How to grow referrals for your Salon

Getting new clients for your business is an up-hill task, and once you’ve gotten them, having them come back is another big task. In this blog, we will highlight how to use referrals to grow your customer base and increase revenue.

Creating Referrals

When a customer is happy with your service they will easily want to tell their friends about it. There will always be talks of, ‘where did you get your hair done’, ‘who did your nails’, ‘nice haircut, where did you get it from?’ etc. You can use this opportunity to have these happy customers to become your ambassadors.

In addition to them mentioning your Salon or name to his/her friends, you could make it more interesting by allowing your client get incentives for every referral. This could be a percentage discount or an amount off their next visit. To make it even more interesting, the person referred can also get a ‘first time client incentive’ which makes it even easier for them to consider trying you out. At this point you may want to consider getting a system that allows you to automate this process and give you an easy way to track your referral program.

Implementing Referrals

When it comes to how you run your referral program one can choose to either have an influencer or work with your daily customers. An influencer may be helpful, however, implementing this has more details to it than meets the eye. You may find that influencers are good when it comes to recommending as opposed to referring. However, with careful planning and implementation, this can give great results. It will be advisable for the influencer to interact with your services and speak about them with a personal touch. With videos showing his/her experience of your services, the influencer can now recommend and issue referral codes that are linked to them which have a discount attached to them.

Referrals that come from friends and family have a great impact on the referred. This is because of the level of trust already developed within the relationship. This second way may not deliver big results initially, but will work very well in the long run and could be a great tool to use during special occasions like Christmas, Valentines etc. In such occasions, one can phrase the message as a promotion that benefits both the referred and the referee.

Tools to use

Referrals will work very well if you have an automated way of issuing and recording each process of the referral stage. It is recommended that you use a software that is integrated with your Point of Sale. This ensures that you have all your customer data and sales in one place. You will be able to track each referral and see if you have sales conversions from the referrals given. ILOVALUE Salon Management Software is recommended as a tool to use for both referrals and general Salon management tools.

Check out ilovalue here: web.iovalue.com