The very nature of free-market enterprise dictates that irrespective of the industry where one operates, customers can and will move to alternate sources when competition exists. As a result, there will always be substantial competition in gaining clients and even more when it comes to retaining them. Perhaps no industry is more aware of the challenge of retaining customers than the beauty and wellness industry. Over the decades with the industry growing leaps and bounds, the challenge has only compounded. Therefore, businesses nowadays need to utilize all such tools and resources that are at their disposal to retain clients. One such easy way of retaining clients is to have a loyalty program. It is an incredible plan, which if done right is not only easy to implement but also has delivered quantifiable results.
While many salons and spas have traditionally been running a customer loyalty program, it has often been Adhoc and based on the personal one-on-one equation of the client and the salon staff. As a result, the program has been sub-par in both its implementation and deliverables. However, nowadays by leveraging technology, aka POS software salons/spas can run efficient and streamlined customer loyalty programs that are based on real data and deliver far better results. If you are wondering how you can leverage your salon/spa POS software to deliver engaging customer loyalty program, read along.
- Data Storage & Management
The very foundation of your customer loyalty program is data storage and management. It is the analysis of this data, which will drive the loyalty program. The POS software is built to capture the data of each and every client and store it in a centralized database. From basic information such as contact details and communication preferences to advanced information such as payment methods and purchase history, the POS saves all the information in one place. The best salon POS software takes data management a step forward and allows clients to update their contact information and payment methods anytime. The data is the treasure trove that is mined (analyzed) by the POS software to inform which clients are top spenders and their spend patterns. With the data in hand, your sales and marketing team can reach out to those clients and offer them incentives in lieu of brand advocacy.
- Points System
The human mind is equipped to understand quantifiable results better than qualitative results. Thus, a customer loyalty program must be run on a system that is quantifiable, and it is no surprise that most such plans have a reward in the form of points. For every revenue-generating spend, the system should allocate points that are earned. These points in turn must be treated as a pseudo monetary tool, which the customer can spend to avail certain products and services. Based on a fixed revenue spend to points ratio, the POS software can automatically generate points and keep accruing them to the customer’s profile. The customer should be able to see the points accrued and the POS software should them redeem these points to avail either products or services. With some clever programming, the POS can also provide redemption suggestions based on the clients’ purchase history.
- Instant Gratification
Let’s be real. We all live in a world of instant gratification. One of the ways your customer loyalty program will fail is if the customers are made to wait too long to redeem their accruals. Therefore, it is helpful to keep the first bar lower. Once the bare minimum threshold is reached, customers should have a choice to adjust their points towards new bookings, purchases and compute the post redemption spend. A salon POS software can help you implement the process of instant gratification with ease. What is even better than the system will record each and every redemption and maintain a ledger of accruals and redemptions. When customers are incentivized often, there exists an urge to spend more. A POS software will help your business in providing instant gratification to the clients.
Having the right salon/spa POS software will streamline your customer loyalty program and give both the business and the customers quantifiable results. By keeping existing clients happy and content the business can grow both organically, and through word of mouth referrals. The salon POS software market is mature and has many competitors. Some of the renowned and well-established names are Zenoti, MindBody, Schedule, Vagaro, Salonist, etc. Zenoti’s POS software is designed to intuitively analyze customer data and provide excellent loyalty program deliverables.