Natasha Grossman, General Manager at HOB Salons evaluates the importance of rebooking.
Why do you think so many salons aren’t very good at rebooking?
Many salons don’t consider rebooking to be a priority and are focused on other aspects of the business.
They don’t discuss rebooking at the beginning of the client’s journey in their consultation, where they get agreement from the client that the hair cut or colour will last a certain amount of weeks and the client will need to rebook.
Many stylists don’t have the confidence to tell the client when they need to rebook and usually ask instead.
By asking an open-ended question can often lead the client to say they will call, rather than telling the client they are going to be booked in for eight weeks and can move the appointment if needed.
Why is it so important, especially now?
Rebooking clients is more about the client coming back; it’s safeguarding our future business.
Whilst living in these unprecedented times, all clients that rebook their appointment will always be considered a priority versus a client that hasn’t pre-booked. When you have clients that have rebooked, it is far easier to ensure targets are achieved as you have already ‘banked’ bookings.
Filling the gaps is far easier when there are prebooked appointments than if there are no future bookings in the diary.
We want our client’s hair to always be looking great. They are an advert for us when they are walking along the high street or down the aisle in their local supermarket.
So, if they leave their hair cut and colour for longer than necessary, it’s not going to look as good and this is a representation of the salon.
How does rebooking affect your business?
Rebooking has been, and will continue to be, one of the most powerful tools within our business.
When future bookings are high you naturally have a better week that if the future appointments were low.
Not only does rebooking increase the weekly turnover, it also ensures that the client frequency goes up too. If you are able to get a client to rebook every eight weeks rather than every 12 weeks, this means that you will see a client six times a year rather than four times a year.
The higher the frequency of the client, the higher the turnover.
What methods can salons use who aren’t very good at rebooking?
We offer a rebooking discount of 10% off when a client pre-books their next appointment before leaving the salon within an eight-week period.
This encourages the client to come back more often if we can get them back within an eight-week timeframe and therefore allows us to offer the additional discount.
We have a company Top Five report that we publish every Monday where we recognise the top five employees for different categories. One of the categories we have is ‘book backs’ and it highlights the book back percentage each team member achieved.
We aim to have a 70%+ rebook percentage as a company and 80%+ is exceptional. Recognising your team when they rebook goes a long way.
What are your top tips for salons that aren’t very good at rebooking?
1 The best tip, and the simplest one, is just to keep talking about rebooking. Discuss how long you need to see your client again at the beginning of their consultation when agreeing the cut and colour.
2 Discuss rebooking their appointment in the middle of their service and at the end when you’re showing your client the finished result and they are telling you how much they love it!
3 We are continuously educating our teams and role play with them, to ensure that the delivery of how to get a client rebooked comes across as being confident and not forceful.
4 This is the time to sell yourself and you don’t want to sell yourself short by not rebooking your clients!
You may see the client in the salon, but with another stylist and wonder why she’s gone to someone else.
It’s about taking responsibility of your own business and making sure that every single client that you do comes back to you.
