5 Ways to Maximize Your Profit For Your Salon

Maximize Salon profits

If salons want to maximize their profits, they have to focus on three main things: getting your current clients to visit you more regularly, generating new clients and sealing those leaks in your business.

Most of these problems can be solved by doing one simple thing: doing all of your salon scheduling via a salon appointment scheduler instead of a paper-based appointment book.

With this in mind, this blog post will look at some of the most effective ways to maximize profits at your salon.

Getting Your Clients To Visit More Regularly

While generating new clients is an important part of growing your business, it is equally important (if not more so) to get your current clients to come back to your salon – and much more regularly. Loyal customers are simply much more profitable than new ones.

Not only do repeat customers spend 67% more over time, but loyal customers also generate more referrals for your salon as well.

1. Salon Appointment Scheduler: Recurring Appointments & Memberships

When it comes to getting your clients to visit more regularly, a salon scheduler is an invaluable tool. They work in a lot of different ways to get your clients returning to your salon.

First and foremost, a salon scheduler automates the process of setting up recurring appointments with your clients. When a reminder is sent out to clients to encourage them to rebook, they are much more likely to do so.

So many salons miss out on encouraging clients to come back, which means that they leave a lot of money on the table. Your scheduler, however, is designed to maximize profits at every step of the way so that you and your staff can turn your attention elsewhere.

To ensure that the client doesn’t miss any of these appointments, your scheduler will also automate client notifications/reminders so that they don’t forget their appointment.

As you will see later on, no-shows are a major problem for appointment-based businesses and especially salons.

You can also encourage your clients to come back more often by using your scheduler to set up memberships. Contrary to popular belief, memberships aren’t just for gyms.

If you offer any sort of recurring service (like hair cuts, colour and other treatments), you can set up a membership for your clients.

In many ways, the membership works like a loyalty program except it encourages clients to come more often since they paid for their hair appointment up front. Again, those customers are much more likely to spend more as well.

The added benefit here is that when clients visit you more regularly, they are much more likely to develop a relationship with your stylists and to see the benefits of those treatments, therein boosting customer loyalty even more.

Your salon can also count on a recurring revenue stream.

Davis Hairdressing, for example, offers a membership for unlimited monthly blow drys, a program they call “The Fling.”

Generating New Clients

If you want to maximize your profits at your salon, you also have to invest time in increasing your clientele as well. But, the question becomes: what is the best way to do that?

2. Start a Referral Program

As you saw above, loyal customers are much more likely to recommend your business. But you can also encourage even more referrals by starting a referral program at your salon as well. Did you know that a referred customer is 18% more likely to stay with your business?

This comes from research from The Wharton School of Business.

When it comes down to it, the referral program gives your clients a little extra incentive to recommend your salon to others.

Here are tips to design a successful referral program:

    • Make Your Reward Worth It (And For Both Parties). Giving your clients a mere 20% off after they refer 10 people simply isn’t going to be very motivating. They have to put in a lot of work before they ever see any reward and even if they do manage to refer 10 people, the reward isn’t very motivating. So, what’s the point? A great referral program, however, will offer an attractive reward and, as you will see below, occur after as few referrals as possible – at least in the beginning.
    • Incentivize Both Parties. A great referral program will also incentivize the new client to actually visit your salon as well. A discount is a great option here.
    • Allow Clients to Choose Their Reward. The benefit of allowing your clients to choose their reward (whether it’s waxing, threading or a pedicure, for example) is the fact that it introduces your clients to a treatment that they may not have had before.
    • Consider a Tier System. If you take a look at psychology, a good referral program should ideally increase the reward as the client refers more people. Start by rewarding clients after they refer one person. From there, you can increase the rewards after they refer 3 people, 5 and so on. You can also give your clients the option to save the referrals for a more expensive treatment once they’ve referred 10 clients (for example).
    • Choose a Cost-Effective Reward

While you want to motivate your clients to refer your salon by offering them an attractive award, you also need it to make financial sense for your business. That means choosing services that cost the least.

And, lastly, don’t forget to promote your referral program as well – both online and offline.

3. Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

As a salon owner, you likely know the importance of having a Google My Business listing when it comes to your business being discovered (and therefore generating new clients).

But did you know that your Google My Business listing has the single biggest impact on local SEO than any other factor? This is according to Moz’ Local Search Ranking Factors Survey.

Of course, it’s not only enough to simply have a Google My Business listing. Your listing also needs to be optimized, part of which includes updating it on a regular basis. Here are a few tips to optimize your listing:

    • Ensure that your NAP is consistent on your website and across the web
    • Include quality images (and a virtual tour)
    • Keep your listing active (for example, make use of Google Posts)

You can also read our 9-Point Checklist to Optimize Your Google My Business Profile for more tips.

4. Sign Up For Reserve with Google

We’ve talked about Reserve with Google a lot on our blog, so we will be brief. In short, Reserve with Google means that your business calendar will be embedded straight into Google Search and Google Maps.

Simply put, it means that people will now be able to book your services straight from Google (this blog post will catch you up on all that RwG has to offer).

If you are looking to generate new clients for your salon, RwG gives you the competitive edge you need to stand apart from your competitors. The thing is, your salon appointment scheduler has to be an official partner of Google in order for you to get your business listed on RwG.

Yocale, for instance, is an official partner of Google. Once you sign up for Yocale (which is free), the Google book button will be automatically added to your Google My Business listing. It’s as simple as that.

Closing the Leaks In Your Salon

5. Improve Overall Efficiency and Reduce No Shows

Maximizing your profits at your salon also means closing all of the holes that lead your business to lose money unnecessarily.

Again, we direct your attention to the importance of your salon appointment scheduler.

A good salon scheduler will come with a no-gap scheduling feature to ensure that your schedule is tight so that those odd gaps in your schedule are reduced.

If you want to maximize profits at your salon, it’s imperative that your salon works to reduce no-shows. One survey found that salons lose an average of $10,000 every year. Again, this brings us to the importance of your salon scheduler.

Your scheduler sends out client notifications/reminders in advance of appointments (research has shown that email reminders alone have been shown to reduce no-shows by 36%), but they also give you the option to charge in advance of the appointment – or apply a cancellation fee.

Wrapping It Up

When it comes to maximizing your profits at your salon, your salon appointment scheduler is one of the most powerful tools you could have.

Your salon scheduler will allow you to schedule recurring appointments and to implement memberships in order to generate customer loyalty. It will also give you access to Reserve with Google in order to get discovered and, above all, generate new clients.

Lastly, if you want to maximize your profits at your salon, you should also start a referral program, optimize your Google My Business listing and close the leaks in your business, particularly by reducing no-shows.

Do you have your own tips and tricks for maximizing profits at your salon? We’d love for you to share your insights with us below.

We write a lot about running salons to generate the most business. You might also be interested in these blog posts:

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Do you want more appointment bookings for your salon? Yocale is home to the best salon appointment scheduler on the market. With our beautiful and easy-to-use calendar, we give you the extra hand you need to run and grow your business at the same time. Click here to sign up for FREE or learn more.

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