Want to maximise the profitability of your business? Take a look at these tried and tested methods you can try to increase salon revenue.
Salons increase revenue by improving repeat bookings, raising client spend, and reducing gaps in the diary. Small operational changes like better scheduling, retail sales, automated reminders, and targeted promotions often have a bigger impact than simply raising prices. Client retention and efficient booking management are usually the strongest long-term revenue drivers.
There are many ways to grow your salon. For some salon owners, growth is about opening additional sites, while for others, it’s all about maximising the profitability of a single site. With this in mind, we’re looking at some of the tried and tested methods you could try to help increase revenue in your salon.
Remember that increasing salon revenue isn’t only about increasing the number of bookings. There are many ways to diversify your salon income to make your business more profitable. We have broadly split these activities into the following strategies:
Within each of these sectors, there are many ways to approach this challenge. We’ve steered clear of suggesting simply increasing your prices, as this can go hand in hand with losing customers.
Any time that you increase prices, this would typically be in response to exceptional demand. However, the methods that we outline below can be implemented at any time, whether you are fully booked or not. Read on to learn some effective methods for increasing revenue from your salon.
The first step is to check if you’re paying too much for the things you need to run your business. Approaching suppliers and asking for a better deal could help you to secure significant savings on your monthly outgoings. Reviewing your energy deals is a good idea, as the cost of electricity is now falling.
Reducing waste in your business is not just about boosting profits, it can also make your salon more environmentally conscious. When you stop overusing items, you can reduce the amount you have to spend on ordering new ones. A great example of this could be single-use coffee pods which can be very expensive, versus a coffee machine that produces equally delicious coffee without the waste.
If you’ve been operating from the same site for a while, your landlord could be willing to cut you a deal for extending your contract. Be sure to check the terms of any new lease before you sign anything, as this could have long-term implications for your business.
Another cost-cutting measure is to address no-shows in your business. No-shows are problematic as you not only lose out on the booking, but you also end up paying a member of staff who has no work to do. You can either implement a deposit system to reduce no-shows, or send out appointment reminders to give customers a chance to reschedule or cancel.
Wasted or lost inventory can cost your business a significant amount of money if you don’t keep a close eye on it. Inventory that is out of date will have to be thrown away or sold at a discount, which will eat into your profits. To counter this, keep a close eye on your inventory purchases and make sure you are only purchasing what you need. Learn more stock control tips on our blog.
When you want to introduce new customers to your business, you should first look at how you can leverage your existing customer base. Offering an exclusive discount for customers that refer their friends can be a highly effective way to increase word of mouth referrals and reach a whole new audience without having to spend a penny on advertising.
Improving your online reputation is another highly effective way to boost bookings. When you have plenty of glowing reviews online, and customers can see that they are recent, your services will automatically be painted in a better light. Before booking with a new salon, prospective customers want to see that you are trustworthy and capable of delivering excellent results. Requesting reviews from existing customers is a great way to achieve this.
Social media marketing is a highly effective way to reach new customers for a low cost. You can create lookalike audiences which will target people similar to those that already interact with your business. This is one of the few methods that will require you to spend money to make money.
Offering new services can allow you to target your existing customers and encourage them to book an appointment to be one of the first to try it. This might involve additional training for your team, or it could mean introducing new staff members. One of the most popular ways to do this would be for a women’s salon to start offering men’s barber services. You could also introduce someone with experience in afro hairdressing.
If you already have an audience on social media, you might be able to boost bookings by simply being more present on the platform. Posting consistently and learning what your audience responds to will help you to reach more people.
A loyalty scheme rewards repeat bookings and this can be a simple way to encourage customers to keep coming back. Some customers simply want to feel that their presence is recognised, while others want a reason to stop chasing new customer sign up offers. Either way, you can target both of these demographics with a loyalty card.
When a customer visits you for a service, you should have a pretty good idea of how long it will be before they need to renew their treatment. Automate your follow up messages to encourage repeat bookings at exactly the right time.
A personalised experience will encourage customers to come back time and time again. This could be as simple as remembering their colour formulation, how they take their coffee, or if they prefer a quiet appointment. You can use your salon software to keep track of customer preferences so you never forget a thing.
Offers can be creative in their content and also their timing. If your offers become too predictable, you’ll have a hard time convincing anyone to pay full price as they will just wait for you to announce your next offer.
If you want to drive more repeat custom, you need to be open to feedback and able to respond to this in a constructive way. If customers see their feedback is falling on deaf ears, they might simply go elsewhere, and this could damage your business in the long run.
Staff need to be trained in sales techniques that will allow them to up-sell goods and services with confidence. Upselling is a skill that can be learned like anything else, you just need to be willing to work with members of the team who might not be as confident in their sales technique.
Alongside up-selling, you could also consider cross selling. Instead of trying to sell a more expensive version of a treatment, cross-selling involves selling a completely different category of treatment. An example of this could be encouraging a cut and style customer to book a colour treatment.
In order to encourage staff members to take their sales responsibilities seriously, you could introduce some healthy competition. Tracking sales attributed to each member of staff and offering a reward for the best performance every month or quarter is a great way to incentivise your staff to work harder.
You won’t know how well you are performing unless you are actively tracking your sales. If you want to know what is working and what isn’t, start using your salon software to keep track of sales so you can spot trends based on different activities. You should also make sure sales are attributed to specific activities, such as specific promotions.
Your staff need to be trained to offer recommendations to customers so they can confidently sell what you are offering. And this all starts with knowing the products. When you introduce new products to the salon, make sure your staff take home samples to try so they can get to know the benefits and how to sell these items to customers.
Education is one of the best ways to highlight the importance of salon quality products. First you need to educate your workers, and then you need to educate your customers. Through better education and an informed approach to sales, you can make recommendations for customers that will help them to achieve their goals.
Customers will know that the products you use in your salon produce superior results, but they might be reluctant to take the plunge with a full-sized product until they have confirmed that they can achieve the same results at home. By offering sample sizes to take home, you can then follow up with your customers to see if they’re interested in making a full-size purchase once they have had a chance to try things at home.
Seasonal product promotions will help you to capitalise on times of the year when demand for particular items is at its highest. Christmas and summer are popular times to look for special items, either as a gift for someone else or for yourself. Think about when products have historically performed well and then offer a variation of this promotion every year.
For customers that are looking to invest in quality products but aren’t sure where to start, you could explore offering consultations that will further investigate their hair type and concerns and help them to achieve the results they are looking for.
You need to ensure that the products you offer in store are a reflection of what is trending at the moment. Obviously, you won’t hop on every single trend, but you can make sure that your products reflect current trends and aren’t completely outdated. At the moment, it’s not just the products that get attention but also the packaging. Customers want to see aesthetic packaging that will look good in their bathrooms and on their Instagram feeds.
If you want to generate more money for your salon without lifting a finger, renting out chairs is a great way to achieve this. This step will allow you to expand your team without taking on the cost of hiring. Bear in mind that you will only take a rental fee, and having another member of staff in the salon could be seen as competition for your existing team.
Promoting products for other companies as an affiliate is a great way to earn commission. You need to be genuine in your approach and ensure that you’re only promoting products that you believe in. You could also promote nearby businesses and agree on a referral fee for all successful conversions.
Accessibility can be difficult for some customers, so you could expand your reach by offering a mobile service. This would be popular with wedding parties looking for a full hair and makeup team. You could also offer this as a prom package, or as a way to help new mums or the disabled to access quality salon services
Events in your salon are a highly effective way to expand your reach and diversify your income. This could include product launch nights, competitions and industry events. You could also host your own influencer party night to help drum up some interest in your business and promote new services.
Classes are another way to diversify your salon income. You could host salon styling classes to help individuals to learn how to care for their hair at home. You could also offer masterclasses for trainees looking to expand their skills.
Increasing your salon’s revenue doesn’t have to mean working longer hours — it’s about working smarter. By implementing even a handful of these 30 proven strategies, you can start boosting your bottom line while also improving your customer experience and team performance. Small changes today can lead to big results tomorrow.
Ready to streamline your operations and increase profits? Schedule a free demo of Salon Iris and discover how our all-in-one salon software can help drive growth and simplify your day-to-day.
