While social media can be a great tool to help you reach new clients, word-of-mouth is still an excellent way to attract new people to your business, which is where a barbershop referral promotion comes into play. Here, business consultant Phil Jackson from Build Your Salon shares his top three tips on boosting client referrals.
1. Make it a monthly campaign, not an ongoing promotion For example, make every January referral month. By shortening the timescale, we can keep excitement levels higher, and it also allows us to target referrals to a quieter time within the barbershop.
2. Make sure your referral promotion is generous If you were to take out an Instagram ad to reach new clients, you might spend £30 and end up with one new client. They’ll spend approximately £30, meaning you’ll break even after their first visit and will then be relying on them returning to make profit. However, customer retention rates are typically higher for clients that have been referred to you; that’s because your existing customer will only recommend new customers who they think would be a good fit. This means you can afford to spend at least as much as you would on an ad on your referral promotion. If your average appointment is £30, why not offer 50% for your existing client and the friend they refer on their next/first appointment?
3. Help take on the responsibility Take the barbershop referral promotion away from your team. Run it by email instead. That way, instead of your team deciding which customer they want to speak to, your entire clientele gets to hear about the programme and its results, which can be much more impressive. Announce your promotion by email at the beginning of the month, remind them a week or two later in a shorter email, then a third time a few days before the end of the month with a “your last chance to …” email. Or, if you’re convinced you need to be running referrals all year round, why not automate that email to go out after, say, a customer’s third visit? Your barbershop software should handle this with ease. In many of the businesses I work with, referrals are the most profitable promotion of the year, so what are you waiting for?
If you're not already using barbershop software, here's how it can support your business.
