For hair salons, a ringing cash register starts with a ringing phone — how a client is treated on the phone often determines whether they’ll make an appointment and become a steady client. Your potential client begins to form their opinion of your salon as soon as the phone starts ringing, and for this very reason you need to create a dynamic caller experience.

But all too often this is the scenario at busy hair salons:  Both lines are ringing and a client is waiting at the reception desk. What do you do? Well according to AT&T 70% of all calls are placed on hold, so it’s very likely you answer the phone and say – “Thank you for calling XYZ Salon, can you hold please?”   … What happens next can be the difference between booking an appointment, or losing a potential customer forever.

Sample Salon On Hold Messages:

Below we take a look at how salon on hold messages keeps callers on the line, results in more bookings and increases up-sell opportunities.

Opportunity Only Rings Once

According to Salon Today magazine, inbound calls to salons are up between 16-20%. One would normally think this is great news! But, if you don’t book an appointment from that caller than you’ve missed out. Now that we know that nearly 70% of callers are placed on hold (AT&T), you have two choices. You can either use hold time as a way to engage and connect with callers, or you can ignore them with dead-silence.

When callers are forced to wait in dead-silence, studies show that 60% of callers will hang-up in under a minute, and 35% will never call you back! This not only results in a lost potential client, but the marketing dollars invested to generate that inbound call have now been wasted.

The solution to crafting a great first impression, and reducing caller abandonment (caller hang-ups) at your salon is custom on hold messages.  In fact, statistics show that when callers are provided  with on hold messaging, they will stay on the line for up to three minutes, giving you the chance to serve them.

Optimize Up-Sell Opportunities

Sure, the first line of defense is to answer the phone, provide a great caller experience and book the appointment. However, on hold messages also allow you to optimize hold time with engaging and informative marketing messages which can be used in a variety of ways to increase sales and up-sell opportunities.

You can market seasonal gift card promotions (Mother’s Day, Valentine’s, Christmas, etc) and watch sales skyrocket! Inform and educate clients about bridal party events and wedding packages to drive additional salon sales. And of course, you can remind remind callers about your available products for sale. Plus, you also have a unique opportunity to educate salon clients about stylist training and continuing education efforts in order to market new salon technologies and available services.

Keep Content Fresh and Relevant

The beauty industry has seasonal trends and fluctuations, and when your on hold messages are refreshed continually it provides much more value to both your callers and your brand! If your hold messages are out of sync with the timing and content of the rest of your marketing programs, revenue opportunities will be lost and the risk exists that the customer will hear outdated information (never fun!). Below are just a few seasonal ideas you can include in your marketing plan.

Spring
With wedding season approaching, encourage brides-to-be to come in for pre-wedding hair & makeup consultation. Also be sure to remind callers to order their Easter, Mother’s Day, and graduation gift certificates. And promote your hair colors for the spring season.

Summer
Summer means more outdoor activities and events: promote a way to fight the frizz with promoting wash, shampoo, blowdry and style.  Summer is also sandals season, be sure to promote pedicures so clients can flaunt their toes. It’s also likely kids are home for the summer, mention any special offers for children’s haircuts.
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Fall
Fall is a great time to promote services and solutions to the summer months spent in the sun, wind and water. You can also promote back-to-school offers, and also encourage callers to order their holiday gift certificates early. Fall is also the season for high school homecoming dances, giving you an opportunity to offer specials for event hair, makeup and nail services.

Winter
Instead of just accepting that the colder winter months means a lull in business, educate callers on the benefits of hydrating their hair and skin in the dry winter months by promoting hair masks and facials. To help January bookings advertise a pre-booking special –– give a discount to clients who call during December to schedule an appointment for January. For the month of February, looking gorgeous for Valentine’s Day is a great way to bump up winter numbers.

Strengthen Client Relationships

While salon owners and managers dream of new clients flocking to their doors and setting up appointments, it’s impossible to ignore the importance of repeat business and the lifetime value of a returning customer. In fact, it costs 6-8 times more to gain a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer coming back (Source: Entrepreneur Magazine). Close relationships with clients are key to success in the beauty industry, and your on hold messages are an invaluable way to foster these relationships and encouraging repeat business.

Final Thoughts…