In today’s highly competitive markets, customer experience remains a differential for businesses. Consumers favor businesses that deliver a memorable experience. 

The vital question is: how can you create the ultimate spa or salon customer experience?

Deliver top-notch customer service every time. Yes, it’s that straightforward.

Great customer service involves prioritizing the needs of your customers and forming meaningful relationships with them. 

Customers should be at the center of all planning and decision-making efforts. You must consider them at all stages, from optimizing the construction of your spa or salon business  to your final service delivery.

What are the Business Benefits of Delivering Great Customer Service?

When properly implemented, customer service brings a ton of benefits. Your salon or spa can rely on loyal clientele, and they, in turn, get products and services that suit their needs.

Approach each interaction to exceed expectations by offering a unique experience. Leaving a good impression means customers are more likely to return to your spa or salon for their next fix.

Satisfied customers are the best marketing strategy.

Nothing beats a customer who is willing to rave about your spa treatment or hair styling. These are the real heroes who promote your brand through word-of-mouth and draw attention to your products and services.

How do you foster that loyalty?

You must understand them and anticipate their needs. Develop meaningful relationships by showing respect and going the extra mile. Customers want to feel valued.

If you need more convincing, here’s something you might not know.

It’s much more costly to invest resources in getting new customers than it is to keep old ones. That should give you an idea of how valuable your customers are to the growth of your business.

What Qualifies as Great Customer Service?

Customer service sums up all the efforts put into serving existing, new, and prospective customers. You should aim to deliver quality customer service at every stage of your service delivery.

Customers should feel appreciated from the initial engagement to the final purchase.

A memorable experience all but guarantees a follow up visit.

Smart business owners take it one step further by considering the relationship between AI and customer service. AI tools like chatbots can make a huge difference in providing real-time support and converting prospects into paying customers.

Remember that while great customer service creates loyal customers, negative experiences do the opposite. 

How Can You Improve Customer Experience With Great Customer Service? 

Now you know why your salon or spa needs to give your customers an exceptional experience.

Where do you start?

It’s easy if you take the right approach, but a lot of effort is required to find that approach. So, here are some juicy nuggets to get you started. 

Put these customer service tips to good use and your customers will be hooked for life:

1. Keep to Appointments

An appointment is a sacred bond between you and your customers.

This scheduled commitment must be prioritized above all else. You should only break it under unavoidable circumstances.

Better still, don’t break it at all.

Your ability to respect customer appointments affects their willingness to trust you. Public perception of your spa or salon business depends on your professionalism and credibility in customer dealings.

An apology message or phone call can ease some of the disappointment. Be open and honest. Make sure they understand why you are unavailable and encourage them to reschedule.

The best apologies in this scenario will include some form of compensation.

Offer them a discount for their purchase or provide something extra at no additional cost. Show them that their opinion matters.

2. Start a Membership Scheme

Membership schemes can be a game-changer for your spa or salon. Loyal customers get rewarded for their commitment with discounted deals on your products and services.

Offering special membership benefits is a fantastic way of showing appreciation to your loyal soldiers. Membership programs promote a sense of community and members are sure to recommend your services to others.

These programs also provide a patronage guarantee. Members tend to use your services more often because of the added incentives. It’s a real wallet-opener.

Regular visits mean that your customers get reliable services and you can forecast funds for supply and staffing needs.

Everybody wins.

3. Be Transparent and Authentic

We’ve all been burned at least once.

Trust issues are an unavoidable side-effect. With so many options available in the market, it’s hard for customers to decide who to trust.

More so if you are new to the industry.

For clients to trust you and make you their go-to choice, you need to cultivate their trust. This is the basis of any successful enterprise.

One proven way to build trust is by practicing transparency in all your dealings.

Customers must be kept in the loop at all times. Provide regular info and updates about your business and policies to keep them informed.

Use these transparency tips to boost customer engagement:

  • Provide a price list in a visible location on your premises
  • Give customers a heads-up well ahead of time of price changes 
  • Use a simple refund policy
  • Use personalized responses for customer interaction online or in public spaces
  • Never react to negative feedback. Listen patiently and offer solutions
  • Encourage customers to write reviews about their experience on your website, business listing pages, and social media. This is an excellent technique for measuring customer satisfaction
  • Accept responsibility when you’re wrong.

4. Optimize Online Appointments

Scheduling spa or salon appointments on a face-to-face basis is a great chance to get some facetime with customers. However, you should consider creating an option for customers to make appointments online.

The idea is to provide the same options they would get from a physical interaction – without the physical part.

Customers should be able to choose the exact time, service, and even products that suit their needs. For example, your booking page could have live updates on availability or a virtual receptionist to offer customer support.

The virtual receptionist can perform several functions including providing parking directions.

This can be critical because some customers could prefer online bookings. Tech-savvy customers tend to base their purchase decisions on their experience with your digital platforms. 

Your digital customer experience must match your on-site service delivery if you’re to keep them happy.

Online scheduling saves you valuable time and helps you process appointments faster.

Encourage your customers to try making their appointments online. They can browse through your style catalog or treatments with ease wherever they are.

It’s a great way for them to get information about your services without having to visit a physical location.

5. Offer Home Care

Salons and spas tend to focus on on-site product and service delivery. Offering home care services to your customers can be a huge differential and put your spa or salon ahead of the curve.

There are tons of benefits to building a meaningful relationship with customers beyond their time on-site. 

The home care service delivery option can help you maximize customer lifetime value

Your customers already love the excellent services you provide for them at your salon or spa. Imagine how much more enjoyable that would be in the comfort of their homes. 

6. Personalize Your Services with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 

CRM – not to be confused with PRM in marketing strategies – is the corner piece in the customer service puzzle.

It gives you access to a range of invaluable tools for managing customer relationships.

You can create individual profiles for customers with information such as birthdays and treatment preferences. This information allows you to tailor the customer’s experience to needs, from offering them discounts on special days to predicting hairstyle changes.

Keeping records of previous visits offers insight into a customer’s life and habits. 

Offering personalized spa or salon services is a great way to make new customers feel welcome. They are more likely to become regulars when they see the dedication you put into understanding their needs.

With CRM in place, you can review your no-shows or regulars who no longer come in. You can reach out to them and provide solutions to get them through the doors again.

These customer surveys can help you to improve your conversion rate.

It helps you identify your loyal customers and prioritize their needs. The fact that it’s all done online and eco-friendly is the icing on the cake.

7. Deal With Complaints Professionally

Customers are, by nature, never satisfied.

It remains your job, however, to strive towards the impossible. Complaints will come, but you must adopt the proper attitude to turn them around.

Remember that not all complaints would be face-to-face. You must recognize the importance of online reviews and how to manage unsatisfied customers.

No matter who is at fault, you should always maintain your professionalism.

8. Consider Offering Complimentary Services

Complimentary services could be anything from a cup of tea in the waiting room to a makeover. Even having an apprentice chat up customers while they wait is a great idea.

The aim is to make the experience pleasurable and measurable to the customer. It can help you secure repeat business for your salon or spa. 

Give clients important updates on your products and services to show them how much you care. For example, you can provide health-conscious tips about your products and services that customers might not know. 

Share the benefits of a new spa treatment or introduce new body-safe hair styling products. 

Pass out handbills or ask customers to follow your social media pages/blog to share these useful tips with them.

Give Your Customers the Adventure of a Lifetime

The ideal customer experience extends beyond what happens inside the store or salon. It covers what the customer thinks about your business even when they’re not with you.

Use the tips you’ve read to improve customer engagement.

Put in the effort to make customers feel respected and appreciated. From the moment they step through your door or click on your website, be prepared to give them the adventure of a lifetime.

Bio:

Jessica Day – Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad

Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a modern business communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Here is her LinkedIn.  Jessica has written for such domains as Kustomer and Send Pulse