By Robert H. Bloom
Choose your poison – “recession,” “double-dip,” “stagflation,” “credit crunch,” “inflation” or simply “downturn” – but acknowledge that the U.S. economy and that of almost every nation in the world is in serious trouble. Moreover, recognize that this is not a short-term problem.
This profoundly difficult period of slow or no growth will endure, and its destructive effects will cause all-too-many businesses to close their doors forever. However, most businesses will survive and some will thrive because their leaders will have the vision and courage to adjust their salon’s strategy to combat this formidable challenge.
Of course, you want your company to be one of the few that thrives and realize that you must initiate strategic change to achieve this ambitious objective. The following four specific strategies can help enable your salon to overcome this lengthy period of slow-or-no growth.
Strategy No. 1: Capitalize on m-commerce to secure and retain customers when and where they want to purchase
Conventional barcodes are playing an ever-increasing role in today’s e-commerce. Your competitors may already be using barcodes to:
• motivate impulse buying in store
• create urgency in ad campaigns
• enhance loyalty programs
• improve profitability in online marketing
• stimulate trial and repurchase with coupons
• inform customers of new offers on their packaging
• capitalize on their almost limitless benefits
Customers now scan m-codes any time of the day or night, including weekends and holidays, whether on the way to a party, business appointment or meeting at their child’s school. That is why the use of mobile codes in the U.S. has quadrupled this year.
Revenue from m-commerce will expand exponentially because customers enjoy the thrill and convenience of m-commerce and benefit from scanning on their mobile devices to obtain the plethora of offers and incentives they constantly receive. Moreover, m-commerce will merge with social media to captivate customers and further involve them in the purchasing experience.
Keep this in mind; m-commerce is in its infancy. The next generation codes will revolutionize every aspect of commerce, so you must be more expert in using codes than your competitors to remain 1st choice.
If you are not capitalizing on technology’s ever-changing capacity to connect your business with your customers and potential customers, you will not thrive in today’s prolonged period of slow-or-no growth or be ready to accelerate your growth when the economy begins to turn around.
Strategy No. 2: Differentiate your company from your competition by concentrating on a single highly valued, uncommon customer benefit
In today’s overcrowded local and global marketplace, customers find it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish one business or brand from another.
They live and work, shop and buy, and accept or reject products and services to purchase from the overabundance of offerings in this commoditized marketplace they now control. They are the judge and jury of your products, services and the customer experience you deliver.
Moreover, customers do not want a differentiated brand – they want an uncommon benefit. Brands are your obsession – benefits are their obsession, and today’s self-centered and self-confident customers own the purchasing progression today.
If you do not deliver the uncommon benefit they seek and value, your current customers and future prospects will find it somewhere in the overabundance of the marketplace.
Your customer benefit does not have to be bigger or better than the competition, but it must be real – not phony – and it must separate your company or brand from your competition.
I call this uncommon, wanted or needed customer benefit an “inside advantage” because it is usually an undiscovered or underutilized customer benefit the salon already has, but has never exploited. Importantly, this is why the strategic difference strategy requires little or no investment.
When you attach your uncommon customer benefit to your brand or company – when your salon “owns” this inside advantage, you will thrive in today’s prolonged period of slow-or-no growth.
Strategy No. 3: Train and motivate your organization to create “customer preference” for your salon
Today’s customers are armed with an immense amount of information on the Internet, aided by social media’s ability to share news about buying “victories,” and enabled by smart mobile devices that compare competitive prices in real time and deliver valuable coupons everywhere.
Given this technological empowerment, customer loyalty – after a long persistent decline – is no longer a factor in purchase decisions, and many customers no longer care where or from whom they buy. However, in a world without customer loyalty, you can still be 1st choice.
The first thing to understand about preference is that it is not loyalty. Loyalty is steadfast devotion and unquestioning commitment, and today’s commoditized marketplace has made customer loyalty as extinct as the dinosaur.
Preference, in the context of purchasing, is deliberately choosing one option instead of another option (or numerous options) to obtain a real or perceived benefit the customer values enough to influence his or her decision about where to purchase.
Consistently creating customer preference for your business or brand will make it 1st choice in today’s prolonged period of slow-or-no growth.
Strategy No. 4: Convert prospects into repeat buyers, advocates and referrals to stop costly customer churn and optimize profits
Along the purchase progression, there are occasions that are critical to conversion and retention – two essential elements in your mission to thrive in today’s brutal economy.
Although today’s highly aggressive, empowered buyer is in control of every step of this purchase progression, there are four decisive customer moments when you can persuade prospects to buy from your salon — and not the competition:
• Your Now-or-Never Moment – your first brief contact
• Your Make-or-Break Moment – the lengthy transaction process
• Your Keep-or-Lose Moment – the customer’s continued usage
• Your Multiplier Moment – repeat purchase, advocacy and referral
These four emotionally driven purchasing events are the vulnerable and impulsive customer moments when you can most easily induce the buyer to choose your salon rather than your competitor’s.
It is vital to understand that these four moments are sequential and co-dependent. This means that you must succeed at your now-or–never moment to proceed to each of the three successive moments.
If you fail to convert at any of the four decisive moments, you will likely never have another chance, and you will lose your valuable prospect or customer to one of your hungry competitors. Reliable metrics to measure your improvement in conversion are well worth the investment.
Failing to convert prospects into repeat buyers, advocates and referrals will increase costly customer churn and prevent you from thriving, or perhaps even surviving, in today’s prolonged period of slow-or-no growth.
To overcome this lengthy period of slow-or-no growth, you need the vision and courage to adjust your salon’s strategy now.
Robert H. Bloom is the author of “THE INSIDE ADVANTAGE: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business” and “THE NEW EXPERTS: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers At Their 4 Decisive Moments.” He is a widely respected authority on business growth. As U.S. Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, the centerpiece of the $4.6 billion global marketing services company, he helped craft and implement the growth strategies of some of the world’s largest companies and brands, including BMW, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, and Novartis’ Theraflu and Triaminic. As an entrepreneur, he grew an advertising agency into a successful national business. Bloom advises firms of every type and size on their growth strategies. For more information or to contact Robert Bloom, please visit thenewexperts.com.
