Attracting new customers and retaining old ones in your beauty salon can often prove difficult. Given the saturated market and countless other choices available, standing out from the rest and showing your customers that you are the best choice is a rather formidable task. However, given that rising to this challenge is the only way to secure better business and greater profits, working on your client retention should be at the top of the business’s core priorities.

Thankfully, technology can help make things easier, and feature-packed POS solutions in Singapore is often all you need to succeed. Below, we outline the key must-haves of every salon’s POS system to boost its client retention.

Loyalty, referral, and gift card programs

Loyalty programs, referrals, and gift cards can not only help to maximise profits in the beauty industry, but they can also do wonders in your client retention strategy.

Loyalty programs work for any kind of service but are especially sought after in businesses like beauty salons, given that people are keen on always maintaining their appearance. Besides providing exceptional service, a loyalty program that encourages them to do more self-care through various perks can help skyrocket your customer retention. Discounts, service upgrades, and free procedures are only some of the benefits you can experiment with.

Referrals help to get new faces to try out your offerings and build your customer base. Research shows that customers are 18% more likely to stay loyal if they get to know your company through friends and family than discovering you on their own. Do note that when developing a referral program, it is vital to be realistic regarding the requirements to become eligible for the rewards.

Lastly, gift cards have become a staple for many businesses as international research agencies showed that the global market earned $307 billion back in 2016 from gift card sales. Besides improving profit margins, offering gift cards for your services also helps gain new customers. Your clients know what they like, and buying their friends and family a gift is a great opportunity to introduce them to the same treatment. This is also an opportunity to gain new business with the only expense of making the gift cards themselves. Since they are paid right away, they are still added to the salon’s profits.

A modern salon POS system will have all the necessary features to implement these programs more easily. Customer relationship management, dedicated customer databases, loyalty points system, and customer rewards program software in Singapore are only a few of the many capabilities that simplify whatever client retention strategy you have.

Online booking 

Some people find it difficult to make a call for an appointment for all kinds of reasons, whether it is because of anxiety or time constraints like being at work all day. Statistics show that 67% of millennials prefer to do their shopping online than in-store. Naturally, this also translates to reserving bookings.

Therefore, you lose out on a large audience by not having an online booking feature yet. Most customers prefer this option since it lets them book an appointment at any time. The salon also benefits from it as it reduces the time employees have to spend on the phone.

Dedicated salon POS solutions come with a built-in appointment system that allows for online and in-store recording of appointments and direct assignment to the staff members that will fulfil them. Bookings can be embedded into various channels, such as business websites, social media platforms, and mobile apps, as well as allow for multiple outlet booking in a centralised location. 

Proactive selling

Most customers looking for self-care rely on salons to help them reach their beauty goals in the quickest and most cost-effective way possible. Recommending new or customary services beyond what the customers want is what salons are all about. To do this, salons must learn more about their customers, starting with their past purchases.

POS systems that keep track of every customer’s spendings, regardless of whether they are a member or not, help to determine which services worked for them and which did not. Recording certain attributes about them can also help in the future as the salon can improve its services and recommendations based on individual preferences, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Conclusion

Retaining and attracting customers is what makes or breaks a salon business, so implementing the industry’s best practices and investing in the right strategies is fundamental to reaching commercial success.

If you are searching for a POS system made specifically for the beauty industry, Edgeworks Solutions has what you need. Our POS Beauty solutions come with various useful features that help empower salon owners to grow their customer base and reach business milestones quicker. For more information, feel free to reach out to us here.