Top Ten Ways to Increase Client Retention
Building a long term clientele is essential to your business. Having a high client retention rate ensures that your business will continue to flourish as long term clients are more likely to refer others to your spa. Here are the top ten things you can do today to increase your client retention and reap the benefits of a highly engaged, dedicated clientele.
1. Stop Advertising
Immediately, stop advertising! Advertising without a plan or without a goal in mind is like throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks. Not effective and defitnitely not pretty. What you need to do immediately is start to market to your current clientele. They are there for a reason, do you know what it is? Before you go out and search for a brand new client, get your current clientele using more of your services and buying more of your product. It takes much fewer resources of time, energy, effort, and money to engage the people that have already selected you and learn everything you can about what they want and need. Spend your advertising dollars in ways that better serve your current clientele.
2. Build Trust
This excellent rule, be Impeccable with your word from “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz reminds us to do what we say we will do. The fastest way to lose a client is to give them reasons to not trust you. If they have a question, find out the answer. If you tell them you will call them back in 20 minutes, call them back in 15. In every situation, ask yourself if your action is building or breaking trust with your clientele. Teach this to everyone that comes in contact with the clients. Always look for ways to follow through on your promise.
3. 2C’s
Compliments and cards. Although this may sound trite, compliment your guests. Be sincere and find ways to point out the things that you admire, respect, think are beautiful, and nice. Every time you see a client, you should be looking for something that you can compliment them on. This makes them happy to see you, excited about your business, and eager to return. Write cards. If each of your employees took twenty minutes a week and wrote a few greeting cards to your clients thanking them for their business and sharing their appreciation for them, your clients would be a very happy bunch. It takes very little time and it has a very big impact.
4. Ask for feedback
Give your clients the tools and resources that they need to give you honest feedback. Provide a comment box, place phone calls to your clients, and send out surveys. You need to know how to improve. Reward and publically praise clients who take the time to give you feedback. Send out a newsletter thanking them, put up a sign that highlights the change you have made because of their input. Give away a product basket to clients whose ideas create change in your organization. Encourage employees to ask for feedback and honest assessment from clients.
5. Get personal
Find out the milestone events in your clients lives. Know how many kids they have and their names. Know their anniversaries, their birthday, their pets name and what their hobbies are. Show them that you care. Develop personal relationships with you clients that communicate sincere appreciation for their lives. Celebrate their life with them. Ask them questions and seek to understand who they are as a person. Find out what they love and make sure they get it! If your client loves lavender oil for her massage, put it in the notes. Don’t make her ask for it every single time!
6. Incentivize
Since you have stopped advertising, you will need to establish a plan for getting new clients in the door. Start by incentivizing your long term clients for bringing in their friends, family, and co workers. Show them publically your thanks and gratitude. Make them feel like a VIP through gift baskets and services the longer they stay with you and the more people that they refer to you! This is your best advertising campaign. You want to attract more of the same, and your current clients are friends with and work with the exact target person that you want in your business!
7. For life approach
Become a resource for life for your clients. Say things like, “I don’t want to just be your day spa, if you ever have any questions about achieving optimal health, even if we cannot provide a certain service here, ask me and I will help you.” Let your clients know that you have their best interest at heart and develop a relationship that proves this by referring them to what they are looking for.
8. Share Information
Create an environment that is honest and straightforward. If they are interested in learning more about a certain product, connect them to the information that they need. If your clients consider you to be a valuable source of information, tools, and resources, they will most likely spend more time in your business and spend more money on your services.
9. Consistency
Building an environment that is consistent is imperative to building trust. Make sure that your employee training program addresses the importance of a consistent experience. Making sure that you have your retail shelves stocked, that there is always toilet paper in the bathroom, and that they always get their post treatment beverage are all simple elements that contribute to a consistent experience.
10. Continual Improvement
To really develop a long term relationship, you must also develop yourself. Your commitment to continually learning and deepening your own knowledge will enhance your relationship with your clients. Not only will you have new information to share with them, but you will sharpen your skills of service and demonstrate that they are special to you.
Imagine that everyone has a necklace hanging over their heart that says, “I want to feel important.” Ask yourself, are we doing everything that we can to ensure that this client stays with us for life? Make a commitment to strengthen the loyalty that you have for your client and in turn, that your client has for you.
