When Michael Bridgeforth's hairdresser wife needed a way to streamline and simplify her work life, Bridgeforth brought forth an App designed to function as a virtual assistant. HairHoncho is a free app for stylists and clients. It frees up stylists to be creative and affords clients the freedom of 24/7 booking.

Bridgeforth has also tapped into his life experience with a stylist and written a series of business-building blog posts, now available at the HairHoncho site. Here's one on why your clients may be walking out the door without the next appointment set-up: 

New clients? That’s great, but we need some bread and butter! That’s going to come from loyal, repeat clients. While it’s important to make sure you’re driving new clients to your hair salon, it’s equally, if not more important to have your regular clients return. You might be on a constant loop of new clients, and there might be a few reasons for that. Here are four reasons why your salon clients aren’t rebooking:

Booking An Appointment Is Too Much Of A Hassle

When it comes to putting in effort to do something, you’ll find that you’re always going to have a group of people who drop off. Simply put, people are lazy. They want to do things in the easiest way possible and if the “easiest” way isn’t satisfying enough for them, they’re not going to do it. One reason why your clients might not be rebooking is because it’s too much of a hassle. Often times, picking up a phone to make the call is too much. Yes – a little muscle movement and a minute conversation is too much. To counter this, work on an online way to reserve and confirm appointments. You’ll cut down the number of clients who fall off the race of the earth just because you’re able to capitalize off of their laziness!

You’re Not Reminding Them To Come Back

You can usually break hair salon clients into three categories. The first client never goes to salons and only showed up because someone dragged them there. The second client is the one who returns periodically like clockwork. The third client is the one you need to prioritize with this point. These clients don’t go to the salon for a multitude of reasons. It usually boils down to them not having the time or simply forgetting. Because of this, they eventually stop going and by the time they pick up again, they’re ready to go to a different stylist. This is why you should be sliding right into their DMs. While a direct message might not be the best choice of communication, you should make it a point to get all your clients email addresses or phone numbers to send them periodic reminders to head back to the salon.

Your Services Are Too Basic

No one likes to be called basic and you especially shouldn’t like it on this occasion. While it’s great and essential to know the basics, especially when dealing with hair, that’s not what’s going to keep some of your clients coming back time and time again. In fact, only offering the basics is what’s going to stop some of them from coming back. Most clients might want a trim or a dye job on the regular, but what happens when they feel a rush of spontaneity? Social media can so easily influence the trends and rainbow hair, for example, has become increasingly popular. If you have a client who wants this style and you’re unable to perform, don’t be surprised if you never see them again! Whether it’s you or another hairdresser at the salon, you need to diversify the skills of your business to cater to as many clients as possible.

They Can’t Afford It

This might be something that can’t be helped. When it comes to paying for a service, clients are paying for both the service and often the experience of the person performing the service. Changing your prices might not be economically feasible for your business, but there are ways you can help accommodate these clients without breaking the bank. Offer deals where they can get a slight discount once every few visits. Having initiatives like this will help you retain your clients while also driving new clients to your business.

There’s always room for improvement in business, but if you’re a new business, your window for mistakes and improvement has to be immediate in order to keep your business afloat. While there are tons of amazing marketing initiatives to bring new clients to your salon, you also need to focus on building a group of regular clients who will become the backbone of your business. Knowing the issues is going to be your first tip to fixing the problem and helping you get clients cycling through your hair salon on the regular.

--Michael Bridgeforth

Learn more about HairHoncho here!