Keeping up/ahead

[pinkthistle]

It seems every hairdresser around now has a nail bar/beauty room/tooth whitener/Botox clinic. They also seem to offer treatments for next to nothing (which if someone is in having hair done they can do)
As a beauty only salon what do to keep clients loyal?

 

[squidgernetball]

We don't compete.

We don't offer fillers, plumpers, teeth whitening and so on, and I state on our intro page that we don't offer these and never will. Our clients like that. They like the fact that our treatments are not based on quick fixes, but long term, results driven treatments and products.

We do one treatment on special offer per month, and that's it, but nothing like the £8 nails etc, more like a slight reduction per treatment.

We also specialise in skin - a big investment for a lot of clients, and fantastic repeat business. We retail by the bucket load and we have become trusted for our advice.

We are passionate about what we do, and allow a lot more time per treatment than many salons. We offer tea and coffee and occasionally cakes in beautiful CLEAN cups!

We are also completely off the beaten track with free parking outside, so tend to be a destination rather than a pop in.

We give every new client a £10 voucher off their next visit, and we smile when they use it!

Vic x

 

[Emily2]

I think the best thing to do is just to offer high quality service with a smile! I am mobile and I only offer nail services, no other beauty or hair.
I know that several of my clients go to hairdressers who have nail techs in their salon or go to beauty salons for eyebrows etc but they still choose me for their nails because they like what I do, I'm reliable and offer an excellent, consistent service so they don't want to change to someone else, even if they are cheaper/part of a package deal.
Keep smiling, keep offering an excellent service and people will stay with you or return if they are carried away briefly by an offer.

 

[pinkthistle]

I've been around for years and have a good regular clientele but its the new ones I feel are slowing down as there are more places to choose from that are ridiculously cheap.

 

[Emily2]

I've been around for years and have a good regular clientele but its the new ones I feel are slowing down as there are more places to choose from that are ridiculously cheap.

Is it more to do with attracting new customers than maintaining client loyalty then? Sorry, the way I read your first post I thought you meant keeping clients who are tempted away by offers.

I think to some degree the same applies though, quality services with a smile will attract new clients, albeit more slowly (along with marketing yourself and fab referals from your existing client base). I don't get as many new clients each month as I'd like (some months I don't get any new ones at all, but I do keep the ones I've got) and I'm looking at different places to advertise all the time. Some are successful, others aren't. By far my best advertising is word of mouth and that's how I've got most of my business.

There's a fab post on here somewhere about promoting your business though, if you haven't seen it it's well worth a read, get a brew and get comfy first though - it's really long!

It's unfortunate but I think bargain hunters are likely to remain bargain hunters, looking for a cheap service, and they are likely to continue to shop around for the bargains rather than be loyal to one place. If someone is looking for quality, I think they'll search till they find it, no matter what the price of the service.

 

[kamikate]

I've come to realise over the years that I have no competition. There are salons, clinics, nail bars, etc but my clients come to me because it's me they want. All the beauty businesses around me are good but I'm what makes my business different from others. I keep telling myself this otherwise I fall into the trap of thinking other places are offering this and that and I need to as well.