How to Get Salon Clients to Rebook

Keeping your clients coming back regularly just makes financial sense. And yet, the most important minutes where you could be getting your clients rebooked, you're wasting talking about Celebrity Masterchef. Shall we fix that? Hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your Queen of Salons, coming all over the internet again with another dose of my Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you? Achingly well. I hope I'm having a bit of a lovely month, it's got to be said. I'm really enjoying September, enjoying the content that we're putting out there, enjoying the results that my group coaching program are getting. It was a little bit patchy at the beginning of the month, but we're picking up and finishing this month strong, I am sure. How's life with you? How's business? How are things treating you? Have we got nice busy columns with lots and lots of people in? Or are we scratching around a little bit and hunting for those elusive new clients again? Well, apart from getting new clients, how could we make sure that we've got nice high utilisation, nice busy columns for ourselves and our teams? Well, there's actually only a couple of things that you can do without getting new clients. The only things you can do are either make sure your clients are in the column for longer. So we're talking about upselling, making their appointments last longer or see the same number of clients a little bit more frequently. So we're talking about frequency of visit and the best tool we have in our arsenal to make sure that people are coming back regularly is rebooking. And I know that you've been told off about this before and I know it's one of your key performance indicators and it's probably top row on lots and lots of those wonderful overpriced salon reports. And yet people don't take it seriously. Even the salon business owners don't seem that bothered by it when I'm talking to them about how to improve their financial results. And I think that is a massive wasted opportunity. And the excuse that I always get is, but they book online. Well, they only book online because you're doing a shitty job of rebooking them, my darlings, and that's what we're going to fix. But of course, keeping people happy and keeping them coming back in the salon isn't just about rebooking. This episode is supported by Mead Loyalty. If you've had some loyalty cards printed and then watch them vanish into the bottom of your client's handbag, Mead is the version that stays put. It means that your client's loyalty card with your logo and your branding is sat in their Google wallet or their Apple wallet right next to their bank cards. Lots and lots of reinforcement of your delicious brand. But there's nothing for them to download and nothing for them to lose. They just scan that card when it's time to pay. You decide what earns a stamp and you decide what reward they're going to get as well. Mead is free to use for up to 50 members. After that, I've got an exclusive code for you, which is BUILD25, all one word. And that takes 25% off your Mead fees for life. Head over to meadloyalty.com. Sign up. Have a look around. You're going to be really impressed with this because it's super easy to set up. Just a few minutes and you're going, I promise you. And start taking that loyalty much more seriously today. And thanks again to our friends at Mead for supporting the Build Your Salon podcast. So rebooking. Why is it important and how are we going to get to grips with this? Well, it's important because it makes financial sense. People who book their appointments before they leave the salon are back in the salon sooner. And here's why. People are busy. They've got a lot to do. They're not sitting at home and making booking their hair appointment or their beauty appointment a massive priority. So when they say, I'm going to book online, here's what actually happens. They leave the salon with the probably with the intention of getting home, checking their calendar and booking online. Then life gets in the way. They've got to whiz around Tesco's. They've got kids to feed. Perhaps they're going back to work for a few hours after your appointment. All of these things are getting in the way of that. And they're not going to think about their hair appointment or their beauty appointment again until their hair or their nails or their skin look shit. OK, this is how life is. So until I'm having a bad hair day, your hair salon is not on my radar. It's just not part of my world. As soon as I'm having a bad hair day, I think, gosh, I must make an appointment. Then they're going to book online. Then they're finding they can't get a slot that suits them for another week or two. So you've taken a six week regular client and by not rebooking them, turn them into a seven or an eight week client. But that's the same as losing if you take a bunch of six week clients, turn them into eight week clients. That's the same as losing a third of your clientele in terms of frequency of visit across the year. So we've got to make sure that we're getting people back through the door and we've got to be asking properly. Now, the reason I think a lot of people say I'm going to book online is because they want to get out the door. You finish the hair, you finish the appointment. They've got life to get on with. They don't want to stand there for another three or four minutes booking their next appointment with you. So make life easier for them. And I'm talking about batch booking appointments. Chances are if they're in on a Thursday morning, Thursday morning is a pretty good time for them. Let's make sure they've got Thursday morning in six weeks and 12 weeks and 18 weeks. And they always get that Thursday morning slot every six weeks. We can always change the appointment a little bit closer to the time or with a week's notice. But at least they're getting the slot that suits their lifestyle. So make life easy with the batch bookings. The other thing I want you to do is to stop asking for the rebooking at the end of the appointment. Think about what's happening. People are I'm going to keep going with a hair example just because it's kind of on my mind now. I think it's my fringe. I think I'm having a bad fringe day. Anyway, bangs, darling. Bangs for my American audience. I'm having bad bangs today. Anyway, I think what happens as far as hair is concerned, at least, is we have this wonderful appointment where you've washed my hair for me. I've had that wonderful scalp massage, perhaps a conditioning treatment. I'm looking and feeling brilliant right up to the point where you asked me for 100 quid. Okay. And then the next question is, after you've kind of ruined my mood by asking me for 100 quid, your next question is, can I make you feel shit again in six weeks time? It's not going to work. What we need to be doing is doing the rebooking when the excitement to come back is high. So that's before they've paid. So if you've got an apprentice team, if you've got someone who can help you, get them rebooking while you're finishing and making them look amazing and they're still feeling great. Okay. And the key to it, I think the absolute key, and this is the same with retail as well, by the way, is to bring the rebooking right forward in the appointment when the excitement's high. And we're doing the consultation. So instead of just talking about what we're doing today, so we could be having a consultation, our nice in-depth skin analysis and consultation before we do my wonderful facial. Before we've even started the service, you should be saying as my beauty therapist and to get the best results, I'm going to need to see you again in four weeks time. Why can't I get that? Why don't I get that booked while we're carrying out the service? So before we've even started laying hands on our clients, we could have that rebooking locked in, or we could even be saying to get the very best results from this treatment, a course of three is what's going to work best. So I'm going to get you booked in for a month and in two months time, and then it's just taken care of. And like I said, if the client needs to go home and check their calendar, they can always pick up the phone or send you a message or change their booking online. But at least we've got a slot booked in for them that's secured, it's saved for them, and we are good to go. I know those of you that I've managed to convince to take booking fees, I know some of you struggle with doing that in person. I know when people are booking online, it's easy because they type in their card details and you haven't got to ask them for the 15 quid or whatever it is. Honestly, the first time is the worst, because all that's happening, if I'm having the same service again and again and again, and 25% of that is a booking fee, well, you're going to knock it off this visit because I've already paid it, and then I'm going to pay it for next time. So it adds up to the same. Once you've got past the first one, that awkwardness starts to disappear. The other thing I want you to really think about is changing the way that you describe rebooking for your clients. Stop saying, do you want to book again? Do you want to book again? How about, can I book the next appointment for you? Or shall we get you booked in again? So it feels a bit more collaborative. It's something that I'm looking forward to. It's something that I'm doing for you as the client rather than you having to do, and it feels kind of awkward and painful. So there we have it. My tips on getting people rebooking. I promise you that this can transform your fortunes if you're looking at a very gappy column. If you can just get people rebooking, that frequency of visits stays nice and high. I promise you this can make a really big difference to your bottom line. And if it's a really big problem, and only if it's a really big problem, you can bring in the D word here. We could start looking at bringing in a discount. Now, I did this way back in the big financial crisis 2009-2010. I was expecting our average bill to really fall. I was expecting a spend per client to fall through the floor. It didn't. What we found was that the average bill stayed the same, but the frequency went through the floor instead. So people were spending the same amount of money, but they were coming in a lot less frequently. And that was the same as wiping out 25% of my clientele. So I couldn't afford that. I wasn't going to have that. So we brought in a rebooking discount. So if you rebooked on the day in the salon and that visit was in the next six weeks, you got a discount off your next visit. So you could look at that, but only do that, I would say, in dire emergencies. If rebooking is a really big problem, if frequency of visits seems to get longer and longer and longer, think about it. Because if you offer a 10, 15, maybe 20% discount, but you're seeing clients more frequently, which increases your takings by 30, 40%, surely that's got to be a no-brainer. So have a think about it. It's also a really nice way, that discounting thing, by the way, if you're thinking of raising your prices pretty soon, we can take the sting out of it with a rebooking discount. But like I said, that's in case of emergency only. You may break the glass and put a discount in. Your Uncle Phil has given you permission. So what are you doing? How do you script your rebooking? Please don't rely on the bloody text messages and emails from your salon software. It's too late by then. I promise, get it done in the salon. Watch your figures start to improve. And teach your team. Script it for them. Make it easy for them, too. So what are you doing to keep people coming back into your salon? How's business? Reach out and let me know. Also reach out if you'd like to be a guest on a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. I'd love to be sharing your success story with my Build Your Salon audience. They are wonderful. I promise you the feedback you're going to get is absolutely lovely. My email address scrolling at the bottom of the screen, phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know, I love hearing from my salon owner friends anyway. Just a few short days until I'm coming all over the internet again with another dose of my wise hour wisdom. And until then, take care.