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How to Retain Spa and Salon Customers

How to Retain Spa and Salon Clients

Table of Contents

What’s a Good Client Retention Rate (CRR) for Salons & Spas?

Generally, a good retention rate for service-based industries like salons and spas would be over 50%.

However, a good client retention rate can change a lot based on factors like location, customer expectations, competition, and the quality and services of the salon.

Pricing is also a big factor in customer retention, as customers may care more or less about the price depending on their location.

More affluent areas usually value quality and service more than price. Less affluent areas are usually influenced by price more. So it’s not uncommon to find a lower CRR in salons located in less affluent areas.

How to Retain Clients in Your Salon or Spa

Set Up a Robust Loyalty Program for Your Business

Yes, this is the first point on almost every website. That’s because it’s true.

Studies have shown that businesses with loyalty programs outperform businesses that don’t – in terms of revenue and retention!

Also, ensure your rewards are worth your customer’s effort and loyalty. 

The most common mistake that we’ve seen spas and salons make is to give rewards that aren’t aligned with their client’s preferences and/or a reward that is convenient for them to give.

For example, if you operate in an affluent area, it wouldn’t make sense to reward your customer’s loyalty with a basic hair wash when they’re paying a premium for the best quality.

The key is to make it as personalized as possible for your target demographic.

Make It Incredibly Easy and Rewarding For Spa and Salon to Book the Next Session

Another important factor is your rebooking process. Staff are crucial in this aspect because they can persuade clients to book the next session before they finish the current one!

As a result, staff training is incredibly important because they need to be able to sell the idea and potentially upsell it!

You should also make it easy for your staff to sell the idea of booking the next session by offering incentives like maybe a 10% discount or a free add-on for the next booking.

Keeping this as an ongoing offer is a great way to retain clients while being relatively cost-effective at the same time!

To take it a step further, if you have good online appointment software, you can send automated messages after every session with the same offer.

Make sure you minimize the amount of steps as much as possible between the message and the next session booking process, by reducing the total number of steps as well as making buttons easy to click and see.

Our proprietary booking software solution, KlikNRoll, can help you do all that and more.

It simplifies the process to the maximum, boosting the conversion rate – which translates to more repeat bookings without extra marketing costs!

Plus, our platform is web-based, so your customers don’t need to install any apps that might interfere with the process.

You can customize every design element, so you can test different UI/UX versions and find the most effective one for repeat bookings!

Click the button below to check out our product page and take a look at other features:

Educate and Recommend Customers Instead of Hard-Selling

Educating customers will usually lead to better upsells!

As we mentioned before, hard selling is not effective for customer loyalty or retention.

You and your staff should explain the benefits of repeat bookings to your clients, instead of just pushing them to do so.

Perhaps it’s a crucial part of their treatment? Or maybe there’s an extra service that could enhance their experience – put yourself in your client’s shoes.

Help them see the value of repeat bookings, rather than forcing them to agree.

The key is to build trust by offering value first and then presenting a solution later.

Give them actionable and useful advice and they’ll be more willing to book another session with add-ons!

Sell Packages That Consist of Multiple Sessions for a Better Value

Selling packages that include multiple sessions is another effective way to keep your spa clients.

But you need to ensure that you offer more value for more sessions in each package.

The more they invest in your services, the lower the price for them.

You want to make your salon or spa a habit for your customers, and once they are accustomed to it, they might not switch to a rival, even if they offer lower prices!

Humans generally resist change and making your establishment familiar to your customers is a great way to make them loyal.

However, make sure you have clear and strict terms and conditions to prevent customers from misusing your packages.

Allow Clientele to Buy Credits & Vouchers With Cash

Credit and Vouchers are amazing for retention!

A similar and awesome strategy is to offer credits and vouchers to your clients for cash.

Make sure the credits and vouchers have a lower value than the actual cash. For example, customers can buy a $100 voucher or credits for $90.

This encourages them to purchase vouchers instead of paying with cash. This has many advantages.

One of them is that they’ll prefer your spa or salon over your competitors because of the lower perceived cost.

Also, vouchers and credits make customers want to use them since they’ve already paid for them.

Vouchers are especially good because they can be given to friends and family. This means you can sell more vouchers during special events like Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

These gifted vouchers can spread the word about your spa or salon and help you attract and retain more clients, which is a great win!

A similar strategy is used by Starbucks with its Starbucks card, where customers can load credits for food and drinks.

This gives them cash upfront, which is like a loan without interest because they only have to give credits for drinks and food that have a low production cost.

They can use this cash however they like, such as on marketing or purchasing more inventory.

So, you can also utilize the same strategy for better cash flow and improved customer retention!

If you’re interested in this, click the button below to check out our voucher management system solution to learn more:

Consider Having a Paid Customer Membership Program

A paid membership program is a clever way to boost customer loyalty and retention for your salon or spa.

By giving your clients special benefits and discounts for a monthly or annual fee, you can motivate them to come to your salon or spa more frequently and buy more of your services and products.

A paid membership program can also help you create a stable and consistent income stream, which can help you control your cash flow and plan your budget better.

The main idea is to make it irresistible to sign up because of the amazing rewards and benefits.

For instance, you can offer a permanent 20% off all your services with the membership, along with extra perks like free drinks on arrival, preferred booking, or maybe an unlimited snack bar.

These perks are not very expensive to provide but can make customers feel special.

On top of that, you can also choose a tiered reward structure that makes subscribers more loyal.

For example, you can have a tiered structure for the membership. Maybe subscribers who are subscribed for more than 3 months can have a silver tier, more than 6 months would be gold, and more than a year would be platinum.

This encourages people to keep subscribing and sticking to your salon or spa, which will surely keep many customers and make it a little harder for them to go to the competition.

A similar strategy is used by Costco, a wholesale giant, where they have an annual membership fee but they offer lower prices than competitors of the same size.

This seems to be very effective for them, as memberships alone accounted for 72% of Costco’s profit in 2023!

Conclusion

To conclude, retaining clients in a salon or spa business is crucial for its success and growth.

These strategies that we’ve talked about, can help you create a loyal and satisfied customer base, generate a steady and predictable income stream, and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

However, these strategies require careful planning and execution, as well as constant monitoring and improvement.

You also need to use reliable and user-friendly salon software, such as KlikNRoll, to manage and optimize your salon or spa business.

By investing in your client retention, you can ensure the long-term success and growth of your salon or spa business! Again, click the button below to learn more!

Last Updated by March 4, 2024
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