Developing great relationships with your clients is an essential part of running a salon. This is a two-way street – you need to have a solid, regular repeat business clientele and clients need a salon they can rely on.

Reputation is a key consideration here. An unhappy client taking to social media to complain can be detrimental to your salon in the short and long-term. 

With this in mind, it is vital make sure your clients know how important they are to you. Ahead, internationally renowned salon business expert Liz McKeon shares her top tips for maintaining positive relationships with clients.

Be a great listener

Listening also means researching and asking focused questions, knowing your clients concerns and coming up with the very best solutions. Teach your team to listen carefully to what your clients have to say, paying complete and respectful attention to their answers. Clients will appreciate this level of attention.

Interact

Being a salon professional gives you the advantage over a larger business, in that you are always dealing with clients on a one-to-one basis. Your level of personal interaction is very high, so make sure to leverage this. For example, know the name of your client and use it. Or, if a client offers information, remember it.

Offer more

You can always offer extras for a little more, just ask your client if they are interested. You might be surprised just how interested they are.

Create trust

Fundamental to creating trust is that if you promise something, you deliver on it. Set realistic goals for your clients. Take time to ensure you understand exactly what the client wants and remain sensitive to their needs. Be transparent in your dealings. If you are asked for an opinion, be polite, positive and truthful. If you let the client down in any way, the first thing you should do is apologise and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. Any apology needs to be sincere, which means really thinking about what you are going to say.

Get feedback

One good way to show you truly care about your clients is to proactively ask for feedback. The fact that you have asked, shows they matter. You can get feedback in various ways such as surveys, social media or online questionnaires. When you get feedback (good or bad), it is important that you act on it because if you don’t do anything with that information, you will disappoint your client.

Keep in touch and keep it personal

For example, send clients you haven’t seen for a while a postcard. The effect that such a personal gesture has is proportionate to the level of effort that it takes to make it. It does take time to choose, to sign and post a card, but it takes a very unusual client to ignore or forget such a personal outreach.  Especially in our modern digital age, it is a good way to stand out and be remembered.

Give your clients a birthday gift

A birthday is a great reason to connect with your client and make them feel extra special. You could send them a personalised voucher for a service. 

Chat with your clients online

Adding a live chat widget to your website allows you to address clients enquiries instantly and gather information about them. For example, live chat tools can show you where the client has come from, how much time she spent on your website, what pages were viewed and for how long. With so much information on hand, you can provide more efficient help and strengthen your salon/client relationship.

Send transactional follow-up communications

For example, you can send a post service email to your client thanking them for their loyalty. It is good to personalise your messages based on the information available to you. Additionally, you can include other personalised product recommendations based on their purchase transaction.

Give tailored at-home recommendations

Never forget just how much your clients love to buy homecare products. This is an excellent way to build relationships with your clients, as it ensures your clients achieve the results they desire, while helping to increase the services you offer. Focusing on your salon’s retail sales, also provides another revenue stream for your business with unlimited potential, increasing turnover and improving cashflow. 

Winning loyal clients doesn’t take huge marketing budgets.  When it comes to client loyalty, it is the small gestures that get appreciated and remembered. Adding a simple personal touch to every transaction you have with your clients will have a great impact on how they perceive your salon and your bottom line.  Loyal, repeat and happy clients are the lifeblood of your salon business.

Remember:  ‘the only mile that matters, is the extra mile’!

To learn more about Liz McKeon, visit her website here.