Is your point-of-sale marketing producing customer happiness?

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These customer service stats pave the way for turning point-of-sale customer happiness into increased revenue, repeat visits, positive reviews and new customer referrals.

Turn point-of-sale customer happiness into referrals, reviews and repeat visits.

GrooveHQ.com published a list of 22 customer service statistics that got us thinking about how, specifically, these stats can be turned into actionable point-of-sale marketing insights. After all, the point-of-sale is often one of – if not “the” – last moments in a customer’s buying experience. Making it a more positive one can lead to all kinds of actions that you want the customer to take next:

  • Recommending your business to someone they know
  • Posting a positive review about your company
  • Giving your brand a shout out on social media
  • Deciding to come back again soon
  • Feeling good about their decision to do business with you

Customer happiness can lead to all these actions and more. If your point-of-sale marketing strategy is inadequate or non-existent, it’s doing nothing to contribute to customer happiness. Now is the time to take a closer look to see what you can improve.

You might also like: 4 Ps of Loyalty Marketing that Make Our Customers Love Us

6 Ways to Improve Your Point-of-Sale Marketing Game

  1. Ask and Answer

Think about how hard you work to attract customers. Now imagine being able reach nine new prospects every time you made just one customer happy. Happy customers tell an average of nine people about their experience with a brand. One simple thing that you can do at the point-of-sale is to ask the question: Have we made you happy today?

Conversely, For every one customer who voices a complaint, twenty six other unhappy customers might not even speak up and give you the chance to make things right. When a customer complains they are doing you a favor! They are giving you a chance to improve the customer experience in a way that matters. They are giving you a chance to show that you really do care, that the customer truly is #1 with your company.

Customer happiness can lead to 9 referrals, customer dissatisfaction could cost you 16 potential customers. (American Express)

  1. Upsell and Cross-sell

Making recommendations for comparable items or suggesting add-ons, accessories and so on can produce an immediate return on investment. Why do you think waitstaff are trained to ask if you want dessert even while they are handing you the check? Why do you think ecommerce sites show you “you might also like…” and “customers who purchased this also bought…” items when you add something to your cart or prepare to check out?  Even if your happy customer doesn’t take action right away, you’ve also planted the idea, planting the seed for return visits and future purchases.

You’re 14x more likely to sell to an existing customer than a new one (Marketing Metrics)

  1. Get the Sign Up

Getting that email address should be an essential part of any point-of-sale marketing strategy. That email sign up represents a happy customer giving you permission to:

  • extend offers
  • tell them about events and sales
  • invite them to leave reviews
    • on your website for products/services they would recommend to others
    • on review websites such as Yelp, Google, Facebook and others
  • suggest add-ons and accessories
  • give them more reasons to like your brand
  • encourage them to share your content with friends, family and co-workers
  • invite them to follow you on social media

A 5% increase in retention rate can produce profit increases from 25% to 95%. (Bain & Company)

  1. Roll Out the Red Carpet

Have you stood in your customers’ shoes to know where they experience pain at the point-of-sale? Long queues, clunky processes and a general feeling that they don’t matter to you at the point-of-sale undermines any claims you make about customer service.

The happiest customers spend 140% more annually than the unhappiest customers. (Medallia)

Not only do you have to eliminate unnecessary hurdles at the checkout to make things faster, you also need to go slowly enough to give the customer your full attention and let them take all the time they want.

86% say they’re willing to pay more when the customer experience is better. (American Express)

  1. Say Something, See Something, Do Something

When a customer is gracious enough to say something went wrong in their experience, it’s up to you to see what you can do about it, then do it. Whether their dissatisfaction arose from something that happens to every customer or it was a fluke that just happened to them, whether it’s something that occurred inadvertently or on purpose, when the customer says something, your reaction is everything.

Customer happiness increases 37% when compensated with something of monetary value after a brand makes a mistake. But when the brand adds an actual apology, customer happiness increases 2x as much – to 74%. (Carey School of Business)

  1. Be Human

Are some customers in a hurry? Sure. But even more of them want you to remember that they are people, first, even at the point-of-sale.

“Human service” was ranked more than 2x as high as any other factor (number of channels, rich content, web assistance, social communities) when 9000 consumers ranked the most important aspects of customer support. (Genesys)

Taking time to make a personal connection that has nothing to do with the transaction itself can be a powerfully positive moment at the end of the customer experience.

Bank customers were 6x more likely to feel engaged when they got help quickly, but they were 9x more likely to feel engaged when the bank’s rep offered empathetic service (courteous, willing to help, expressing an understanding of how the customer felt, etc.) (Gallup)

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Are you ready for a point-of-sale credit card processing solution that will work with – not against – your efforts to make the customer experience better? We can help! Reach out to us for a free, no-obligation quote for merchant services including payment processing and point-of-sale customer loyalty programs:

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7 Ways to Strengthen Your Mobile Marketing App

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Mobile marketing has come a long way, and it isn’t about to slow down. Big-name businesses are spinning new strategies, creating new approaches and redefining the consumer’s accessibility options; here are seven takeaways for your mobile marketing app.

Invigorate Your Mobile Marketing App with Seven Distinct Strategies

More than 5 billion of the 7 billion people on earth own a smartphone. Mobile marketing strategies are benefiting from the sheer number of consumer users, and your strategy needn’t be contingent on last year’s biggest booms. Don’t wait; take advantage of these seven crucial strategies for a mobile marketing app.

7 Sure-fire Mobile Marketing App Strategies

Strategy One: Narrow the Buying Process

Consumers like quick, easy buying. Mobile devices, fortunately, have enabled a world capable of providing such services. Unfortunately, mobile marketers have mere minutes to entice buyers. If you can ignite calls-to-action quickly, however, you’re in luck.

48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine.

Because 48 percent of consumers start mobile research with a search engine, your mobile marketing app strategies only need to offer visual presentation and conducive offers. They should, however, engage customers quickly, help them achieve their destination, and repurpose old marketing approaches with information-packed menus and media.

Strategy Two: Target Browsing Behavior

Browsing behavior is the fuel source for everything mobile. Lightning-quick load times and plenty of multimedia won’t be impactful if behavior isn’t cataloged and implemented. Browsing behavior streamlines future company actions. It assists website loads while enhancing your SMS strategies, too.

Use analytical tools to garner user information, and serve mobile customers on their terms. The future of mobile marketing is one of prioritized customization and personalization. Don’t fall by the wayside as other providers step in to offer buyer-specific exclusives.

Strategy Three: Tweak Your Advertising Via Email

Your email marketing campaign should be conjoined with your mobile marketing strategy. Every marketing effort, every partnership, every sale and every consumer is intimately linked to your brand’s outward appearance. Email marketing should be at your strategy’s forefront.

Direct email marketing campaigns gain much from strategic mobile marketing campaigns, too. Your mobile email marketing strategy is capable of delivering ads in unique form, generating off-platform hype through an extension of your brand’s innermost ideals.

Be careful, though, because mobile platforms aren’t friendly to drawn-out emails with bulky messages. Make sure your messages are tight, and make offers clear immediately. A big chunk of mobile users delete messages before opening them, so it’s important to avoid “being a statistic.”

You might also like: 10 Tips for Effective Restaurant Email and SMS Marketing

Strategy Four: Reevaluate Your SMS Strategy

Currently, 98 percent of text messages are read within minutes of receipt. SMS marketing is one of the business world’s biggest resources, and it’s capable of pumping mass information across wide channels.

98% of text messages are read within minutes of receipt.

Your SMS strategy must be watertight to succeed, though. Don’t use bulk SMS platforms without first segmenting your audience. Moreover, make sure your message content is accessible to the consumer. Consider big-name data plans, like Apple’s. Make sure all content, all images and all links pass through pre-defined industry barriers.

Strategy Five: Swap Conversion for Engagement

Typically, mobile devices carry lower conversion rates than other platforms. They do, however, carry incredibly high conversion and bounce rates. When compared to desktop marketing efforts, mobile-based solutions tend to sacrifice navigation for in-store offers and location-specific services. Don’t play the game until you’ve studied the field. Convert consumers on your website, and communicate with them via text.

Strategy Six: Measure Cross-Platform Data

Cross-platform data is different from buyer behavior, but it serves the same end. Mobile monetization is huge this year, and half of e-commerce traffic is achieved via mobile platforms. When your consumers leave your e-commerce platform—follow them!

Because you’re prioritizing communication on mobile, cleaning up the “spare parts of conversion” requires intensive reasoning and data gathering. Mobile is an asset, but so are your web pages, social media pages, messaging platforms and feedback forums. Don’t let them go to waste.

Strategy Seven: Implement Media

Media rules the business world’s roadside now. Because smartphones are getting smarter, quicker and stronger, multimedia marketing schemes are thriving. Your mobile marketing strategy needs such resources, so you should be engaging YouTube videos, Vines, Twitter-hosted comments and other social media features.

Many consumers access media through apps, too, so remember to implement app accessibility, brand specials and mobile hotspots to please your customers. Overall, keep your consumer engaged. They’re constantly connected already, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

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10 Tips for Effective Restaurant Email and SMS Marketing

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Size matters, at least when it comes to a restaurant email and SMS text marketing contact list. Find out how to build your lists and how to use them for customer acquisition.

It’s time to make restaurant email and SMS text marketing the superstars in your restaurant marketing plan.

If you are looking for the most effective ways to attract customers and bring diners back more often in the months ahead, perfecting your restaurant email and SMS marketing tactics could be an ideal place to start. To reach more of your target market, make sure you are taking advantage of every opportunity to grow your text and email contact lists. 

5 ways to grow restaurant email and SMS contact lists:

Based on the tactics that marketing professionals identified as most effective in growing contacts lists for a business, here are five ways to grow your restaurant’s email contact list:

1. Capture it on an in-bound call or text.

Make capturing a mobile phone number or email address part of the standard script for staff who answer the phones to take reservations or field questions about your restaurant’s hours, menu or facility.

2. Make it a requirement.

Capture an email address or mobile phone number when someone makes a reservation, books an event, fills out any type of form on your website or joins your loyalty or rewards programs.

3. Use it for follow up.

Suggestion and survey forms can — and should — be used to obtain email addresses and mobile phone numbers so that you have a way to follow up when needed.

4. In exchange for instant gratification.

Create online registration forms and ask customers to register while dining or at the point of sale and provide you with email address and/or mobile phone number in exchange for a special offer, discount or free add-on.

5. Include opt-in forms on your website and mobile site landing pages.

Ask site visitors to opt-in with an email address or mobile phone number when accessing certain parts of your website, in order to use your mobile app or to download recipes, party tips or other special content from your web or mobile site.

5 ways to use restaurant email and SMS marketing in real time:

Real time marketing is marketing either done on the fly in response to breaking opportunities or scheduled in such a way that it coincides with actions that consumers are taking in real time, such as looking for a local restaurant at a given time of day.

Restaurants that master real time marketing tactics have a huge advantage over competitors, because nearly 90% of those searching local restaurants on a mobile device take action within 24 hours.  Source: marketingland.com.  

Five real time marketing tactics that can help you grow your restaurant include:

  1. Email and text message marketing sent just prior to peak dining hours (for breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, cocktails – wherever the specialty of your restaurant lies)
  2. WiFi on-premises to automatically check in mobile devices set to do so
  3. Special offers sent to email or smartphones triggered by a visit to your web or mobile site
  4. Providing mobile and web online ordering capabilities, online reservation apps, or making data available on your web or mobile site that tells whether you have tables available or how long the wait is
  5. Send special offers or freebies sent to customers based on anniversaries, birthdays, job anniversaries and other special occasions
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10 Innovative Restaurant Ideas to Inspire Entrepreneurs, Restaurateurs

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With hundreds – if not thousands – of restaurants to choose from in any given urban area it might be tempting to believe that innovative restaurant ideas are hard to come by. Here are ten innovative restaurant indeas that offer proof that the best – and most innovative – restaurant ideas may be yet to come.

10 Innovative Restaurant Ideas Provide Inspiration for the Hospitality Industry

Pizza in a bowl. Spaghetti that can be eaten on the go. Sub sandwiches turned into salads – nearly any popular food or drink can be reimagined into a new form and served up in a new, buzz-worthy way.

Inspiration: NYC’s Spaghetti Incident, which serves up spaghetti in containers that are ready to go on the road.

2. Different strokes for different folks.

Innovative restaurant ideas aren’t just about menu items. Extend exclusive hours or offers to loyalty club members, seniors, singles or those defined by other differentiators. Draw up separate menus customized to specialty diner preferences; i.e., whole menus just for vegetarians, people with gluten allergies, dieters, etc., so they don’t have to look longingly at things they cannot have.

Inspiration: Nando’s Peri-Peri s in Chicago, whose owner treats the people who live and work nearby as their top priority, giving them a chance to experience each of their restaurants in the days before each location’s grand opening.

3. Digital Kiosks and Table POS Displays

Walk into a small town American diner and you’re likely to see an old-fashioned dessert case where pastries and pies sit on display, waiting to be bought or ordered. Technology makes it possible for any restaurant to create a virtual display case on kiosks or tabletop POS where patrons could see everything and anything on the menu including photos, chef’s notes and real diner reviews.

Inspiration: Rhode Island-based Chelo’s Hometown Bar and Grille has a virtual pie case that gives diners a mouth-watering peek at the desserts that are fresh right now.

4. Indulgence Themed Restaurants

Providing truly unique experiences may be the ultimate in innovative restaurant ideas. Arby’s off-the-menu “Meat Mountain” made the news when viral buzz let carnivorous diners know they could order a sandwich that included every meat sold in the chain’s sandwiches all on one incredible sandwich. Restaurants that devote themselves to simple ideas and single concepts could win over meat lovers, veggie lovers, fruit lovers, dessert lovers, and others who only have one thing on their minds.

Inspiration: Another innovative Chicago restaurant, RPM Steak repurposes butchering trimmings to make meaty rubs to brush onto steaks in lieu of butter.

5. Mood Menus

Keeping with the idea of themed-restaurants in this list of innovative ideas, establishments could devote themselves to menus that offer pick-me-ups for people feeling the blues, passion-inspiring foods for love birds, foods that pacify for people who are angry or calming choices for people who feel anxious or overly enthused.

Inspiration: Bespoke Oysters in Washington DC, which classifies itself as “passion food hospitality.”

6. Wait-less Restaurants

Diners might want service to slow down – not speed up – in restaurants that offer food for the brain as well as the body. There are countless ways that you could add activities and games to the menu. Supply paper and crayons by way of butcher-paper-covered tables like they do at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. Print out word searches or crossword puzzles. Provide patrons with short stories or poems to read while they wait. Hold digital trivia contests where diners can compete with the computer, staff, others at their table or against other tables in the restaurant.

Inspiration: The walls of the Plum Bar in Oakland, CA  are lined with pages taken from real poetry books, chosen by the owner and staff. The Ampersand at Kinmont in Chicago, a 600-foot private event space whose walls are – literally – a ready canvas for guests as they are completely covered in chalkboard.

7. Two of a Kind Menus

Go the extra mile in making recommendations so that if a patron is ordering a cheese burger, they will know it’s perfect pairings for drinks, sides, appetizers and desserts. Think of it as an upscale way to mimic the ‘combo’ upsell done every day, all day long in the fast food industry.

Inspiration: Scrumptious drink and dessert pairings offered up at Gamlin Whiskey House in St. Louis, MO.

8. Designated Dining

Choose a new charity to benefit each month of the year, or choose a handful and let diners decide where  a portion of their evenings’ spend will go. Highlight local causes which are likely to be near and dear to your target market’s hearts. This will be great fodder for PR, social media and email marketing, giving diners one more reason to choose your restaurant. Keep a tally on website and digital display so patrons feel good every time they walk through the door.

Inspiration: Seattle’s Saltys Waterfront Seafood and Grill donates thousands of dollars every year to more than 300 local charities with their gift cards for auctions and fund raisers. The idea of dining out for charity is such a natural fit that the National Restaurant Association (NRA) has even listed a set of tips for restaurants that want to choose the right local charities for their give-back programs.

9. Key Takeaways

Left-overs don’t have to be the only momento a diner takes away from your restaurant and innovative restaurant ideas aren’t just about what happens at your place of business. This about what you could give diners in the form of a small gift, gift card or some other takeaway that keeps your restaurant top of mind long after the visit is over.

Inspiration: Jax Café in Minneapolis, which prints personalized matchbooks on-site for guests.

10. Crowdsourced LTO

Give your patrons the ability to vote up drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts they want to see on the menu next month. Require email or mobile phone number for voting so that you can notify them when their voted-on items get added to the menu and extend a special offer for them to return to thank them for voting.

Inspiration: Dallas’s Kitchen LTO, a permanent pop-up restaurant which features a new menu, chef and décor every 6 months.

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Get a free, no obligation quote for new or replacement restaurant point-of-sale equipment, restaurant merchant services, payment processing rates or restaurant loyalty and gift card programs.

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Pros and Cons of Restaurant Self-Service POS

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Before adopting restaurant self-service POS payment options, you should understand the pros and cons and make sure that you don’t damage the customer experience in the process.

Do Diners Really Want Restaurant Self-Service POS?

More and more restaurants are moving toward not only restaurant self-service POS but digital ordering options as a way to increase efficiency and match capabilities to the consumer’s ever-increasing love of all things tech. It may be inevitable that most – if not all – restaurants eventually offer customers the ability to process their own payments in the course of their dining experience.

Inevitable or not, it’s important for restaurant owners to understand how implementing a self-service POS could impact their customer’s experience for better and for worse, so they can make sure they don’t unwittingly damage the customer experience in the process. Data from a Panasonic white paper called ‘Self Service POS: Do Diners Really Want It’ published on QSRWeb.com earlier this year provides information that restaurant industry entrepreneurs might want to consider before they take the plunge.

Pros and Cons of Restaurant Self-Service POS

Pros and Cons of Restaurant Self-Service POS

Pro: Diners want the option – nine out of ten diners say they would prefer using a self-service option at the table (but not at a kiosk).

Con: Diners face a learning curve – navigating a menu (especially one they are not familiar with) and learning a new software environment takes time and doesn’t come easily to everyone. Wait staff who might have processed the payment in less than a minute might have to spend more time helping diners successfully use the platform, or fix the problems when they don’t.

Pro: Self-service options enable customization – 47% say they would use self-service options to customize their orders and tailor them to their preferences.

Pro: Self-service POS makes it easier to split the bill – 39% say they would want to use self-service POS to split the bill.

Con: Restaurants may incur higher merchant card processing fees when multiple payments are processed.

Pro: Millennials prefer it seven to one and Gen Y and Xers lean toward it (57%).

Cons: Polar opposites, 65% of Baby Boomers would rather not order for themselves and 40% of Gen Y and Gen X diners aren’t interested.

Cons: It’s a no-go with fine diners who are paying more (in part) for high-touch, hands on service, plus 13% of fast foodies aren’t interested either, since they’re worried about holding up the line behind them. Quick-service restaurants have the process down to a science; so much so that self-service ordering and payment POS systems are often slower than working with a live server.

Cons: The more self-service in the customer-experience, the less control and opportunities a brand has to exceed expectations and leave a lasting impression.

Restaurant Marketing: 3 Ways to Provide a Full-Service Experience in a Self-Service World

Repurpose the human element, don’t eliminate it.

Many people perceive implementation of kiosk and POS tech as an attempt to reduce payroll; however, the real goal should be to free up a restaurant’s employees to become true brand ambassadors whose role is to improve the customer experience, not automate it.

Make it an option, not a requirement.

A self-service POS is by no means a slam dunk with Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. As you introduce technology to enable digital ordering and self-service restaurant bill payment, you should view it as an option that can enhance the experience for some but detract from others. It should not replace the diners option of ordering from and having their payment processed by a real person, but be introduced as an option for those who are interested.

Use tech to boost up-sells and keep diners in your restaurant longer, instead of viewing it as a way to speed customers in and out the door.

Increasing the average order of diners can make a restaurant much more profitable. Instead of viewing restaurant self-service POS as a way to increase efficiency and move diners through more quickly, use its technology to make suggestions to diners about side dishes, beverages and special offers that can boost your bottom line revenues.

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We may be able to help you reduce your restaurant merchant services fees and we also offer free service and setup for restaurant point of sale solutions:

Interested? Contact us at 888-580-2234 or complete the form below for a free, no-hassle quote on any of our salon business solutions.

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3 Ways to Improve Customer Experience at the Point of Sale

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Forbes list of customer experience predictions for 2019 starts off with the customer’s expectation of convenience and speed. From the beginning of the customer experience to the end, including at the point of sale.

You can win over a new customer only to lose them at the point of sale.

Consider this: A customer visits your brick and mortar or online store, and you manage to surprise and even delight them with a high level of customer service and product satisfaction… right up until they try to reward you by paying. Up until the last moment in the buying journey, your business got it right. But at the point of sale, something goes wrong, something is down, something is slow, something is clunky and cumbersome.

Given that this is the last moment in the customer experience for this transaction, doesn’t it stand to reason that a bad experience at the point of sale due to a problem with payment processing or poorly chosen merchant services equipment and software could negate or even replace all of the good brand impressions your business made up until the end?

Customizing your point of sale solution can create a competitive advantage.

Even if your point of sale payment processor and merchant services have performed well or adequately in the past, as technology continuously improves, the capabilities your point of sale equipment and software provide might be outdated now. If your competitors have new and improved merchant services tools and your tools don’t measure up, you’ve handed them a competitive advantage.

Working with a local payment processing company like 253 Payment Pros can put the competitive advantage back on the side of your business. Our goal isn’t just to sell you a point of sale solution or merchant services package and move on to the next customer, we want to make sure you get the most appropriate payment processing solution in place, and we are happy to customize an equipment and software package that serves your business well. What’s more, we want to work with you for the long haul. We can educate you on the latest technology and tools to make sure you are getting the most out of your point of sale solution.

Use marketing automation to improve customer satisfaction beyond the point of sale.

The second prognostication in Forbes’ customer service predictions for 2019 also argues for taking a fresh look at your payment processing solution: The triumph of digital over traditional communications. This is where your merchant services software can really shine, in generating automated email marketing that can:

  • reinforce positive customer perceptions about your brand
  • drive referrals via rewards, email and social media
  • increase positive online reviews and ratings
  • encourage feedback for customer support and satisfaction
  • increase customer visit frequency
  • communicate loyalty rewards totals and opportunities
  • increase revenues through special offers, add-ons and upgrades

Gift cards, loyalty and rewards programs facilitated through your payment processing solution can increase customer satisfaction, retention, referrals and much, much more. It’s also probably one of the most under-utilized tools; many businesses fail to take full advantage of the loyalty marketing options available to them in their merchant services software. We would be happy to help you set up post-sale marketing automation so that you can see an increase in revenues from sales of gift cards, return visits from loyal customers and referrals earned through high customer satisfaction.

Simple, seamless point of sale experiences satisfy consumer’s desire for self-service.

Number three on the Forbes 2019 customer satisfaction predictions especially reinforces the need to re-evaluate your merchant services solution overall, and payment processing in particular. Today’s customers want you to be available to them when they need you, but they also want to be able to serve themselves.

More than 8 out of 10 customers across all industries try to complete their own customer journey independently before reaching out to a brand representative (Gartner research). The extent to which a customer can research your products and services, find what they want from your business and complete payment to you without needing the help of someone on your team can create a competitive advantage for your business.

Upgrading and updating your point of sale software and equipment could be the key to satisfying customers who want to self-serve. And when paired with loyalty marketing software, these customers can still feel like they did business with a high level of personalized customer care, even if they never spoke directly with one of your employees.

Digital point of sale is not nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

Another of Forbes’ predictions is something that shouldn’t surprise: The need to be a digital business. Once again, if you’re working with aging point of sale equipment and software or part of the customer transaction is still performed manually, now is a great time to reach out to us. We can help you with a customized point of sale solution that suits your business’s needs and packs a punch when it comes to return on investment.

When was the last time you upgraded your payment processing and other merchant services? When was the last time you even evaluated whether you have the best point of sale equipment and software in place? Get a no-stress, cost or obligation quote:

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The 4 P’s of Salon Holiday Marketing

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Across the US, salon and spa professionals already leafing through manufacturer and salon product distributor holiday catalogs asking the question, what are the salon holiday marketing ideas I need to sell through promotions?

Salon Holiday Marketing Ideas: The 4 P’s of Holiday Marketing for Salons and Spas

These four P’s of salon holiday marketing can help you build business for your salon or spa not just during the holidays, but well into the new year, too.

Across the US, salon and spa professionals already leafing through manufacturer and salon product distributor holiday catalogs may also be asking themselves: How can I build business this holiday season? These four P’s of salon marketing — written just for the holiday marketing season — can help you build business for your salon or spa not just during the holidays, but well into the new year, too.

For some people, September simply means the end of summer and start of the school year. But for salon and spa pros, it also hails the beginning of the salon holiday marketing season. Salon product manufacturers and distributors have already printed up brochures with salon holiday promotions, so now is the ideal time to plan for the upcoming holiday season!

Traditional marketing talks about the “4 P’s of marketing” which include product, price, promotion and placement (or distribution). We came up with 4 P-words of our own and you can use these four salon holiday marketing P’s to build business in the spa or salon during the upcoming holiday season.

The 4 P’s of Salon Holiday Marketing for Salon Owners, Hairdressers and Beauty Pros

1. Piggy-back.

In nearly every city in the US during the holidays, seasonal events abound. From community choirs and plays, to school choirs, orchestras and plays, to private recitals, to church plays and nativity scenes – there are likely scores of events going on in your community during the upcoming holiday season. Piggy-back your salon or spa services onto these types of events:

  • Create on-the-road services and prepare theater members, choir singers and instrumentalists for their plays and concerts
  • Create concert-prep promotions for makeup and hair styling before events
  • Work with church groups to enhance players in musicals, dramas or nativity scenes

2. Post.

On your website, email newsletter and social media updates, post pictures, step by steps and service and product shopping lists featuring celebrity and holiday hair, makeup and nail “looks.”

3. Position.

Position your spa or salon gift cards as true gifts during the salon holiday marketing season by packaging them along with accessories, gift baskets and other items which can easily be given as gifts during the holiday season. Expand your retail beyond traditional salon products so that it’s easier for your clients to envision your retail center as a gift resource with closely related items such as hair accessories, jewelry, custom apparel or bags or other personal gift-ware.

4. Pre-book.

You will be doing your clients a favor if you get them to pre-book their appointments from now, through the busy holiday season and into the New Year. While you are booking their regular appointments, don’t forget to ask about special events they plan to attend or participate in during the holiday season. It may well be that they would appreciate having you prepare their hair, makeup or nails before-hand and there may very well be special salon products you could recommend to keep their looks intact during events.

With a little creative thinking, you can build business during the holiday season in the salon and spa that lasts well into the New Year, becoming the basis for your salon marketing strategies moving forward.

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How long has it been since you evaluated the cost and effectiveness of your salon’s point of sale (salon POS) solution or equipment? We would be happy to provide you with a free, no-obligation quote for salon credit card processing solutions including salon POS equipment and salon loyalty marketing, or financing options with a salon cash advance:

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