Discounts are a great way to promote your business, bringing new customers, but there’s a time and a method for everything, even for discounts.
Salon discounts can play havoc with your profit. They’re easy to give away, but they’re tricky. The problem is that most salon owners don’t realise just how much damage it’s doing to their business. In an industry where the competition is fierce, the last thing you want to do is to resort to discounting. How bad can it get though?
Salon owners often ask me whether they should offer discounts. I always say, ‘yes occasionally.’
I don’t agree with those that say you should never offer discounts. Let’s face it, even John Lewis and Marks & Spencer offer the occasional promotional discounts. Most salons offer discounts on treatments from time to time. I used to offer them in my salons and it was great to fill up the diary when we had quiet times.
As hair, beauty & wellness professionals, we all have pricing for our services. It takes years of experience and training to get to a certain level, and as we all know, it does not come for free. On top of all of that, we have to stay current with techniques and trends so that we can always offer the latest looks for our clients. The more established we are, the more confident we tend to be about our worth. But what do you do when you have space in you diary?
Discounts are a great way to promote your business, bringing new customers, and turning existing ones into loyal clients.
But there’s a time and a method for everything, even for discounts. You have to plan and offer them in such a way it benefits you too. Otherwise, you’ll create a discount culture, where people are only waiting for those specific moments to come to your salon, which will ultimately affect your business in the long term.
The discounts you offer should bring added value to your services. Only in this way will you turn clients into long-term, loyal customers and still keep your business progressing. To help your salon remain financially successful, it is important for you to limit the amount of offers, discounts, deals, and coupons in your salon. There are multiple disadvantages that come along with offering discounts too often or continually.
The benefits of salon discounts
If done correctly, these discounts will certainly help you boost your business and bring you lots of benefits, including:
- More clients & appointments
- Increased customer loyalty & retention
- Introducing new services, treatments, and products to your clients
- Increasing appointments during slower days
The cons of salon discounts
- Drawing deal-hunters to your business
- Reducing the loyalty of your regular customers
- Making your services seem less valuable
- Reducing profitability in the long term
- Hurting your reputation
- Encouraging discount culture (customers waiting for sales)
Currently, It seems that everywhere you turn there is a deal site offering beauty, hair and aesthetic services at ridiculously low prices.
There seems to be a rise of deals on discount sites and on every street corner ready to entice your clients away from your business, and possibly never to return. I have spoken to so many salon owners that feel totally helpless by this and are on the brink of joining the others in the discount culture.
If this is you too, then please beware that discounting is a slippery road to nowhere.
Some of our members, who at the time were already busy, have used discount websites to drive new customers into their salon only to reap less than pleasing results. The site they were using didn’t have access to their diary. This meant they were opening themselves up to double-bookings. Not only that but it also meant they had no control over when the appointments were generated. As if it weren’t enough, that’s even before we get to the fact that the site underpriced them. Bad customer service and horrific overall results from the get-go, although it wasn’t their fault.
The salon put itself under a huge amount of pressure when they didn’t need to. After we spoke, they stopped discounting on these kind of sites.
You see, how are you supposed to serve your existing clients – who are paying full price – when you are double-booked? New clients who book at a discount don’t see the best of the salon as they have to wait to be seen by a stylist busy prioritising full-paying loyal clients. Unfortunately, the reality is that this new customer is unlikely to come back.
If you’re using your salon discounts as a way of attracting clients, bear in mind you will be chasing the wrong people. There is a small percentage of the population that only buy on price. Meaning that as soon as someone starts offering a cheaper deal they’ll go there. Unfortunately, they rarely have much loyalty.
Don’t fall into the salon discounts trap just for the sake of it. I met with a salon owner who was really busy, but was continually discounting. She was finding it difficult to make enough profit, even though she was fully booked. It may seem like a harsh reality, but you don’t ask your dentist for a discount, right? Why should it be any different for your business?
Locate Your Look can help you with discounts and offers so you don’t fall into the salon discount trap. Register your interest to find out more.
