Your customers are the cornerstone of your business. After all, without clients, you wouldn’t have anyone to serve, so it’s important to make building and managing client relationships part of your business plan. In the beauty and fitness service industries, this is great news. That’s because the nature of your profession gives you a ton of great one-on-one time to get to know them. The better you know your customers, the more opportunities you’ll have to adapt your practices to better serve their needs. Here’s how to align your client management strategies to ensure happy clients are returning clients, no matter how needs and expectations evolve over time.

1. Notes
Vagaro’s
free SOAP Notes feature
automatically ties notes about a specific appointment to customer profiles.
Supplement this info with client notes that apply across
appointments. Many service professionals use client notes to record their
clients’ style preferences or names of friends and family. Others keep track of
personal connections they have with clients, such as whether they discuss
books, TV shows, movies, or sports during appointments. The longer clients are
with you, the more your notes will reveal about
their expectations, needs, and wants.

2. Automated Emails
Vagaro’s
automated emails help you save time by presetting the types of emails you send
most often: birthday greetings, lost customer messages, and post-service
thank you notes. Birthday greetings add a personal touch and remind the
customer that they’re special (it doesn’t hurt to tuck in a birthday discount,
either!) Lost customer messages also serve to make customers feel as though
they’re important to you, even if they’re not on the books. A well-timed lost
customer message can open lines of communication and bring lost customers back!
And in today’s modern world, who doesn’t appreciate a thank you note for their
business? By following appointments with a thank you note every time, you
encourage customers to come back. Personalized service through automated emails
let your customers know that if there’s ever a problem, they can speak to you
openly and honestly.

3. Get Friendly with Forms
Forms are a
versatile, multi-functional add-on that can help you manage client
relationships in many ways. Forms
are versatile enough to be leveraged as a data-driving tool or a fun,
whimsical way of “getting to know you” to better understand clients. Here are a
few of the most common ways to use forms, which you can personalize to your
liking to help build better client relationships and make retention a breeze.

Onboarding Forms
In beauty and fitness, onboarding or intake forms make it
easier to collect vital information that helps you prepare in advance for your
first session with a new client. You can personalize forms to collect client
history, hair history, training history, preferences, pain points, and more. You
can also decide whether to make an onboarding/intake form a requirement for new
bookings. That way, at your first appointment, you’ll be armed with information
that’ll make for a great first impression!

Liability Waivers
Some services require waivers, such as a chemical service
liability waiver, personal training waivers, or medical professional release
forms clearing the customer for a service. The core function of service waivers
is to protect your business against future legal actions, such as personal
injury or negligence claims. Thus, waivers protect both the customer and the
service provider by documenting acknowledgement for services where there’s risk
involved, however minimal that risk may be. Having up-to-date records is
another way to give great customer service. If they’re an ongoing client, you
can even create an “anniversary” for waivers that need regular updates.

Customer Surveys and Polls
Surveys and polls are an easy, fun way to get customer
feedback, which helps you understand their lifestyle, needs, and expectations.
Surveys and polls can be personalized for anything from detailed follow-up customer
satisfaction surveys to seasonal polls that help you anticipate upcoming
customer needs. Ask anything from “How could your service have been better?” and “What products do you want to see in our
store?” to “What are your plans for the winter holiday season?”

Manage Customer Relationships with Vagaro
Your customer relationships are a complex, multi-layered map
of all the ways a customer engages with your brand. The goal is to enrich their
experience with your business, learn more about their expectations, and
anticipate their needs. Vagaro makes customer relationship management easy for
busy customers and busy professionals. By making every client feel important
whether they’re on the books or between appointments, you reinforce the
stability of your ongoing relationship. By using Vagaro tools, you manage
client relationships effortlessly, to consistently meet and exceed their
expectations. To quote Casablanca, “Louis,
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
Personalized service, automated convenience! Get to know your customers better with Vagaro and lay down the cornerstones of enduring relationships!
Header Image: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro
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