Extra, Extra, Read All About it…Here!
People love little extras, I liken it to you buy your children a fancy and expensive present and all they want to do is play with the box!
You have offered them cutting edge treatments expertly carried out, yet little things (that they’ve not come in for) such as offering them a drink upon arrival goes down extremely well! Or perhaps when it’s their birthday a £6 bottle of Prosecco with £5 chocolates will go down amazingly, well beyond your imagination!!
How do we know, because we do it! The little things are so important we should really be calling them the big things.
My main objective for the information we offer you, is for it to become a working document for you, to write over, underline things, so to make it easier for you, I have a put a list of the “little big things” for you to implement today!
Here goes:
1. Return all calls within 24 hours (I appreciate when super busy not possible however!) – people don’t like to think they have been forgotten about as it makes them feel unimportant.
2. When greeting customers always smile and show a genuine warm interest in them, let them talk about themselves and NOT you talking about yourself (as they don’t care about you!)
3. Offer to take their coat.
4. Offer them a drink, we don’t offer tea or coffee being a natural clinic, it’s not something I want to promote, particularly coffee, so we offer them mineral water (pH of above 7) or fruit and vegetable juices (not from concentrate).
5. Provide interesting reading material, relevant to your target audience so that they are entertained while waiting.
6. A comprehensive array of cushions and or pillows to provide the best level of comfort and support for your customers when on the treatment couch.
7. Charge extra for your services and then offer “complimentary” high quality cream or serum with every treatment, people love this. You can in fact go one step further and create a goody bag with things along the lines of nail polish, exfoliator, makeup, cleanser etc. This will make you the talk of the town as people will be totally WOWed!
8. Appointment cards (as you have already booked them back in for their next treatment), this helps remind them and also reminds them of you and again people like being given things!
9. If you have the man power, calling people up the next few days to see how they are getting on goes down really well, however this can be a job in itself, so make sure everything else is in line before doing this as some people will keep you on the phone for 30 to 60 mins! You have been warned.
10. For repeat customers, I would setup alerts (in your CRM) 2 weeks before it’s their birthday and send them out a really nice birthday voucher with a monetary amount off, NOT a %! It needs to be actual money so they appreciate it more. However, I wouldn’t stop there, for those whose birthdays fall within 2 weeks either side of their treatment with you, I would give them 2 out of the following bottle of Prosecco (normal 750ml size please, we’re not cheap or penny pinching!), box of tasty well-presented chocolates and/or flowers (don’t have to be expensive, just look nice e.g. Tesco’s £6/7).
11. Christmas, for those having treatments around Christmas time I would create two tiers, I would have low value presents i.e. under £20 for all customers (well those paying above £100), then for the big spenders, really go to town. We gave one lady who has had over 20 treatments (think it might even be 30 now) with us a free HIFU treatment last Christmas worth £2,500 and she loved it and also got a great result!
12. I also believe having a “happy place” is great for your customers and helps put them in a great mood when they leave. So get rid of any staff who moan, are miserable or generally negative as they will be sending your customers elsewhere, making you miserable having to deal with them in the first place and also making you poor!
The above list even though very effective is not an exhaustive list and I am sure there are many other ideas that you have come up with over the years that may complement those or might in fact be even better (please feel free to email me at training@theskinrepairclinic.co.uk if you have such suggestions as I can then include them when the book is updated next).
Key Points
The small things often are the big things!
Reward your Best Customers – they deserve it, they make your job fun, enjoyable and easy!