Your customer list is your gold mine, build and protect it
When I was talking with our customers who are barbers, own car detailing studios, or photo studios, I noticed that they don't fully realize the value of their customer data.
In this article, I'll outline several ways you can leverage this data in your business. By the way, in Meety, you own all your customer data, you can export it anytime (even if you don't pay for Meety), and Meety doesn't distribute or sell it in any way.
Activating Existing Customers
Imagine the following situation: you're currently in a slow season, but you know that when Christmas comes in a few weeks, your calendar will be full and your problem will be exactly the opposite - you won't be able to serve your loyal or new customers because you simply won't have time for them.
Use marketing consent, but value it
One solution is to send existing customers an email or text message informing them that Christmas is around the corner and your calendar will likely be full - and if they want, they can come now. For these campaigns, it's good to offer a discount so that customers perceive the value of these promotional messages and don't unsubscribe.
Vouchers
Another way to increase sales is to sell vouchers for your customers' loved ones as gifts. You can use this before holidays like Christmas or Valentine's Day, and customers can easily redeem the voucher through the booking system when making an appointment.
Personalized communication
Another nice touch can be a personalized email for name days, birthdays, or the anniversary of their first booking 💛 - you can save birthday information in the notes for each customer. We're working on making it possible for you to send such emails directly from Meety soon.
As I mentioned, when communicating with customers, it's good practice to always offer some benefit or discount that is tied directly to a specific campaign or time period. How to do it? Have you ever wondered why influencers use discount codes? They exist so that businesses can identify which customers purchased a service or product from a specific campaign, allowing you to evaluate whether it makes sense to invest in that influencer (the logic being that if someone has a discount code available, they'll use it). A separate effect with vouchers is that a certain percentage of people won't use them in time - which means extra revenue for you without providing the service.
However, don't run discount campaigns too often - customers can get used to discounts and only shop when you offer them. I've seen this effect with larger retail brands that ended up in a situation where customers wouldn't buy without discounts. 😬
Acquiring New Customers on Social Media
I might surprise some of you now, but when running ads on social networks like Facebook or Instagram (both owned by Meta), it's possible to target users based on their email or phone number. This means that if you upload a list of your customers' emails or phone numbers to Meta, you can show ads only to these users. A bit creepy, isn't it?
Of course, targeting your regular customers probably won't make much sense, but there's a good trick. You can use the "Lookalike Audience"feature, which allows you to target people similar to your customers. How does it work? Well, it finds people with similar interests, shopping behavior, age, etc. Meta handles all of this for you, but it wouldn't be possible without your customer list.
Another useful thing you can do is exclude existing customers from your ads, thereby saving on ad impressions that don't make sense.
Marketing Consent
Remember that to use a customer's email or phone number for marketing purposes, you need to obtain their consent. Meety automatically collects this consent from customers during booking, and it's always displayed next to the customer's name in your admin interface.
If you see that a customer hasn't given marketing consent during their visit, you can explain the benefits to them in person.
Conclusion
I hope I've inspired you on how to use your customer data in your business in a way that makes both you and your customers happy. After all, who would be upset about receiving a birthday voucher in their email? 🎉
If you'd like to try any of the mentioned tactics and don't know where to start, you can reach out to us for a free consultation, where we'll discuss how we can help you.
