Consistency Is Key: Unlocking The Door To Income BoostsAugust 19, 2019Who hasn’t heard the tale of the hare that raced a tortoise and lost? Recently implemented upon real life animal counterparts of the characters in the story, there is much a marketing enthusiast can learn from the tale: it’s not the fiery hare who wins but the consistent tortoise. And there lies the lesson we’re about to learn in greater detail now. Why Consistency Is Important Let’s for a moment, talk about the world’s most famous and most easily-recognizable soda brand, which is also the world’s best-kept secret: Coca Cola. What makes Coke so successful as a brand is that ever since its inauguration in the May of 1886, it has remained more or less the same: its logo hasn’t changed, its taste hasn’t changed, and its packaging hasn’t changed. Coke used consistency as its key for over a hundred years, and has succeeded—and so can you. Why Consistency Is Important In The Salon Industry Just last year, the salon industry grew by 2.1%, spanning to 1,286,220 businesses nationwide. Compared with the (approximately) 86,000 establishments in 2014, that’s an addition of 1,200,000 establishments in the span of merely 3 years. This is an industry that refuses to stop growing—and with rapid growth, comes deafening rivalry and competition. Jumping on new trends and trying funky new ideas might seem like the need of the hour, but while it does add the flair of creativity to your business, it also adds the curse of unpredictability. If your customers are iffy about your funky new service, they’ll be less likely to opt for said services. Innovative ideas are the way to go unless they’re excessive and too much in flux. Consistency can catalyze and galvanize your income and increase your profits. A marketing solution often overlooked, this could be your one-way ticket to profit paradise. Here’s what to learn from our blog: Consistency is not synonymous with boring: in fact, if you realized how productive in terms of profit it is, you’ll begin finding it very exciting. Consistency ropes in revenue: you’ll have a guaranteed and steady stream of income at your disposal. Being consistent means ceasing to be inconsistent: getting rid of all your shortcomings is part of the package. Calculate and evaluate your performance: you’ll be surprised to find out how well being consistent is serving you. Not Boring: Know that being consistent does not mean that you or your services are boring. Your customers aren’t coming to you to see surprising new magic tricks; they’re coming for your services. And they’re not looking for an exciting sleight of the hand from you, but an expert clanking of scissors from your hand. In short, clients don’t care if your service is “boring” as long as you’re getting the job done, and as long as you’re doing it consistently right. This doesn’t mean that you should give up on trying out new gigs and being creative with your marketing. However, in addition to being creative and innovative, you should always stick to a base plan and try and steer little from it. Trust Equals Profit: The biggest benefit of being consistent is that your clients know exactly what to expect from you and that you will deliver in the best possible manner. Once you do something consistently right your customers will know what you specialize in and they will keep returning for the service. With creative new ideas it’s always a chance situation—the customers might love it or the customers might hate it. But with consistently good service, you’re on a safe side that ensures you profit from the trustiest services you’re offering. When clients know that you’re consistently good at something, they’ll trust your expertise and feel comfortable around you: they know you’ve got this. Additionally, you’ll get recommended around a lot, because your clients know you’re experienced in the area, and deliver the best results every time. This will, in turn, increase your client base and get you new customers. The more you’re recommended and referred to, the better your chances of becoming a booming business with glowing profits. Inconsistency Is Injurious: You might not outright realize how inconsistency is injuring you, but the slightest of these occurrences can put clients off your track. Even little things like changing your office hours and a constant flux in the packages that you offer might give them the wrong message. If a customer is used to visiting you at a certain hour or a certain day and finds out you no longer serve during that time, you might lose that customer. The same goes for the quantity and quality of your service and the services themselves. If you’re setting up a market system, make sure that you are careful about it and that you take many things into consideration. Let’s say you’re deciding to go with a reduced pricing to set the clientele going, but intend to change and raise the prices later on. This might come back to hurt you, as customers who were originally visiting you in lure of the discounted prices might do so no more because you’ve changed the prices. Word to the wise: discounts and reduced prices are a great motivator but always keep them in your bag as the secondary motivator. The primary motivator should always be quality work. Customers who come in lured by discounts are liable to ditch you at any given moment—that is, as soon as someone offers them a better “deal”—but customers who begin coming to you for value and quality will turn into loyalists who will keep returning. The quality needs to be consistent across the board, and there shouldn’t be too many fluctuations in the prices. Additionally, no matter how many of your employees are changed, the customers shouldn’t feel a difference—specially a decline—in the nature of your service. The customer service, too, should be consistently amazing—make sure your staff looks busy and dedicated and ready to help. Evaluate, Measure, And Calculate: Consistency is overlooked because it isn’t “obviously” profitable. Such as an exciting new deal on a festival “visibly” brings you more profit, consistency does the same but does so discreetly. A good way to acknowledge its true contribution is to measure your performance over consistent months. How to Measure and Monitor Your Marketing There can be many ways to do this right, but you don’t have to just stick to the conventional “monthly revenue” tool. Here’s what you can do to really get to the root of your earnings: Observe and make note of how many clients prefer each of the people on the staff. Are the consistent ones faring better? Calculate how many clients have returned for another service. Check if the repeat clients return more for a regular, consistent service or for something entirely new. Check how many people have opted for your online booking service (if you have one). Check how many people have signed up for your newsletter. How many people leave comments on your blogs? How many followers does your social media page have? Have your followers increased or decreased? Do people actively comment and leave reviews on your social media? If you’re using email marketing, how many customers have actually read your emails? Let’s say out of the ten clients who visited you twice in the last month only 4 returned for more this month—this should tell you that your performance has not been consistent. Additionally, go over your earnings on your “consistently” good services for the past few months and you’ll be surprised to see that consistency gets you almost as much revenue as exciting new offers, deals, packages, and discounts. The bottom-line is always repeat clients: if they keep coming back to you, know that you’ve been delivering consistently good service. Keep up with the consistency, and you’re sure to see a visible boost in your income and profits. Get Consistent Help Consistency is key to running any smooth franchise for a long period of time. To make any business perpetually profitable, innovative marketing ideas and knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the salon industry can be a great catalyst. Use the knowledge, expertise, and income boosting methods at Salon Income Booster, you can be sure to increase revenue and ensure that your salon business becomes a booming success. Leave us a message, and we’ll put the Pro in your Profit.