70% is Not a Good Number

We need a new marketing model because the current model doesn’t deliver results we can take to the bank.

Loyalty is dead. Guests don’t want a relationship; they want fabulous service, fair prices, some added value and always a smile. Engagement isn’t about ‘likes,’ ‘fans,’ or ‘follows.’ It’s what should happen when the guest is in the chair and a follow-up message become critical.

The key takeaway here is that when a guest walks out of your salon, she becomes a Free Agent and can go anywhere she wants—and based on the 70% defection rate, she does.

We operate in the Age of Now. We moved from electronic to digital, and now we are social. In the Age of Now, we feel we need to engage with guests. In the last few years, we have moved from loyalty to relationships to engagement. In the Age of Now, it’s all about being fast and being about me.

For years, most marketing for salons and other retail and service businesses was done in an end-of-month or start-a-new-campaign mode. Data was aggregated in what the techies call ‘batch processing.’ It worked then, but it does not work now. We have to be fast, we have to be NOW, and we have to focus on the money machine—your guests.

Social media is in the Age of Now. Salons try to speed up the connection process using social media but as noted above, the impact is probably marginal at best.

Here’s a new spin on salon marketing—Triggers.

While salons always have to recruit new guests, it is critically important not to lose focus on the current ones. Salon marketing needs to kick into high gear as soon as the guest walks out the door, and we don’t men handing her a bounce-back coupon. Salon marketing needs to leap into the Age of Now, because something is happening every day.

Triggers happen when new guests come in, when others forget to come in, when some walk out without taking home product or having a nail service, and some just need to be thanked and rewarded for their business once in a while. These are important messages that should not wait until the end of the month or the next “marketing campaign.” These triggers need to happen NOW with personalized messages that reinforce the last visit and influence the next one.

Trigger-based marketing will have a game-changing impact on the business of beauty. In the Age of Now, staying connected using triggers that deliver the right message at the right time to the right guest is a critical marketing strategy for retention. Equally important is the need to continually influence the next visit to your salon and not a competitive salon. Together, these turn into powerful growth strategies for every salon. Now is the time to put your POS database to work for your salon.