You’re humming along. Your schedule is full. Life is great. And, then, one of your regulars leaves a message canceling an appointment and didn’t want to reschedule. If you take a minute to think about it, you’ve had a few other regulars fade away. What's happening?

First, think about your clientele. They might fit into one of these categories:

• Clients may come to see you for a short period of time, possibly to prepare for an event, or achieve a specific goal, and then move on. Other clients may try you for a few appointments and then realize the two of you aren’t a good fit.
• Your schedule has slots filled with the desperate client who is going down the Yelp listings trying to find someone who will take her on short notice or the client who has called around to find someone who can fix her “home” beauty treatment’s disastrous results.
• Fortunately, most of your clients are regulars. You’ve built a relationship of trust over time and these steady appointments account for a majority of your income as well as fulfill the personal satisfaction that comes with doing what you do in this industry.

When a long-time regular client stops coming to see you, you need to find out why.

Aside from the lost revenue, it’s a reflection on your business reputation.

• Reflect on your last few encounters with that client. Were you running on time?

• Did you rush them?

• Did your level of customer service drop because of the familiarity that comes from a long-term relationship?

• Did you start taking them for granted?

After You Reflect on the Reasons

Reach out. Call or text to say sincerely, “Gosh, I’ve missed you. I’m just checking in to make sure you’re all right. I haven’t seen you in a while and you are on my mind.” Perhaps your client has had a life-impacting circumstance and that is the reason for being MIA.

If this is a long-time client, ask your client candidly if you did anything to influence her decision not to return. Offer a ‘loyalty special’ for her to return and ask her to give you another opportunity to win her back. And then, treat her like the queen she deserves to be treated as when she does come back in.

Use these opportunities as a chance to grow in your business. Make sure your branding and message are consistent. Remember clients’ birthdays. Send them a note or email when they book their first appointment to welcome them, inform them of your services, and your policies about cancellations and no-shows. After their first appointment, send a sincere thank you note for giving you the opportunity to earn their loyalty.

Communicate regularly so they are frequently seeing you on social media. Give your clients no reason to look anywhere else, except to you and your expertise when it comes to their beauty services.  

Photo: gpointstudio 

Breaking It Down

In this post, we talked about wooing clients back after they go MIA, not to worry, it happens to the best of us, and by implementing a consistent communication protocol with each client, you can minimize your customer churn. It’s also important to treat every client, regardless of how long they have been coming to you as if it is their first time in your chair. Want more tools to communicate like a pro? Check out these 2 online classes.

Persuasive Speech and Communication Online Class

Wooing clients is about asking the right questions and this online class helps you find your voice when communicating with potential, new, and long-term clients.

Active Listening Online Class

90% of communication is unconscious and this online class demystifies nonverbal communication cues while giving you the tools to build trust and rapport with every client.