What is Beyond Buzz Marketing?
So, you had an awesome ‘pull’ strategy. Your promotional strategy became the talk of the town. People are responding on a daily basis. Is that it? – to merely generate as many responses at one go? What’s next?
Just a week ago a local hair salon dropped a simple viral bomb in the community where I live – especially for the ladies. They hit the streets distributing ladies-only vouchers that entitles them to have a hair cut by a professional stylist at only RM1, for 1 week only. Yes, only RM1, equivalent to only 33 cents USD – it was definitely a steal and it became the talk of the town almost immediately.
Needless to say, both my mum and sis were drawn to the offer and they decided to make a trip to the salon to give it a shot after making a prior appointment. They walked in, confirmed their appointment and here comes the stylist. Being accustomed to a typical salon’s service, my mum described how she wanted her hair to be layered and was given the reply “your hair is already layered so we do not need to do anything to it”. As for my sis, well, snap-snap-snap and the whole ordeal was done in less than 5 minutes.
What happened here? The salon came up with a great ‘pull’ strategy and managed to get the crowd in. Do you really want to keep your customers in for only 5 minutes? It would have been a great opportunity for them to showcase their professionalism, services, hospitality and etc but they chose to give it away.
What they could have done?
1. A proper welcome would be nice. It doesn’t need to be elaborate but since there was a prior appointment made, perhaps the staffs could standby to greet you and guide you to a (labeled / reserved) seat? That would be a simple, but personalized service.
2. Cease the opportunity for a proper introduction. The objective of the promotion is definitely to generate future repeat customers. A mini tour around the salon, explaining the store’s concept, products, equipments and etc may instill confidence and memorability to your brand.
3. Leave something with the customers as they go. A return voucher, a loyalty card, a picture taken and signed by your hairstylist or anything that reminds them of you.
These small and inexpensive gestures can go a long, long way.
How important are your promotional / viral strategies? Very. A follow-up strategy? Imperative.
Ah what a shame, such a missed opportunity.
Sooo much you can do to create an amazing customer experience in a hair salon. And it’s especially important, as the money in a salon is made not through cuts, but through back-end product sales and repeat business.
The basics would be a good start: polite, attentive, care of the customer.
Having everyone on the team enrolled to provide perfect basic service every time, 100% of the time is enough to generate a really great customer experience.
THEN they can build on it, with the wow factors, the personal service, the follow up, the invitation to take another step.
Testing and measuring each step of the way to tweak what works for their favourite customers.
I would bet my favourite hat that their sales would increase massively, and the salon would become one that is booked out months in advance.
I agree with you 101%! Hair salons have great potential in driving great customer experience as they have both service and products to impress the customers.
You’ve pointed out tons of great points. It’s amazing how far these basics can go. Businesses have to remind themselves that it’s not the hype and wow factors that attracts customers – it’s the service itself. In this case, they had an excellent marketing plan to drive foot traffic to their salon – only to kill whatever experience that’s with a customer. A shame, really.
I would think that’s a common problem among many businesses. They focus on the sales, marketing and financial aspect of things, overlooking the simplest aspect of all which can generate the largest impact for the business.
Thanks for your valuable insight, Kiera! :)