Boosting Customer Engagement Strategies

This paper provides proof, which aids in backing up the recommendations: during and after service. These recommendations can assist Embrace beauty salon to improve their services. A back up information to act as proof has been extracted from an interview with Louise, as well as a survey conducted on customers.

Recommendations during Service

Proofs supporting the recommendations during service at Embrace beauty salon are as follows:

Based on the interview with Louise, it is evident that the services offered are not of good quality, as the owner is harsh. Moreover, the atmosphere surrounding is not customer-friendly as there is nothing to read. On the other hand, based on the survey conducted, 32% of customers stated that friendliness is a value, which influences their choice of a beauty provider, yet this is lacking in Embrace beauty salon. Additionally, when asked about the importance of service features, in a scale of 5, customers rated 3 and 4, for comfortable waiting area with refreshments and magazines, and friendly conversation during service respectively. Camelia recommends that Embrace beauty salon should have an enhanced atmosphere, in order to impact on the customers’ moods, and motivation to continually visit the business (Na-Nan et al., 2016). Noteworthy, if customers visit a dreary salon with unfriendly owners and employees, they likely will not be motivated and as such, creating an enhanced working atmosphere is critical for the overall performance of a firm (Ellisons, 2018). This can be done through hiring friendly employees, improving the lighting, making the firm environment comfortable, and improving communication.

It is noted that Embrace beauty salon is not customer-focused, and as such, the owner does not bother to understand the needs of the customers, in order to provide products and services that they need. However, Issy recommends that Embrace beauty salon needs to understand the character of their customers by exploring aspects of their psychographic type. She also notes that this is important to build rapport with customers and to tailor their experiences (Reason et al., 2015). It is of utmost importance for Embrace beauty salon to know the character of their customers and thus, engage them is conversations, which provide their feedback on what services and products that they need to be offered. Moreover, the business will be able to build a positive relationship with customers, and will as well be able to tailor their experiences, which consequently would assist in improving its performance (Wilder et al., 2014).

Noteworthy, Louise stated that Embrace beauty salon does not engage in any customer loyalty scheme, which focuses on collecting customer information via email, and neither does it give money-off to customers. In addition, findings from the survey indicate that 22% of the participants stated that they preferred best priced services as a value that influences their choice of a beauty provider, whilst 56.52% of them indicated that the best loyalty scheme that salon businesses should use to their customers is money-off. Hajara recommends loyalty scheme to collect customer information, where they should ask for email for communication. Moreover, Hajara also recommends that Embrace beauty salon should give money-off to their customers. Significantly, any business should be obligated to prioritize customer needs by introducing a loyalty scheme for collecting the customer’s profile email (Zakaria et al., 2014). This loyalty scheme aids in rewarding customers, and making them switch their behaviors, towards the positive gain of the business such as purchasing products of higher profitability, and also increasing the volumes of their purchase. Of most importance is the fact that using money-off as a strategy would protect Embrace beauty salon from its rival businesses such as Beeston, which would rather lure their customers away (Hill & Alexander, 2017).

Recommendations after Service

Proofs supporting the recommendations after service at Embrace beauty salon are as follows:

Louise notes that Embrace beauty salon does not communicate or market their products and services through email. On the other hand, the conducted survey indicate that the highest number of individuals (36.47%) indicated that they prefer to receive promotions, news, and updates through email-newsletter. In this regard, Issy recommends that Embrace beauty salon should adopt email marketing. Significantly, many people use emails and it is a vibrant way of connecting with people, especially the target customers. Through this means, Embrace beauty salon can improve its reach, as well as visibility as it takes advantage of adopting to digital marketing (Lockhartmeyer, 2018). Of most importance to note, email marketing is worth it because it is cost-effective, it connects the business with mobile customers, Embrace beauty salon can automate the process of email marketing, it allows the business to easily personalize its contents for better response rates, and finally, it allows the business to measure their email marketing efforts. These would assist to improve the performance of Embrace beauty salon (Edelman et al., 2016).

Based on the interview, Louise noted that Embrace beauty salon does not offer discount to its customers, whether or not they buy expensive products. Moreover, they do not engage in exclusive event invitations, which can enhance their brand name. Camelia recommends that Embrace beauty salon should offer special discount or exclusive event invitations such as new product launch lock-in etc. It is worth noting that special discounts attract customers and increases their loyalty to a specific brand, and as such, Embrace beauty salon should opt to adopt to the special discount strategy (Gottlieb, 2017). On the other hand, special event invitation can assist the business to build a strong and recognizable brand, which strengthens their connectivity with their existing customers, selling to new customers, and encouraging loyalty, as well as recognition (Hill & Alexander, 2017).

Clearly, Embrace beauty salon is not active on any social media platform, yet the survey indicates that customers are active on these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, WeChat, and WhatsApp amongst others. As such, Issy recommends that Embrace beauty salon should purpose to actively participate on social media, in order to build a community of fans and prompt WOM. Social media provides a powerful way for firms to reach prospects, as well as customers (Garcia et al., 2015). As such, they need to speak directly to them through word of mouth, thereby, aiding to build trust, and consequently bringing remarkable success to the business, owing to the fact that the creation of devoted brands advocate and drive the sales in the business (Lim et al., 2014).

References

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Garcia, E., Sharma, S., Pierce, M., Bhatia, S., Argao, S. T., Hoang, K., & Quach, T. (2015). Evaluating a county‐based healthy nail salon recognition program. American journal of industrial medicine, 58(2), 193-202.

Gottlieb, M. (2017). Beauty on the home front. Professional Beauty, (Mar/Apr 2017), 132.

Hill, N., & Alexander, J. (2017). The handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement. Routledge.

Lim, S., Chae, H., & Jeon, H. (2014). The Effect of Experience Marketing on Brand Attitude and Brand Loyalty of Beauty Salon Franchise Stores. Fashion business, 18(5), 42-55.

Na-Nan, K., Sanamthong, E., & Sulong, M. (2016). Employees Engagement, Quality of Service and Customers Satisfaction Affecting Customer Loyalty of Hair and Beauty Salon Business. International Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research, 13(15), 3409-3421.

Reason, B., Løvlie, L., & Flu, M. B. (2015). Service design for business: A practical guide to optimizing the customer experience. John Wiley & Sons.

Wilder, K. M., Collier, J. E., & Barnes, D. C. (2014). Tailoring to customers’ needs: Understanding how to promote an adaptive service experience with frontline employees. Journal of Service Research, 17(4), 446-459.

Zakaria, I., Rahman, B. A., Othman, A. K., Yunus, N. A. M., Dzulkipli, M. R., & Osman, M. A. F. (2014). The relationship between loyalty program, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in retail industry: A case study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 129, 23-30.