The holiday season will surely look a little different for all of us this year. You’ve likely been planning for many months now, but with all of the changes and uncertainty, are you comfortable that you’re ready as a retailer and service provider to realize the opportunities ahead of you?
Your goal for the holiday season might be to find creative ways to retain your existing members, to improve efficiency for your staff during this harried time, to make the process a safe and seamless experience for your customers – or, all of the above. A robust software program can aid you in achieving any of these objectives in a cost-effective manner.
Make your salon shine by rewarding customers through enticing promotions that are easy to redeem.
Would you like to boost retail sales while rewarding loyal customers to thank them for their continued patronage during the holidays? Increasing the discount percentage that your EFT members automatically receive on all lotion purchases during the month of December is one easy option. Or you can automatically reward customers with “bonus points” for every new customer they refer to your salon, only redeemable toward product purchases. Doing so will not only motivate existing customers to purchase product, but also to refer your business to their friends and family.
You might want to offer an aggressively discounted “tan ‘til the end of the year” membership to the new customers that you obtain through your holiday referral program. Simply create a membership that expires for everyone on December 31, and configure a message to appear at the point of sale one week prior to expiration, so that your staff is prompted to remind the customer that their promotional membership will expire soon. They might just purchase an EFT membership to follow!
A sale that is always effective and simple for you to offer is the BOGO. You might want to consider offering 50 percent off all items in a particular retail category with the purchase of another item at full price. You can configure this promotion within your software so that the discount is automatically applied to the second item, and a seamless transaction for your staff. You can even have the system allocate the commission earned on the sale price, rather than the full retail price.
Another powerful promotion, especially during the holiday season, is a discounted minimum purchase. If you want to drive services sales, you might think about offering $50 off a service purchase, with a minimum purchase of $150.
We all know that trying to find the perfect holiday gift for everyone on your list can certainly cause some anxiety, so it’s no wonder that gift cards and certificates are a popular choice. As a result, you may want to look at combining a free gift card with a gift card purchase. After all, when redeeming gift cards, most of your customers typically spend more than the card value! Also, if the person purchasing gift cards from you isn’t an existing customer, make sure to capture their email address and cell phone number. There’s a good chance that you’ll be able to convert them into a “regular” through future marketing campaigns.
If you are trying to find creative ways to minimize the number of people in your lobby, you might consider rewarding customers who pre-book appointments – perhaps they receive a free mini-hand sanitizer with your company logo on it when they come in for their service.
As we approach the holiday season and the end of an unforgettable year, make your salon shine by thanking your customers for their patronage through enticing promotions that are easy to redeem and keep them coming back into the New Year.
