Spas and Salons are customer-centric organizations. Their business depends on customers visiting the spa and salon and availing of its services. These types of organizations need to have a very good strategy for customer communication. It is not just communication, but constant engagement with customers is required. This will ensure that they can acquire new customers and also encourage existing customers to visit the spa and salon. This will help boost sales. While there are many different types of marketing strategies that can be used for this, the best and most cost-effective strategy is the use of text message service for marketing.
Text messaging services involve the use of SMS (Short Message Service) to send messages to the mobile phone of customers and leads. This is a good way of communicating with customers. Some of the reasons why text messaging is a great strategy are:
• Customers prefer to receive messages through SMS. This is because they find telephonic calls intrusive and may not receive marketing calls.
• 97% of all messages sent are read by the recipient. This makes the use of text messaging a powerful strategy.
• Text messaging has a response rate of more than 46%. This ensures that text messages can be very helpful in boosting sales.
• Sending a text message is easy. It is easy to even for the recipient as the message is delivered instantly and no internet connectivity is required for messaging. Even customers without a smartphone can use text messaging.
Spas and Salons can use mass texting as a strategy to engage with customers. The following explains how this can be done in an effective way:
1) Engage with customers
Spas and salons can use texting services for businesses to effectively engage with their customers. They can send information to leads to their organization and the services offered. They can include a welcome offer for new customers to motivate them to visit the spa/salon. For existing customers, information on new services/packages can be provided through text messaging. Once a message is sent, keywords can be used to ensure two-way communication through text messaging.
A customer can use a keyword to reply to the message. Based on the keyword, the organization can engage with the customer. For instance, if the customer uses the keyword INFO, additional information can be sent through messages or a web page link can be sent. A keyword BOOK can be used to book an appointment, where the customer can book an appointment through messaging or the spa can call the customer to make an appointment. This kind of engagement is needed for customer-centric organizations to bring in sales and SMS can help them do it easily.
2) Scheduling and appointment handling
It is easy to schedule the working of a spa and salon by using text messaging. Customers can be allowed to book appointments or book packages using text messages. For instance, a customer can send a message BOOK 23 Sep 17:00 to book an appointment for a particular date and time. This is convenient for customers who need not waste time calling to book an appointment. The organization can send confirmation messages to schedule the appointment. Change of appointment timings, cancellations, etc. can all be managed easily using text messaging. Reminders can be sent regularly to ensure the customer does not miss the appointment.
3) Run Marketing campaigns
Marketing campaigns are needed to promote the services of the spa. A well-planned campaign can bring in customers and boost sales. The campaign can offer special discounts or other such exclusive deals for customers. Running a campaign is easy through text messaging. Text message blasts can be sent to all customers on the database informing them about the campaign. Offering discounts can help bring in customers. They can be asked to show the message at the reception to avail the offer. Apart from mass text messages to everyone, personalized messages to a particular customer segment (e.g.: housewives/working professionals) can be easily sent using text messaging.
4) Customer surveys
Customer satisfaction is the key to success for spas and salons. It is important that the spa/salon understands if customer needs have been met and get feedback on their services. This feedback is valuable as it will help them improve their services. It will also help them offer specific packages to customers. A customer survey can be sent through an SMS and customers asked to reply with a rating. This is a convenient way of getting customer feedback.Spas and salons can expect increased customer footfall and higher sales when they regularly engage with their customers. Text messaging gives them an easy option to do so. All that is required is a database of customers and texting software. This is a highly effective way of boosting sales and can be tried by all spas and salons.
