How to implement discounts without hurting your salon business

For a beauty salon owner, discount coupons can be a daydream turning into a nightmare. At first, you are ecstatic - it was so easy to implement it and now you are fully booked to the end of the month! You officially defeated the quiet days, built a column for a new employee and introduced a new treatment at the same time! Now you are convinced that there is no better marketing technique than offering discounts. The realisation comes a few weeks later, when you are doing a monthly financial summary. Even though the entire team worked very hard, you did not really earn that much - which is understandable, since you offered 50% off every treatment, you basically earned half the money you normally would. Moreover, despite the fact that so many new clients came to your salon for your offers, very few of them rebooked. Some of them were unimpressed with the service. They had it done by the new employee, who had no supervision over them, as everyone was busy due to being fully booked. Now you realise you should not have thrown the new employee into the deep end like that. Moreover, it turned out that you were not ready to introduce the new treatment in such a rushed manner - if you were to do it gradually, you would have time to get familiar with it and improve your service accordingly. Some customers may have gone home thinking you are not as professional as they thought - and the chance of them coming back is low. There may have also been a lot of people who came only because they are deal hunters and were interested in grabbing a bargain. You even get the impression that fewer people book appointments now - it seems like they are waiting for another big discount to happen. You panic a little. What went wrong?

Pros & cons of offering salon discounts

As you can see, salon discounts may bring you more harm than good. What are the risks of offering discounts without a well-thought-out plan?

• drawing deal-hunters to your business
• lowering 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)

On the other hand - you can still see salons around you offering discounts. This technique definitely still has its advantages, but only if executed properly:

• easy to implement
• can help you during quiet days
• instantly brings you many new customers
• can increase customer loyalty
• can be a perfect way to introduce new services or products

Discount alternatives that bring real profit

With all of this in mind, what can you do to avoid risks and enhance the benefits of providing salon discounts?

• Loyalty cards... with a twist It may be the best alternative to a salon coupon idea. Most loyalty programs bring you a huge discount or a completely free service after a given number of visits. It does not sound bad in theory, but in practice - losses may be unbearable. Imagine that one week six of your clients use their loyalty cards and ask for free balayage you normally charge £79. You have just lost £474 of your weekly revenue. Instead, change subtracting money into adding value. After every chosen number of visits, reward your customer with an additional service. It is equally - if not more - pleasurable for the client, but far less expensive for you. Moreover, if they like that additional service, they are likely to rebook it and this time pay with their own money. For example: if you add a free deep conditioning mask every five visits, and a customer who received it notices a positive change in their hair afterwards, they may willingly add this treatment to their service routine.
• Relationship coupons Setting up a referral system is a win-win situation - your customer gets a discount and you get yet another client. Remember to spread the word about this scheme using your salon software.
• Last-minute discounts If you see an appointment gap, announce a last-minute discount for a visit in the given time. You can use Booksy hair & beauty salon software to run the promo, but posting the announcement on the social media and sending emails and SMS-es via your management system is also a great idea. You may not get the full profit off the service - but having an appointment gap brings you no profit whatsoever.
• Freebies Celebrate the art of giving by providing your customers with little gifts. Once again, announce the campaign on your social media accounts and use your salon management software to make sure you reach your loyal clients. If you are using Booksy, you can also easily check out which of your retail products do not sell the best and give them away as freebies. You may go even further and check out which of your services are not as popular and offer a free gift added to this treatment specifically! Of course, you have to have easy access to such statistics - but do not worry, Booksy has you covered.

Statistics tell the truth

Tracking your revenue is essential whenever you are doing any promotions. You have to be able to see whether they bring you any profit or not. Real-time cash reports are one thing, but you will need detailed financial statistics, appointment and popularity of services accountancy, as well as customer rebooking rate reports. Once again, salon software comes to the rescue. You only have to enter the data and the Booksy system will do the rest. Get yourself the best salon business helper on the market and implement promotional campaigns that will bring you real profit!