October 2016 - Susan Routledge Consultancy

3 Tips to Glitz Up Your Facebook for Xmas

31st October 2016 by Susan Routledge

If you haven’t done so already, it’s now time to focus on your Christmas marketing. We all like to glitz up a little for those Christmas parties and it’s a time that can spike your sales if we prepare well.

So how do you go about creating a compelling, visually exciting Christmassy Facebook page? Catherine Trebble is the top marketing & social media expert for our industry, and she’s kindly agreed to give us her 3 Great Tips to Glitz Up Your Facebook for Christmas. Over to you Catherine…

Your business Facebook page is a great place for a Christmas marketing campaign, but Christmas is a visually noisy season so you’ll need some extra pizzazz for your page to stand out from the others.

Here’s what you need to do…

Start simple

Create a customised Christmassy cover image – but give this the personal touch. Seasonal stock photography is in everyone’s faces during Christmas, so show how different you are by creating some personal, salon-based photos. You could take a good-quality picture of the whole team together dressed in Santa hats, or singing carols, with a warm greeting text overlaying the picture. If you pride yourself on your amazing Christmas tree, that will make a good picture too if you (and your team) are in the shot.

Even jazzing up your current profile picture with some Christmas spritz will make a difference.

And don’t worry – you don’t have to be a Photoshop genius to create engaging, sparkling photos. The Santa hats were added to Finishing Touch’s current Facebook cover image by using Canva. But more about that later…

Seasonal poll

Christmas is a great excuse to engage with your clients in a light-hearted way – and perhaps gain some client intelligence at the same time. A poll is a very simple and interactive method of gaining client traction and, with a Christmas twist, you’re sure to gain more Facebook followers. Polls and fun surveys are shareable, too.

First, think of a question – related to your business, of course but you could add some extras.
Here’s an example:

Christmas is stressful! How would you like to destress?

– With a soothing, relaxing massage

– With a beautiful manicure, so I don’t have to worry about my nails

– With a toning facial, so I don’t look so tired!

– Hire a chef!

– Get away to somewhere warm and skip the whole thing!

Alternatively, you could run a poll on the most Christmassy shade of nail varnish that you use at the salon, favourite treatments to glitz up for Christmas, or even offer a poll on the most Christmassy refreshments you serve – you could even let your clients decide what you serve for the Christmas period.

Don’t forget to make it visual with a stunning and relevant photo and serve the poll results up as a festive infographic.

Talking of infographics…..

One way of building a client base is by adding value. An easy way to add value is to create and give away free an infographic showing beauty hints and tips; such as holiday makeup, how to look after your skin, or the countdown to Christmas nails. This might sound daunting but don’t worry, you don’t have to be a designer to create a beautiful infographic.

Tool up

Customising photos and creating infographics are no longer the territory of the graphic designer. There are many software tools out there that can do all the hard work for you. Try some of these tools to make your photos pop. Here are a few of our favourites:

Your smartphone – yes, you can use the built in photo effects that come with the camera app on your smartphone to jazz up your photos. Experiment with saturation for intense colour or sepia-toned for old-fashioned Christmas appeal

Canva.com: An easy-to-use design tool that will help you add text and graphics to your photos with pre-created graphics that you just drag and drop onto your photo. It’ll also help you create infographics. I use this all the time and I love it!

Wordswag: Here’s a tool that will create some superChristmassy fonts for your posts.

Over: This is an app both for Android and iPhone and it’s an on-the-go photo editor that’s easy to use.

The best thing with any new software is to experiment and play. Take some time now to sit down and start creating, and get a feel for the software that is right for you. At the same time, brainstorm some ideas for your Facebook page, and you’re all set for a Facebook page that zings this Christmas.

I’ll be interviewing salon marketing expert Catherine Trebble this week, if you have any questions you’d like me to ask her on any aspect of marketing or social media, click on the Ask Susan link to get your question included!

How to Prevent Christmas No-Shows

16th October 2016 by Susan Routledge

One of the most common questions I get asked by Salon Owners, especially coming up to a busy period like the run-up to Christmas—is how to handle and eliminate Christmas No-Shows.

The first question I would always ask in return is “Which part of this problem are you responsible for?” Most respondents will put total responsibility on the client and never on the salon. In my view that’s not quite how it works.

I know it can be so frustrating, and sometimes infuriating when a client doesn’t show up. But it can be a cop-out to put the blame totally on the client.

I really don’t believe there’s a bank of clients out there trying to disrupt your appointment system and jeopardise your continued business. Instead I believe that you have to take more responsibility in helping your client remember and respect their appointment booking with you.

Especially in the busy season coming up to Christmas, everyone has extremely busy lives trying to remember so many things, whilst also juggling work and family routines.

Although your treatments and appointments are a huge focus in YOUR daily life, the importance of remembering a facial appointment can easily and unintentionally pale into insignificance in the hectic whirlwind world of your client. It’s up to you to do all you can to ensure that your client has their appointment in the forefront of their thinking by keeping in contact with them with gentle reminders.

Historically, most businesses will just sit back and hope and pray that the client will remember this appointment. That’s a big ask considering the appointment can be anything up to 6 weeks away.

When we look at things from our clients’ perspective we can understand a lot better why our clients forget.

Here are some tips to help reduce the Christmas no-shows problem:

With existing clients, it is ESSENTIAL to re-book their treatment before they leave you. This not only improves your client retention and appointment planning but it also means that you can confirm correct details on an appointment card for your client’s safe keeping.
If a client telephones to make the booking, then you must reiterate all of the details back to the client and then either text or email a confirmation.
You must have contact with clients at least 48 hours before their appointment. This can be a friendly phone call or a quick text or email reminder. Many software programmes now can automate this process for you.
Staying in touch with salon news and updates also keeps your business top of mind for the client.
Make sure you have a written cancelation policy in place as a deterrent. Personally I feel it is hard to impose a cancellation policy, unless your services are very unique. You can easily lose a client if they think they have incurred charges on their account, and they will simply move to another salon. My advice would be to give your client the grace of forgetting or missing ONE appointment, then if it happens again, simply explain how you love looking after them and wish to continue in the future, but that you would need to take payment in advance. If they refuse, then they will likely re-offend, so let this client go.
A pre or part payment booking system is a fantastic way to eliminate no shows. This is easily implemented if you have an online booking facility.
No shows CAN be a thing of the past with consistent action on your part, but you need to be consistent about your cancellation process throughout the year, and not just in the busy run up to Christmas.

Salon Christmas working hours explained…

How To Improve Your Client Retention by 1000%

2nd October 2016 by Susan Routledge

However you price your services, and whichever type of client you’re trying to attract, you’ll always have competition. So how do you make sure that your salon is head and shoulders above the others? How can you retain your clients, and even gain more, if your competitors are offering the same services as you, and charging the same prices?

How can you differentiate your salon from the rest?

There’s one thing you need to focus on. And that’s your LEVEL OF SERVICE.

It’s service that makes the difference between retaining your clients or losing them to competitors that are perceived to offer greater value.

The key is to really focus on every aspect of your service. How much extra value could you offer? You might already be thinking that you are already offering your absolute best.

Let’s test that out.

One of the best ways to register if you and your team are offering the best customer service possible is to add an imaginary zero to the prices of all of your treatments. It’s as simple as that.

Imagine that you’re charging these higher prices already.

What would your clients expect if you were to charge your client ten times the price you currently charge? You would instantly up your game. What levels of service would your clients expect for this price?

I am sure they would expect you to be the absolute expert in everything you say and do.
I am sure they would expect the absolute maximum levels of cleanliness and treatment standards.
I am sure they would expect you to make them feel special and valued in lots of small ways both before, during and after their treatment as well as between treatments.

Think about that extra zero:

Would you really have your treatment room looking the same?
Would you really give exactly the same advice to your clients?
Would you really only look after your clients while they are in your salon?

I believe we should over deliver and never settle for just a GOOD level of service.
Customer service should be your key focus area as it’s one of the lowest costs of marketing your business and has maximum benefit to your bottom line. Excellent customer service turns your clients into loyal fans who will rave about you to anyone who will listen – in effect, they’re your marketing team.

If you’ve added your zero, asked yourself honestly about your levels of service and found some gaps, then it really is time to STEP UP. Your clients really do deserve to have the best no matter what you charge.

Look after your clients, or someone else will.

How did adding an imaginary zero work for you? It’s Tip No. 7 of 50 ways to improve your customer service in my book, The Little Book of Client Retention.

3 Tips to Glitz Up Your Facebook for Xmas

If you haven’t done so already, it’s now time to focus on your Christmas marketing. We all like to glitz up a little for those Christmas parties and it’s a time that can spike your sales if we prepare well.

Start simple

Seasonal poll

Christmas is stressful! How would you like to destress?

Talking of infographics…..