Towards the end of every service or interaction you have with a customer in your salon studio you SHOULD be wrapping up by telling the clients what to do next. We are going to be talking today about a flexible prebooking strategy that includes 3 different types of preferred customer experiences!
This is a strategy of planning for your next interaction together. Is this straight up prebooking their next appointment? Are you used to hearing that your clients don’t want to prebook because they don’t know their schedule? Maybe they interrupt you before you are even done asking them.
Let me show you some ways to educate your clients to help them learn the importance of prebooking, FOR THEM, not just for you trying to raise your income. Which yes this does, but won’t ever be the reason your client prebooks!!
I also want to let you know about some other ways that you can be leveraging your face to face end of service wrap up to figure out what your clients own idea of an exceptional customer experience is.
As I am writing this we are about 2 week until Christmas and the busiest we will be all year long. This lesson is so important to start implementing in your salon studio when you are busy because if its not something you are used to doing there is a chance you will stumble.
If you are going through a slower time and you want to start implementing this strategy then ABSOLUTELY still do!
When you are super busy though, fumbling your words will be easier to get back up from because within an hour you will probably have another opportunity to reword what you say or how you are talking to your customers and by the end of the first day if you really commit to practicing this you WILL see a difference.
Commit to figuring out HOW your clients WANT to plan for the future and work doing THAT into your business.
First and foremost, remember that if a client is sitting in your chair they have already made a decision for themselves that they trust you. They trust you to change the way their hair will look for the next 6-8 weeks or longer depending on what they are getting done! This is an important thing to remember because so many of us stylists don’t ask a client to precook because we simply are scared. It can be uncomfortable to assume that this customer wants to come in again. So many variables can go into this but by keeping in mind that this customer is already trusting you this much is a reminder that you should be trusting yourself just as much.
“If you don’t ask for what you want, you’ll never get it” -unknown
How many of you reading this are saying to yourself that your clientele just doesn’t like to prebook?! Now, how many of you actually ever ask your clients if they want to prebook? Or better yet, tell them they need to?!
As customers we are living in a time where we are always prompted with what to do next.
If you want to have an SUPER successful salon studio you need to start rising to the standards of the successful companies around you. It’s time to start directing your clients where to go and what to do next.
Examples of how to do this: “use this at home every day”, “come back in 6 weeks for a touch up”, and the most important…”if there is am ANYTHING falling out of place message me and we will take care of it”. (This last one is your key to never getting a bad online review and give your new customers the assurance that you have their happiness front and center!)
When you really break it down there are about 3 different prebooking customer types:
Maybe your client will want to book their appointment before they leave that day. This is the best case and easiest scenario. We know we can count on this client to book their next appointment and the only habit we have to make sure we have down is doing it at the end of the appointment.
This customer may just do it for you but it’s important to remember that even if they don’t mention it and it’s not something they have done before, use something they said during their appointment to bring it up easily in conversation. For instance, maybe your customer mentioned going on a vacation in a couple months. You could say “let’s get your next appointment set so you can take that off your plate now and not have to worry about looking your best in your vacation pictures!”.
Once you get a customer to prebook use that experience to show them how easy it is for them. If they have any complaints about how it worked out, Make note of them and see if there is anything you can do in the future to stream line that part of the experience so others aren’t bothered in the future.
Some people, like myself, have fluid schedules and don’t like to set things up in advance because I don’t want to HAVE to reschedule when it comes down to it. I do however LOVE it when I get a reminder that I need to get back in for a clean up. Throw in some statistics about WHY it’s IMPORTANT for me to do stay consistent and my butt WILL be back!
Most online booking systems now have an email feature where you can put together an automated email to go out a set amount of time after their visit.
If they don’t I highly recommend investing in an email service where you can put customer information in and send out emails to your customers anytime. The one I use and stand behind is CONVERTKIT (affilaite link).
This way has its pros and cons. It won’t automatically sync with your customers visit so you will have to go in after their visit and set it up to go out on the date you want it to. However, you can also do a lot more with it like adding forms into your website so you can collect customers email addresses who visit your website.
That’s a whole other topic we will conver in another blog post on another day!!
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Let’s not forget about our third customer type! Some people simply like to be left alone about booking again. These guys are fine knowing when they do reach out for a next appointment they might not get their exact perfect time but that just isn’t important to them. I don’t like for any of my clients to come in and never hear from me again so I add this client into my monthly newsletter. This way every month they get a reminder of me and dont forget how to get in touch when they are ready!
These are 3 different customer experiences and require you to have daily habits but also be flexible in your approach.
I have often referred to being a hairstylist as being in an improv show and being a salon studio owner is that being a solo improv show!!!
You may feel like this sounds like a lot of extra work.
I’m not gonna lie, until you have it down as a habit and something you can do on auto pilot it might feel like a lot of work!
We are living in a world where we just don’t all want the same kind of experience anymore.
If you feel like you do not want to accommodate all of these customer experiences, then focus on 1. Figure out the one that feels the best and is the one that you will commit to doing 100% and do it completely!
If you are needing help when it comes to learning how to speak to your ideal client or even if you aren’t sure who your ideal client is and creating goals for your business and actively working towards them, you should definitely check out my 5 Day Workshop, Attracting your Ideal Salon Clients and Mastering Momentum! I know this 5-day workshop will not only be used once but over and over as you and your business continue to evolve and uplevel!
Cutting 2 or even 1 of these customer experiences out of what you are accommodating is keeping you from making 33-66% of your possible clients completely happy and feeling like they are receiving ULTIMATE customer service.
When you step your customer service game up to the next level it requires fine tuning these little details!!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
