LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

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Posted October 8, 2019

In business, we like to think we know our customers. WE like to think we understand what it is that makes them happy, why they choose to spend their hard-earned dollars with us and what they want. But 9 times out of 10 we as business owners aren’t the actual target market for our salon – so can we be sure that we really know what it is that makes our customers tick?

 

It’s always a good idea to take the time to survey your customers, whether its informally when they come in for their regular treatments or formally via a digital or email survey.

 

IN SALON

Most salon businesses have a questionnaire for new members when they first come to your salon, so why aren’t you using the same method of information gathering for your existing customers? Some could argue that existing customers are in fact more valuable than new business, because not only do they currently spend and can be encouraged to spend more, they will be the ones recommending the new business to you. Take the time to make sure that the service still meets their expectations, find out what you could be doing better and engage your customers in the conversation. Take the data you receive and plug it into Microsoft Excel or your salon system to truly get some oversight on the results.

 

DIGITAL

Digital surveys are beneficial because you don’t have to plug all the information into another system, you get instant results and you can send it out to your clients along with your regular email marketing. The downside, it’s harder to get people to fill in the survey – if you’re in person, people are more likely to feel pressure to complete the survey. Programs like SurveyMonkey or Microsoft Forms can allow you to digitally survey your customers and give you great visible graphs and insights about satisfaction for you to use to assess your next move.

 

QUESTIONS

The general rule of thumb with either digital or in-salon questionnaires is to keep it short and sweet – you don’t want your customers feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information they need to provide. 10-20 questions are usually enough to get a good gauge of how your customers are feeling. Most questionnaires for salon businesses could ask questions similar to these to get a real sense of how your customers feel –

• General demographic questions e.g. age, suburb they live in, how many years they have been coming to your salon. Keep the survey anonymous so people feel they can give you honest feedback.
• Rank on a scale of 1-10 how happy they are with the service they receive
• Rank on a scale of 1-10 how happy they were with the service when they first came to your salon – this is important to measure whether or not your in-salon experience is improving
• Did they see your latest promotion (include the name to job their memory) – this is great for helping you to measure the saturation of this promotion
• Do they currently purchase retail product with you? If no, why not?
• What is it that they most enjoy about coming to your salon – provide guided answers, e.g. great service, a great relationship with their stylist or therapist, champagne on arrival, convenient location, etc. and leave room for them to write their own answers
• What would your customers like to see more of – again, provide some basic categories, and make sure they’re things you’re willing to offer e.g. exclusive events, more promotions, luxury add-ons and adjacent services that could be provided by a third party

 

Once you have surveyed your customers, it’s important that you take their advice on board. Don’t look into the individual results too much, instead focus on the bigger picture of what the majority say and use this to drive forward your sales, marketing or service strategy for the next 6-12 months.

 

HABA are always one to take their own advice, and to that end, we would like to invite our members to complete our latest Member Satisfaction Survey. We want to know what you think, and we want to use your feedback to inform the next 12 months of activities YOUR organisation will be undertaking. Give back to the organisation that supports you and our industry and complete the survey here.