Clients crave convenience and personalization, and artificial intelligence has the tools to provide both
Ask any salon owner and they’ll tell you the same thing: Client relationships are the key to a successful salon. Those relationships start with great service, but there’s plenty more to master outside of when a client is actually sitting in the chair. Clients want seamless booking, round-the-clock availability, and personalization that makes them feel seen and appreciated. If you can meet those needs, you can forge long-lasting relationships that pay dividends over time. But that’s easier said than done.
Artificial intelligence can help. With the right AI solutions, you can provide clients with an outstanding experience every time they book and keep them coming back for more. Here’s how AI can boost your client retention.
Why client loyalty matters
Running a salon has plenty of challenges, but bringing in new clients is one of the most difficult. Research shows that attracting a new client can cost anywhere from five to 25 times more than keeping one you already have.
There are still good reasons to keep chasing new clients. But there are even better ones to invest in those clients you already have. Loyal clients represent reliable revenue. You’ve already shown them you do great work, making them more likely to rebook. You can raise those odds even further by nurturing the relationship, and as that relationship deepens, you can tap into the kind of brand loyalty that leads 72% of consumers to be willing to pay more for their chosen brand.
Not only are loyal clients a strong foundation for your salon’s cash flow, but they can also be some of your most passionate advocates. When a friend asks them about their stunning new highlights, they can confidently shout out your salon. That word-of-mouth advertising may be the single most effective kind — surveys show 92% of consumers trust it over any other form of advertising. By giving clients experiences worth their loyalty, you can earn endorsements that bring in even more loyal clients. What’s better than a virtuous circle?
How AI keeps clients coming back
Keeping it convenient
First the obvious: If you want to earn client loyalty, step one is to provide a stellar client experience. Now the less obvious: That experience starts long before they arrive at your salon. Today’s clients want to be able to book services at a moment’s notice. They want to use their phones to do it, but they don’t want to do any talking. Self-service via smartphone keeps booking streamlined and available, but it still has shortcomings. What if the client has questions about your salon? What if they want to book entirely from their text messaging app?
With AI, you can solve these problems and more. Using natural language processing, a chatbot can receive a message written in plain English and turn it into a booking. When a client asks for an appointment next Tuesday, your AI bot can parse that message and present several options for times and providers. When the client chooses their favorite, your bot can automatically add the appointment to your calendar.
And it doesn’t stop there. Chatbots can even answer clients’ simple, frequently asked questions. If a client wants to know your hours before they book, or if they want to know when their favorite provider will next be available, your bot can pull an up-to-date answer straight from your systems. Clients can get the answers they need even outside of normal business hours. If the bot can’t answer a question, it can direct clients to resources that help them find the answer for themselves. Plus, more sophisticated bots will learn over time, improving their results with each client interaction.
Upping efficiency
If you’re going to provide the pinnacle of client experiences, your team needs to operate at peak efficiency. AI can help with that, too, by taking tasks off their to-do lists and checking them off without employee intervention. Not only does having a 24/7 chatbot ensure clients can book whenever they want, but it also saves your staff from having to manually adjust your calendar or answer common questions.
When clients send messages with important information, your chatbot can identify and extract it before storing it in that client’s profile. If a profile doesn’t already exist for that client, the bot can create one automatically. Everything your staff needs to know about that client is easily accessible from one location, without them having to lift a finger to gather it themselves.
By taking mundane work off your staff’s plates, AI gives them a chance to focus on the rest of their responsibilities. They can use that time to learn new skills, plan ways to raise the bar for their clients, or simply take a much-needed break between appointments. When employees get to do the work they love without distraction, they can become even more engaged and productive.
Making it personal
In recent years, personalization has gone from a nice-to-have to an absolute essential. Today, 71% of consumers expect brands to personalize their offerings. When you market via email or text message, you’re delivering a targeted message to each client. The content of that message needs to convey to clients that they are seen as individuals, not just as names in a spreadsheet.
Putting their name in the message is a good start, but AI can go deeper by looking at a client’s purchase history. It can then draw on that history in your messaging, referring to past appointments and providers to suggest new products and services. That leads to each client receiving suggestions they might not have thought of, but that they suddenly realize they can’t live without.
Make AI easy with Boulevard and TrueLark
As powerful as AI can be for salons, not every solution meets the same high standard. Boulevard only believes in the best of the best, so we’ve partnered with TrueLark to create an AI integration that stands a cut above.
TrueLark offers an advanced AI platform built specifically for the wellness industry, and has automated over 8 million client conversations to date. It can handle a wide range of client needs, from FAQs to book-by-text, and all its interactions can feed straight into your Boulevard calendar and client profiles.
The result is that clients get the benefit of personal, white-glove treatment, no matter the hour, and your team gets tedium off its plate. Plus, if the bot encounters a question it can’t answer, TrueLark’s AI trainers can review the conversation and fill the knowledge gap, helping it get even better over time.
Ready to learn more? Book a demo today.
