Some Effective Ways to Attract and Retain Customers

​Owning a salon is competitive.  There’s no doubting that.  Look around you the next time you are driving and you will see some type of salon on almost every corner and definitely in every shopping center.  If you want your business to last for many years, not only do you need to keep current customers, you will also need to attract new customers.  Here are some ways to help attract new customers in order to keep your salon competitive and perhaps even dominant in this very competitive environment.  Let's see how to win.

1.  Use ​Social Media.

​Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. These are not just platforms to keep in touch with family and friends, or to post your current location or what food you are about to eat.  Use these platforms to attract and retain customers.  Post to your social media accounts daily.  Yes, every day.  Stay in front of your customers consistently so your salon is always on their mind.  As long as you are not directly marketing to your customers via email or text daily, makes these platforms a robust opportunity to consistently get in front of your customers without over burdening them.

2.  ​What to post.

​You can practically post anything.  Post employees and talk about their skills and their passions.  Post something about a customer. Perhaps a before and after photo or the customer giving two thumbs up for the service they received.  If both employees and customer’s own pets, consider posting those as well.  Who wouldn’t like a pet friendly business?  Post pictures of your business.  If you’re in a great location, talk about what’s around your business.  Perhaps work with a neighboring business to reciprocate discount offerings by promoting each other’s business. There are simply limitless things you can post without overthinking it and have fun with it.

3.  ​Encourage customers to follow you.

Encourage your customers to like your salon on Facebook, to follow you on Twitter and Instagram by offering some sort of reward such as loyalty or bonus points which can be used in your salon during a purchase.  You may even want to reward a customer for re-tweeting a certain number of tweets or sharing a certain number of Facebook posts.  Keep rewarding your customers and they will keep coming back.

4.  Offer a “bring a friend” or "bring your pet" day.

Offer a “bring a friend” day and reward your customer with a gift (i.e. loyalty or bonus points, gift certificate, etc.) and give the friend a free service.  If the friend signs up for any type of recurring service, reward the customer again with another gift.  It’s a small price to pay when you get a new a customer.  You may even want to consider a “bring your pet” day if possible.  Now, who wouldn’t like to bring their pet with them?

5.  Have counter signage.

​Have some sort of signage at the front counter that encourages your customers to follow your salon on social media or bring in a friend.  Explain how to do it and what they will get.  Also be sure to have your employees encourage customers to follow and then reward employees with some type of bonus. The more employees earn the more likely they will continue to work hard in promoting your business.