The Goldmine in your Salon’s Own Backyard – Lost Clients

by Greg Milner on 30/03/09 at 9:21 pm

Bruce & Beth Fisher, Inner Circle members of Fisher Experience, Braintree, near Boston.

Bruce Fisher and his wife Beth have owned a hair salon & spa, Fisher Experience in Braintree, Massachusetts, just south of Boston, for 25 years. I was talking with Bruce this week, and he was understandably excited.

In the worst recession America has encountered in decades, Bruce’s sales have leapt by over $10,000 a month in the four months since he joined the Inner Circle program. Part of the reason for that is Bruce’s discovery of the

‘hidden’ goldmine

that most salon & spa owners ignore – his ‘lost’ clients.

It’s a mystery to me why so many business owners don’t see the forest for the trees, while they frantically spend huge amounts of time and energy (and money) trying to pour brand new clients constantly into the top of their leaky customer funnels.

The ‘funnel’ leaks because almost zero energy is put into keeping existing clients, and getting them spending more money.

Here’s the hard lesson: it’s at least six times more expensive to get a new client than it is to get existing or past clients coming back for more. Simple reason: with past clients, you know – or should know – their names and addresses…and no media is more cost effective than a letter, an envelope and a stamp.

Bruce has learned a hard lesson (as you can hear in the accompanying brief audio track): recently he sent 400 lost clients the series of tried and proven ‘Raise the Dead’ letters from the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit.

In two weeks, those letters brought no fewer than 82 of those ‘lost’ and forgotten clients back into the salon – a marketing campaign that cost a few hundred dollars, for a return of around $10,000, and dozens of re-activated clients who will continue to spend, in many cases for years to come.

Here’s how Bruce describes the ‘revolution’ in his business – from typical beauty industry ‘image’ style marketing to our kind of accountable, measurable direct response marketing…

Another super-successful method of putting an ‘iron cage’ around your existing clients – ensuring that when they think ‘I need some pampering’ they think only of you and your salon – is a regular newsletter.

I don’t mean some kind of glossy, ‘professional-looking’ pamphlet or flyer thrown together by a graphic artist, I mean one that actually looks like a newsletter, and the more it looks like it was produced by an old typewriter on your kitchen table, the better it will work.

And I mean a newsletter that contains personal stories about you, your staff, your most recent holiday, your pet…anything that speaks to your clients in a folksy, down-home kind of way.

And regularly sent to your clients in hard copy – not once every six months, not even quarterly, but every single month.

Jenny Coleman, Inner Circle member of Snipz Hair in Edge Hill, Queensland

Inner Circle member Jenny Coleman of Snipz Hair Salon in Edge Hill, Queensland, discovered the truth of this and explained how successful her monthly newsletter has become since she turned it into a regular monthly mailing process instead of an ‘ad hoc’, infrequent event.

“Just wanted to add that without my newsletters I would not have the trust that I have built up with our clients.
I babbled on about memberships but didn’t share with you that I sold 7 originally and before they expired I sent a letter telling them exactly how much they had received throughout the year (I think they lose touch with reality when they don’t pay as they go ) and all seven have signed up for another year plus they have sent 2 more new clients to me asking for a membership. At $1,500 each I don’t think I could have done that without first building that trust through newsletters.
“I also had a client call me to say that she leaves the newsletter in a prominent place for all the family to see, and that her son who lives elsewhere was upset as we had missed him in our mailing. Another lesson learnt, we didn’t think he’d read it!
They (newsletters) are a very powerful tool.
Thanks again for everything, I’m having so much fun and working less.”

Note to Inner Circle members: the exact templates Jenny uses for her monthly newsletter are in the ‘sealed section’ Members Only website.

Login to the Members Only section here and click on ‘View Site’ in the top of the screen, then navigate to ‘Newsletter Templates’ in the categories on the left side.

(If you are NOT yet a member of the Inner Circle program, if you are still struggling to attract new and lost clients with worn-out, expensive, ‘brand’ style marketing that cannot be measured and held accountable, if you are fed up doing it the same way you have always done it – and getting the same pitiful results – then you might qualify for a 30-day Test Drive of the entire program, including the Toolkit that all Members receive. Click here to complete your details.

But a WARNING: if you don’t complete the online survey form, we won’t call you. If you complete the Survey form, and we can’t get hold of you on the phone, we will NOT keep chasing you. We receive well over 100 applications for a 30-day Test Drive every month. We accept only a handful of new Members on a 30-day Test Drive, and if you don’t take the call, we’ll simply put your name at the bottom of the waiting list, and move on to the next salon. It could well be your competitor.)

Rating 3.00 out of 5

A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients.