As a leader in the medical spa and spa industry you are probably asking “how can I increase my client’s retention rate or how can I reduce my client’s attrition rate”? In business, you are always chasing new leads, new prospects, and new consumers. You are attempting to attract and convert clients into hopefully lifetime clients. You think you are doing a great job, until you see your retention rate, or run an inactive client report then reality sets in, and you wonder what happened to this client and that client and why are they no longer coming to see us?
This challenge is often experienced by many med spa business owners. As a medical spa consultant and business advisor, I am often asked about retention and attrition.
In this episode of Dori Talks, I will share with you 6 principles to help you reactivate inactive clients and turn them into lifetime clients.
Let’s get back to the question I get asked all the time. How do you stop client attrition and how can you reactivate, inactive clients and turn them into lifetime clients?
The good news is that there is a solution for this challenge and a successful process you can implement to regain lost clients. The following 6 medspa business principles will help you accomplish your goals to decrease client attrition and start increasing retention.
Principle 1: Analyze why clients leave and don’t come back
Do you know why clients leave your medical spa and don’t come back? There are many reasons. It could be that they just forgot about you. You know the statement “out of sight, out of mind”? That is actually true. Another reason could be the experience they received or the lack of results. Maybe they did not get engaged with your brand or your team. Maybe someone dropped the ball, no follow-up or follow through. Today’s consumers are different, they are looking to be part of a community, they want a place to feel welcomed and taken care of. Are you and your team doing that?
To help you analyze, we recommend calculating your retention rate and your attrition rate to see where you stand now and set a new goal as to where you would like them to be.
Principle 2: The cost of medspa client attrition
It cost six to seven times more to gain a new medical spa client than to retain one. You spend a lot of money on marketing to gain new clients to visit your medical spa. The last thing you want is for them to come only once and then they are gone.
To know the cost of attrition, we advise you to calculate the lifetime value of a client and discover the cost of attrition. How big is the loss every time you lose a client? For example, if one client joins your medical aesthetics VIP membership program and is paying you $580 per month, that equals $6,960 per year.
If this one client stops coming, you will be losing $6,960 per client per year. If an average client stays with your brand for 5 years that equals $34,800 over that period. Now you can see why it’s important to focus on retention. That’s one client, imagine keeping all the clients that you have now, what will that do to your medspa success?
Run a report and identify who is not coming in. See how many clients are on that report, realize your attrition cost, and apply these principles to help you improve it.
Principle 3: The team’s effect on client retention
Your medi spa team plays a key role in your retention rate. Yes, from the Guest Relations team to all providers, injectors, aestheticians, MA, Laser techs, and massage therapists. Everyone on the spa or medspa team contributes to the success or failure of a business.
That is why it’s essential that the team is totally trained on all aspects of the guest experience and that they are delivering memorable and result-driven treatments. The training curriculum must include clinical and business training.
To ensure success, make the client retention rate part of your Key Performance Indicators. Always measure your medical spa client retention rate and give a bonus to the team for achieving the target. The team needs to be aware of how important it is to maintain clients and train them on the necessary steps to achieve this goal. Placing focus on this principle will make a huge difference with your retention rate and your success.
Principle 4: Re-engagement strategies
Now that you have the foundation by applying the first three principles, let’s discuss what you can do about inactive clients and how you can re-engage them and bring them back.
There are several strategies you can implement to re-engage and or keep clients engaged. Several of these strategies can be automated to make it easier on the team and the management of the medspa or spa.
For example, if someone has not visited your medical spa in two or three months you can:
Send them your most recent medspa newsletter, blog link, or a seasonal video tip. Or you can have a Guest Relations team call them and invite them to a special event, text them, or send them a direct message on social media.
You can also mail them a postcard or a letter with an offer through the post office. If they have a birthday coming up, you can send them a birthday gift. The opportunities to get them re-engaged are endless. You just need to set up the automation and let it run.
Most medical spa software systems allow you to track clients visits. You can place flags so it can notify you when a client has not visited in a couple of months, and you can set up the communication on autopilot for best results.
Principle 5: Reactivating inactive clients campaign
Another strategy to reactivate inactive medical spa clients is with an event campaign called “Let’s Reconnect”. Hosting an event is a great way to reconnect with inactive clients. We have an entire process to pull it off successfully. Just like any other event, it will take some planning, but the results are worth it.
When planning your Let’s Reconnect event make sure you do the following to succeed:
The invitation – make an enticing offer for inactive clients to RSVP and show up.
Offer a “Register to Win a Complete Face Makeover”, a Value of $5,000, must be present to win, register now. Take them to a landing page to register and RSVP for the event.
This type of offer is going to entice many people to attend and give you the opportunity to re-engage with them.
1. Come up with the offer to purchase something during the event
During the event you can use the strategy from the program we offer called Planning & Hosting Six Figure Medspa Events With Your Next Event!
Use the Spa Dollar strategy we teach and give away free money for purchasing gift cards from you, or you can promote your VIP Membership program. If you don’t have a medspa membership program you need one.
We offer a program called Develop your membership model with the C.O.P.I.E. system. That alone will increase your retention rate tremendously.
2. Making the let’s reconnect event fun
- Fun – Refreshments, entertainment, mingling
- Treatment sampling opportunity
- Passport and enter to win big prizes
- Giveaways
- Goody bags
- Speak about the latest in treatments & products
3. Invite your ambassadors and/or VIP members
This is a key step. You want raving fan ambassadors to be present at each Let’s Reconnect event.
Select about 5 to 10 of your biggest clients and ask them to join you for this event. You want them to mix with your inactive clients and get them to share their great experiences with them and share their transformations. This will provide social proof from existing clients and encourage the inactive clients to re-engage.
Principle 6: Maintaining happy clients
Keeping your medical aesthetic clients happy and exceeding their expectations is not rocket science. Many brands such as The Ritz, Four Seasons, Tiffany, Chanel, etc. do it all the time. Why? Because their teams are trained and know the service expectations from today’s consumers.
So, if you want happy clients to stay with you and be brand loyalists, you must step up your game and invest in medical spa training material such as the Recipes for Success so the team will deliver 5-star experiences and increase your retention rate!
Remember, if you take care of your clients they will take care of you!
