Your customers are the cornerstone of your business, so it’s important to make building and managing client relationships part of your plan. In the beauty and fitness service industries, this is great news. Because the nature of your profession gives you a ton of great one-on-one time to get to know your customers, you can maintain and strengthen those connections even when you're not face-to-face. The better you know your customers, the more opportunities you’ll have to adapt your practices to better serve their needs. Here’s how to align your client management strategies to ensure happy clients are returning clients, no matter how needs and expectations evolve over time.
Notes
Vagaro’s free SOAP Notes feature automatically ties notes about a specific appointment to customer profiles. Supplement this info with client notes that apply across appointments. Many service professionals use client notes to record their clients’ style preferences or names of friends and family. Others keep track of personal connections they have with clients, such as whether they discuss books, TV shows, movies, or sports during appointments. The longer clients are with you, the more your notes will reveal about their expectations, needs, and wants.
Automated Emails
Vagaro’s automated emails help you save time by presetting the types of emails you send most often: birthday greetings, lost customer messages, and post-service thank you notes. Birthday greetings add a personal touch and remind the customer that they’re special (it doesn’t hurt to tuck in a birthday discount, either!) Lost customer messages also serve to make customers feel as though they’re important to you, even if they’re not on the books. A well-timed lost customer message can open lines of communication and bring them back to your business! And in today’s modern world, who doesn’t appreciate a thank you note for their business? By following appointments with a thank you note every time, you encourage customers to come back. Personalized service through automated emails let your customers know that if there’s ever a problem, they can speak to you openly and honestly.
Get Friendly with Forms
Forms are a versatile, multi-functional add-on that can help you manage client relationships in many ways. Forms are versatile enough to be leveraged as a data-driving tool or a fun, whimsical way of “getting to know you” to better understand clients. Here are a few of the most common ways to use forms, which you can personalize to your liking to help build better client relationships and make retention a breeze.
Onboarding Forms
In beauty and fitness, onboarding or intake forms make it easier to collect vital information that helps you prepare in advance for your first session with a new client. You can personalize forms to collect client history, hair history, training history, preferences, pain points, and more. You can also decide whether to make an onboarding/intake form a requirement for new bookings. That way, at your first appointment, you’ll be armed with information that’ll make for a great first impression!
Liability Waivers
Some services require waivers, such as a chemical service liability waiver, personal training waivers, or medical professional release forms clearing the customer for a service. The core function of service waivers is to protect your business against future legal actions, such as personal injury or negligence claims. Thus, waivers protect both the customer and the service provider by documenting acknowledgement for services where there’s risk involved, however minimal that risk may be. Having up-to-date records is another way to give great customer service. If they’re an ongoing client, you can even create an “anniversary” for waivers that need regular updates.
Customer Surveys and Polls
Surveys and polls are an easy, fun way to get customer feedback, which helps you understand their lifestyle, needs, and expectations. Surveys and polls can be personalized for anything from detailed follow-up customer satisfaction surveys to seasonal polls that help you anticipate upcoming customer needs. Ask anything from “How could your service have been better?” and “What products do you want to see in our store?” to “What are your plans for the winter holiday season?”
Manage Customer Relationships with Vagaro
Your customer relationships are a complex, multi-layered map of all the ways a customer engages with your business. The goal is to enrich their experience, learn more about their expectations, and anticipate their needs. Vagaro makes managing those personal connections easy for busy customers and professionals. By making every client feel important whether they’re on the books or between appointments, you reinforce the stability of your ongoing relationship. By using Vagaro tools, you manage client relationships effortlessly, to consistently meet and exceed their expectations. To quote Casablanca, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".
Personalized service, automated convenience! Get to know your customers better with Vagaro and lay down the cornerstones of enduring relationships!
Header Image & Icons: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro
