Business tips

How to encourage clients to visit you more regularly

visit-often

How to encourage clients to visit you more regularly

We all know that loyal clients are simply the best. They are your most stable source of income, as you can count on them to come back sooner or later; they are also most likely to give referrals, write positive reviews online and purchase your retail products. Additionally, loyal customers are usually the most pleasant to work with - although there are exceptions to the rule, in most cases, you grow to like them and enjoy their presence. The communication is easier, as you know what to expect, how to talk with them and what makes them happy.

Overall, turning as many clients into regulars as possible seems to be the obvious main aim of your activities. However, being a returning client is a very broad term. A customer visiting you every three months is surely a regular, but does it bring you as much profit as you would like? You need to understand that it’s not only the high number of loyal clients that should be your goal, but also the frequency with which they visit you. How can you make clients visit you more often and what can you do to encourage them to try your more upscale treatments and products? Let’s jump straight into it!

Make them feel special

Beauty services are considered a luxury, not a necessity. Although what we deem a necessity gets blurred sometimes (it’s hard to argue that having your hair cut is something almost every human being needs to feel comfortable), the general consensus is that facials and massages are not one’s spending priority. Why is this statement important? Because it affects the way service providers in our industry should treat their clients if they want them to keep returning. Your client doesn’t feel that deep, primal need for what you offer - you are not filling their stomach nor providing a roof over their head. One can argue that hair regrowth, backache or skin breakout count as these basic motives that make beauty services a necessity, but even assuming that a person will decide on visiting a salon because of them, no one can guarantee that they will choose your salon. A basic need can be met everywhere - preferably where it is the cheapest. This is why such logic takes you nowhere - such people are not your perfect target audience. You need to make your services desirable, and that’s a fact.

How can you do it?

Of course, as an experienced business owner, you probably already know how important customer service is. When asked what special things you do to keep your customers happy you would probably mention great coffee and even better conversations. But these treats are nothing special - most good salons do that. How can you stand out from the crowd? The answer is simple - you add a spin to each element of your customer service.

  • Are you serving drinks and beverages? Don’t limit yourself to coffee and tea. Offer clients multi-flavoured juices or even better - self-made, non-alcoholic cocktails. Learn to prepare a few different drinks, give them funny names related to your business and let your customers choose a different one each visit. Change your little menu each season or even each month, making clients excited and waiting with anticipation for their next visit.
  • Are you giving your clients little samples of your retail products from time to time? Make a little lottery out of it. Let each client draw lots after each visit, making the choice of samples a surprise.
  • Do you take care of your clients’ comfort during their visit? Buy a bunch of cute little blankets, hot water bottles and neck pillows. Oftentimes, especially in autumn and winter, employees are fine with the temperature in the salon, while clients are freezing (which is understandable, as they mostly sit down motionlessly). Getting a warm blanket or a pillow on which they can rest their head is a gesture they will fondly remember.

Tip: Make sure to use disposable glasses and wash your blankets and pillows in high temperature after each client. Customer service is important, but safety is absolutely essential!

Target them with personalised offers

Special offers should always be fitted to the type of clients you are sending them to. After all, different things attract first-time clients and loyal patrons. Moreover, there are numerous types of regular clients as well - some get the same treatment for years, some have already tried most of your services. If you want regulars to visit you more often, you have to ensure that the marketing campaigns you run are promoting this type of behaviour.

How can you do it?

If you are using Booksy, you have a number of very useful features at your disposal. One of them is bulk SMS, push or email messaging. The system allows you to target an automatically created client group (e.g. New, Most Loyal or Slipping Away Clients) or create a custom group through booking search or client tags. The possibilities are endless!

Tip: Do you want to boost your SMS marketing with advanced targeting? Wait no longer - start your free Booksy trial and see for yourself how quickly and effortlessly you can gain customers when your campaigns are well-targeted!

Make use of ready-to-go marketing strategies

Sometimes the best you can do is to make use of an effective formula, created by someone with years of marketing experience, and pair it with the knowledge about your clients.

How can you do it?

Booksy's Message Blasts feature offers you a number of powerful marketing campaigns, with some of them dedicated to attracting customers to visit you once again. The 3 Reactivate campaigns work on automated messages being sent to your clients at a selected time in case they fail to rebook with you. The aim of the campaigns is to show off the versatility of your salon and remind customers of the great time they had at your business. The campaigns can increase the number of customers using different services or buying additional products by up to 40%!

When trying to achieve your goal of getting clients to visit you more regularly, don’t be shy to use advanced marketing tools. Although making the overall experience more alluring to your clients is definitely a good starting point, it may not be enough. Also, remember to track the effectiveness of your strategies by checking your statistics in Booksy - it’s always smart to observe how your marketing activities really affect your clients’ behaviour and act accordingly. Gather your creative forces, start your free trial with Booksy and get ready for the wave of loyal clients flooding your appointment book!

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