Premier Software

We know how important it is to keep in touch with your clients, which is why we provide various methods of communication within your Premier Spa, Spa+ or Style product.   However, we know that sometimes you want that extra level of control that emailing through Outlook just can’t give you.

Mail..chimp?

No, we don’t know why they’re quite so infatuated by our simian friends, but what they are good at is providing a mail service, which lets you track what’s happening with your email marketing.

In these times of increasing competition, it’s always worth testing new and interesting ways to provide an incentive for your client to return back to your spa or salon.  If you fancy taking advantage of peoples natural tendencies to turn things into games as part of your retention strategy, then geolocation services might just be the answer.

If you’ve ever seen Facebooks ‘places’, or used the foursquare app on your phone, then you’ve probably already used geolocation.  Essentially, when your client is at your spa or salon, they can ‘check-in’ to their location, which (at least in foursquare) gives them points.

So How Can that Help Me?

With foursquare, there’s a naturally competitive element built in (sometimes called ‘gamification‘).  Each time you check in, you score points, which you can then check against your friends.

Whenever somebody checks into your spa or salon, they’ll gain points against their friends – but, more importantly, it’ll usually appear on their Facebook wall or their twitter feed.  Why is this useful? In these instances, it means that your clients friends know about your business, and it also acts as a kind of automatic recommendation: my friend is at The Beauty Spa?  Well, if they go there, it must be good!

King of the Hill

With foursquare, there’s a couple of other interesting elements as well.

If the client checks in a number of times, they can become the foursquare Mayor of the business.  In realistic terms, it’s just another way to keep people playing the game – you want to keep hold of your position against your friends – but if you claim your foursquare venue page, you can set up special deals to reward people who consistently return.

If you have a number of sites, you might want to go a step further and create a foursquare business page, which allows you to control a number of venues - check out Mashables guide here.

Thanks to Guy Christian for the original idea for this blog post.

A guest post by Christian Dabnor.  Christian is a long standing member of the Premier Software support team, helping clients with both technical issues and how to get the most of the Premier range of software.  In his free time, he is a writer of fiction and poetry, both of which he has had published, and a Wolves season ticket holder, all of which involve a huge range of emotion.

It’s an obvious statement, but clients are the lifeblood of your business.  There are very few businesses where this is not the case (I can’t think of any offhand, but if I were to say there are none, someone would leave me with egg on my face, I’m sure).  So, on to obvious statement number two.  Making clients, old, new and future, aware of your products and services, news and offers, is a task worthy of your time and attention.  To this end, Premier Manager includes a powerful and versatile Marketing function.  Inventive use of Marketing can mean that a Premier Software system can effectively pay for itself.

There are a number of ways in which you can bridge the communication gap with a customer; however very few are as cost effective and direct as SMS marketing. SMS is a great way to send out messages about your salon to your clients and can be used for just about anything; here are a few that sprang to mind:

• Reminding a customer of an appointment
• Sending out details of last minute and seasonal promotions
• Detailing available cancellation slots
• Getting back in touch with old clients – the list goes on.

These types of messages can not only reduce the occurrence of those harmful no-shows but they can also maximise business and potentially fill that dreaded white space in your diary. If done correctly this could potentially be the best marketing tool you ever posses. However before you start rushing to press send – consider these 4 steps

I’m betting that by now you have heard this phrase quite a few times. I don’t like to repeat but the fact is, a little planning can go a long way – especially in an industry where it’s important to be on the tip of the latest trends. Now is the perfect time to plan out the next 12 months and detox your business and marketing approach. You’ll feel a lot better to be a head of the game – and the good part is it really doesn’t have to be that time consuming.

You know your budget and have defined your goals. Your next task will be to look at where your advertisements and/or promotions will have the best traction so here’s how to plan out your strategies.