee repeat business when you lock in your client’s next service.
7. Provide Small Perks
Delight your clients with additional perks such as “free add-on Tuesdays,” “Membership Appreciation Day or Week,” or margaritas on your beverage menu for National Margarita Day. These extras will help entice clients to keep coming back.
Pro Tip: Offer enticing perks and boost revenue at the same time through Meevo’s eGift platform. Promote gift card sales to your guests by offering BOGO incentives around the holiday season or running a special referral reward campaign.
8. Offer Membership Programs
Secure your clients for multiple visits and keep them coming back with memberships. Beyond reoccurring revenue for your business, memberships can increase your frequency of visits, retention rate, and productivity, as well as drive revenue and increase your bottom line.
Pro Tip: Increase client retention by offering your clients different membership options through Meevo that you can easily set up and manage. Allow your clients to share, swap, and split their packages the way that works best for them. Personalized perks like these are hard to resist!
9. Engage on Social Media
With technology, there are several platforms to connect with your customers beyond the walls of your business. Engaging with clients through your social media accounts strengthens relationships and builds client loyalty. More than 302 million Americans use social media, so establishing and maintaining a presence is crucial for your beauty business! Learn more about getting started in our guide to social media for salons.
Pro Tip: Did you know you can automate your social posting within Meevo’s Marketing Suite? Save time and effort by scheduling your posts in advance to ensure you’re consistently engaging with your customers and building more brand awareness for your business.
The Key Advantages of Fostering a High Client Retention Rate at Your Salon
Explore the top benefits of investing in client experiences and boosting retention below:
- Stable revenue: Clients that continuously rebook and return to your business provide a steady stream of income that can offer greater stability than the churn of acquiring new customers.
- Increased profitability: When you establish a trusting relationship with your clients, you can effectively motivate them to try new services and products, thus increasing profitability.
- Supercharged marketing: Customers who are dedicated and loyal to your salon are incredibly powerful marketers for your brand. They will share their positive experiences with friends, family members, and co-workers, which helps your business reach new audiences and grow.
- Elevated client experiences: When clients come back time after time, your staff can get to know these individuals and their pain points on a deeper level, allowing you to tailor your services to suit their preferences and positively impact their experience at your salon.
Maximizing Client Retention and Rebookings With Meevo
Meevo is here to help your business foster lasting client relationships and keep your customers coming back for more. If you’re looking to take your salon to the next level, download our 4 Retention Strategies to Keep Clients Coming Back educational resource today. It offers a more in-depth review of the key strategies your business can leverage to enhance your retention and rebooking rates.
If you are interested in learning more, book a free personalized consultation to see how Meevo salon software can accelerate your salon’s growth today.
