Ah, the million dollar question. Until we crack the technology for growing actual money-trees (let’s get on it, science), staying on top of your outgoings remains a key skill for business owners – especially in the fast-paced beauty industry. But saving cash doesn’t mean you have to cut corners on the quality of your service – quite the opposite, in fact.
How, you ask? Here are 5 money-saving tips for salons that can keep costs down while actually creating a better experience for your customers.
1. Market smarter
Marketing your salon is a huge part of building a thriving business, so investing in it’s definitely a must – but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it better. Social media has opened up a whole world of smarter marketing for small and medium businesses.
Paid social ads let you target specific demographics, across a range of parameters – from age and gender to interests and pastimes – and track how your posts are performing. That’s good news for you and your wallet – with each cycle of ads, you’ll get a better idea of what’s working and can focus on that, improving how much you get out of your investment every time. More value for less cash. It’s a winner.
The upside for your customers? They’ll prefer getting served posts and ads on their own social media that’s actually relevant to them (which also makes them more likely to book).
Looking for more marketing tips?
Try our full guide to social media marketing for your salon
2. Focus more on your regulars
While attracting new clients is obviously really important for growing a successful salon, you also need to make sure you’re not neglecting the ones you’ve already got.
That’s good news. As a general rule, it’s cheaper to keep a customer than it is to gain a new one. Instead of spending the time working on new, grand (read: expensive) marketing campaigns, consider spending a little more time upgrading the customer experience for your regulars.
That could mean budgeting some extra hours to make sure you’re personalising any messages you’re sending out to them (and at the right time), or investing in a new coffee machine for customers. If, for the price of a few fancy lattes, you can help guarantee a repeat appointment, you’ll get your money’s worth in no time. After all, someone who’ll walk through your door twice is worth far more to you than a one-off.
And speaking of repeat customers…
3. Automate everything you can
Time is money, so it pays for you to be making the most of it. Finding a way to automatically take care of the daily nitty-gritty jobs that eat into your all-important contact time with clients is a great way to start.
Invites to rebook, appointment confirmations & reschedules, marketing messages – while important, all of these things take up precious time you could be spending on your customers, improving their experience and keeping them coming back for more.
By getting as many of these things as you can to look after themselves, you get that time back to invest in your client relationships. Plus, sending appointment reminders or invites to rebook at the right times makes for a smoother experience for customers. It’s a win on every front.
4. Lean on what’s working
Not all treatments are made equal. To save costs in the long run, you can’t just throw money at things randomly – you’ve got to get a bit more tactical.
Spend some time breaking down which of your treatments is most popular in with your customers (and which bring you in the most cash) – and then prioritise making them even better, instead of spending money upgrading less popular services. You’ll be safe in the knowledge that every pound you spend will be going into bringing something actually valuable, instead of being wasted.
That goes for your product inventory and stock, too. See which products are selling well and focus on bringing in only the brands that your customers actually want – not only will you spend less money, your clients will enjoy you using the products they want to see. Improve your customer service in the most cost-effective way.
5. Get on top of payments
Cash is dead. But that’s not bad news for you – with swapping payment providers easier than ever, you can make sure you’ve got the technology in your salon to provide the smoothest payment experience for modern beauty-bookers, be that contactless, mobile, or online.
Searching for competitive rates online has never been easier, either, with countless comparison sites popping up – or you can go through yourself manually, if you prefer the lo-fi approach.
At Treatwell, we’re on a mission to make growing a beauty business brighter for everyone. That’s more than just a listing on Europe’s biggest online salon booking platform – we’re here to be your digital business partner.
As a Treatwell partner, we’ll give you everything you need to take your business to the next level, from more clients to smoother salon management. Professionally-designed marketing emails and social media assets? Check. Automatic invites to rebook for all your customers? Yep. An easy-to-use, industry-leading POS solution? You got it.