What Your Clients Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Educate salon clients about product benefits to increase salon sales. Surely you’ve heard the saying, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” and just as certainly, you know that it’s not true. Quite often what we don’t know can hurt us, and all the more so as we don’t see the pain or problems coming. Here is one of those things that you might not be aware of, that is hurting you: What your customers don’t know.

Because all of the things your customers don’t know is costing you business and sales. Costing you client satisfaction. Costing you word of mouth referrals. Costing you new clients. And costing your salon or spa profits and growth.

On the up side, what your customers don’t know probably also constitutes some fairly large opportunities for you and your business. Because what your customers don’t know about you, your skills, your abilities, your salons capabilities – all of the benefits they could potentially have as a result of doing business with you – is easy pickings when it comes to helping you plan future print and digital communications, social media, email marketing and more.

Here are some ways that you can turn what your customers don’t know from liability to advantage to growing your salon profits, attracting new clients and stimulating salon word of mouth marketing when it comes to promoting your salon or marketing yourself as a booth renter, hair stylist, skin care or make up esthetician, nail technician, massage therapist or other independent beauty professional.

Feature a professional salon product of the month and feature a salon service of the month. Create station talkers, point of sale display sheets or tent cards, bag stuffers, email marketing campaigns, social media posts, etc., using all of your marketing channels in a coordinated way to educate clients about products they might not know about or services they may not be aware that you offer.
Use “Did you know…” style posts on your Facebook page, Twitter, Google+ and even Pinterest photo pins to draw attention to products or services.
Create a blueprint of communications and marketing procedures to follow each and every time that you introduce a new product or a new service into your salon or spa.
Write scripts for hairdressers, nail technicians, estheticians and others in your salon to follow which start conversations about the benefits of new products or services, or services which you think many of your customers don’t know about or fully understand.
Use your communication and marketing channels (print, website, email marketing, social media, etc.) to tell customers about continuing education that results in new or improved technical skills or services now available to your salon clients.
Use photos to increase engagement and connection and ask questions in order to start conversations about product benefits and service solutions you provide to common (or even not so common) client hair, scalp or skin problems.
Create mini-versions of services to offer to clients or to give away as a free gift with purchase in order to introduce your clients to services they don’t normally purchase.
Use testers strategically to help with the launch of new products, give clients a chance to try the featured product of the month after learning about it as a result of your in store and online salon marketing, or create a natural-feeling way to start a conversation about a product with your client while they are in the chair.
Create your own local location-based, daily deal type of offer around the launch of a new product or service, as a way to attract new clients or in order to promote services (or products) client’s don’t purchase very often, in order to increase awareness about their benefits.

Don’t know what your customers don’t know?

Use social media, email and printed surveys to assess how much your clients know about what your salon offers (or the different types / range of services that you can provide as a booth renter or hairdresser). If you word your questions right, you’ll actually be educating customers about your services while surveying them!
Hold trivia contests online and in the salon, asking clients to guess which products provide certain benefits. Collect entries and hold a drawing for a grand prize winner. Afterward, publish the results including the answers so that you are educating clients about the benefits specific products provide. You could do this one product at a time (such as a product of the month to be revealed after the trivia contest), a grouping at a time (such as a collection of products which should be used to treat a certain condition or problem) or a product line at a time, to increase client awareness of a new line of products, a boutique line, or another line of professional salon products that you want to promote.
Plan to post a “Did you know…” social media status update about one product and about one service at least once a week; 2-3x week or even 1x a day would be better. (If you only post once a day, this won’t work. To stay engaging on social media and avoid over-self-promoting, plan to post only 1 self promotional status update for every 3-4 non-self-promotional status updates you post!)

Don’t be afraid to talk about products and services (i.e., “sell.”) The truth is, it’s your responsibility. Not for profit, but for your client’s well-being.