Are salon memberships right for you?

Hello, Phil Jackson here from Build Your Salon, bringing you the tools you need to master to build the salon business you deserve, and today I'm on home turf and talking about my favourite topic. I'm going to give you five reasons why I think you should have a salon membership scheme. Hello and welcome, and today we are on my favourite topic. I'm talking about salon membership schemes. This is actually a request blog. If there's anything that you would like me to talk about in these broadcasts, please head over to the Build Your Salon Facebook page. I would love to hear what it is that I can help with. So today, five reasons why you should have a salon membership scheme, and don't think this is just for the big guys. I don't think that there is a hair or beauty salon or spa anywhere that can't benefit from setting up a client membership scheme, and I hope by the end of these five reasons I will have convinced you too. Reason number one is the obvious one, and it is predictable monthly income. You have no idea how good it feels to take away some of those peaks and troughs that we have in our turnover throughout the year. Just taking away some of those troughs and smoothing our income a little bit makes managing your salon financially much, much easier. It means that with that predictable income, we can plan for some big expenditures. We can plan when it's a good time to invest in training. We can plan when it's a good time to spend on a refurb for the salon. We could maybe even plan when will be a good time to take some profit out of the salon. Honestly, it feels amazing for me on the first of the month, before we've done any services at all in my salon, to know that all of my fixed costs are completely covered by salon membership subscriptions. I'd strongly suggest you look into this, if not for a big chunk of your clientele, at least for some of your big spenders, because it can make a massive difference to your long term profitability. Reason number two is whenever I have introduced a membership scheme into a salon, we've usually seen an increase in upsells. And that's because there's a small psychological trick which is actually working in our favour for once. If I give you something, you have a sense of obligation then, subconsciously, that you need to return the favour, give something back. Otherwise it makes you feel slightly uncomfortable. What we're finding is that people who pay their salon membership fees by direct debit or recurring card transaction don't actually feel like they're paying. So they tend to be the customers who not only are increasing your profitability and helping you plan financially, but they're also the ones who tend to be most easy to upsell extra services to.

They're the ones that are also most likely to be taking additional retail products with them. They're even the ones who are most likely to tip generously. Reason number three is we see an increase in client loyalty. And this isn't just because they are tied into a contract, mind you. Also bear in mind that if a member of your team leaves, the customer is less likely to follow if they are tied into one of your membership schemes. That means that you've got time to convince the customer that actually they're in the best place for their salon services, that they don't need to follow that stylist or their therapist. And actually you can deliver those services to an excellent standard and hopefully retain their long term custom as well. Reason number four is you gain something of a competitive edge. I reckon you've only got about 18 months to two years though, guys. At the moment, salon membership schemes for their customers are an exception. I think that gives you a competitive edge. I think customers see it as something innovative and in their favour and excellent value. You get the win on the predictable income side as well. But also it's something your customers just can't get from the salon down the road. That said, I think 18 months to two years and we're going to see a lot more of these membership schemes coming up. Certainly as we start to see more of the salon software companies supporting membership schemes as well. So get in there now, get your salon scheme up and running, get known for it locally and then everybody else in town is just going to be following you. Reason number five is we just see better cash flow. So at the moment I can absolutely cover all of my costs with regular customers who aren't on salon membership schemes. But do you know what? It would take me until maybe the 14th, 15th, 16th of the month to break even and make sure we're covering all those costs. By bringing a membership scheme in, half of those costs are just taken care of before we've even opened the door. So your cash flow situation is much more predictable, much more stable and you're breaking even much earlier in the month as well. And then reason number six, because you know I love a bonus guys. Reason number six that memberships are such a good idea is if you're looking for a way that you can positively impact your business without physically being there, setting up one of these schemes is absolutely a brilliant idea.

It's something that you can work on from home. It's something you can even market from home if you've got a handle on your email marketing as well. So it's a way that you can contribute to the profitability of the salon, contribute to that bottom line without physically carrying out any extra services yourself. So there we have it. Five reasons. Well, six reasons in the end why I think a salon membership scheme is an excellent idea. I hope that's been useful to you. If you want to learn more about salon memberships, take a look in the description box. I have literally just finished the Salon Membership Master Plan, which will help you bring your own salon membership scheme to life. I go through the main points that I think you should consider and I give lots and lots of examples of how I run my own scheme myself. So take a look at the link in the box below. I think that it can serve you very, very well if you're looking to bring a salon membership scheme in. I hope this whole broadcast has been useful to you. If it has, don't forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single week and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I'm sharing. If you've already subscribed, I will see you next week. Take care.