What’s Your Relationship Status?
Our relationship status sits upon our Facebook profile for all our friends to see – even the ‘it’s complicated’ option categorises what’s going on in our personal life.
But what about outside of our personal life? What about our business life? What is YOUR relationship status with your CLIENTS?
I have asked this question to a group of women before and they looked a little perplexed by my question. Relationship? With a client? Er, I’m not sure (the usual response).
But, in business, your RELATIONSHIP is KEY!!
Are you doing enough to build your relationships?
And without good relationships, your business is as shaky as Beyoncé’s bottom in a music video.
What are you talking about, Hollie?!
My easy beauty business 3 step theory says you need just 3 things to have a successful business –
- Implement a good marketing scheme
- Deliver exceptional treatments
- Get your clients to return
And points 1 and 3 both rely heavily on good relationships.
Let me break this down for you.
As a beauty professional, you are inviting people to come into your business to (possibly) remove clothing, have products applied and treatments delivered to them – that can only be administered by professional people.
If you think putting a pretty picture of someone having a massage on your website is going to have people queuing out the door, think again. It won’t.
These people have no relationship with you – and until they do, it’s unlikely they will even consider coming to your business.
We are building relationships all day, and all of the time
Panic not! Building relationships is simple, if you take the time to create communication with your clients.
We build relationships with all different people; our partners become people we trust and care about, our best friends become people we tell our deepest darkest secrets to, and our parents are who we call when we have a problem.
These relationships all take time. They build. We create trust, we test the waters, we see if we like each other and relationships develop. You don’t make a best friend in an hour, or fall in love with your new soul mate simply from an image.
Business is no different.
Before clients come to you, they need to trust you.
Trust can come from a number of sources, but communication with your potential and existing clients will create a better relationship, and hence a stronger business.
Your new clients need your help and guidance to make the right decision
Clients are bamboozled – with internet development and people becoming more savvy with advertising, your potential clients are overwhelmed with options when it comes to booking a treatment with someone new. How can they possibly choose?
This is where you step in – you help them choose.
They need advice, help and direction before they make a decision –and you are just the person to provide it.
How? Through communication. We can reach out to your potential clients before they have even thought about booking a treatment through easy to use, simple systems – likes blogs, emails and other marketing, that brings the clients straight to you.
Providing your clients with useful information, that can only be provided by a professional, will help them to get to know you, trust you and like you.
As they read your blogs and learn from you, their trust levels will increase. As they see your emails coming through with valuable information and great treatments, their trust levels will increase more. And when they see positive reviews about you and Facebook updates that interest and intrigue them – they will trust you EVEN more!
You’ve plonked yourself at the forefront of their mind, and that’s exactly where you want to be.
So when they need to book a treatment, who they gonna call?
Not the Ghostbusters and not a random name off the internet either – they will call the person that’s educated them, communicated to them and helped them – the person they trust.
That’s how you get a new client as well as keeping hold of your existing ones.