How to Get Salon Clients Coming Back

Salons spend most of their marketing effort on strangers and almost none on the people who have already paid them. It is backwards. A client who has been in once already knows where you are, what you charge and whether they liked it — the hard part is done.

Clients rarely leave in anger

The client who has a bad experience complains, or gives you one star, and you know about it. The far larger group simply drifts: nothing was wrong, they got busy, they were near a different salon one Saturday, and eight months later they have a new stylist without ever deciding to leave you.

Drift is beaten by rhythm. A client who knows when they are next coming in does not drift.

The rebooking question

The highest-return habit available to a salon costs nothing: before the client leaves, ask when they would like to come back, and put it in the diary while they are standing there.

Make it specific. "See you in six weeks?" gets a vague yes. "Same time, six weeks today — shall I put you in?" gets a booking. Train every person on the counter to ask it every time, and check that it is happening.

Know who has gone quiet

You cannot win back a client you have not noticed leaving. Whatever you use to keep bookings should be able to tell you who came regularly and has not been in for a while — and that list, worked through politely, is the cheapest source of bookings a salon has.

One message. Warm, personal, no discount necessary: you have not seen them, here is what is new, would they like their usual slot. A discount can come later if nothing else works; leading with it teaches people to wait for one.

Loyalty schemes worth running

The test of a loyalty scheme is whether a client can explain it. Points that expire under conditions nobody remembers are not a reward, they are an irritation.

• Simple and visible: earn on what you spend, spend it on what you want.
• Worth something real. A reward that takes two years to reach motivates nobody.
• Applied without a fuss at the counter, not after a conversation about terms.

The small things that decide it

• Remembering the last service and asking about it. A note on the booking is enough.
• Letting them keep the same stylist, and saying so when they book.
• Running on time, or telling them early when you cannot.
• A message when you are running late, before they have left home.

None of it is remarkable. That is rather the point — clients come back to the salon where nothing went wrong and somebody remembered their name.

Measure it

Once a month, count what share of the clients who visited three months ago have been back since. That single number tells you more about the health of the salon than takings do, because takings can be propped up by discounting and this cannot.