Customer Loyalty For Aesthetic Businesses: How To Get and Keep Clients

The beauty and aesthetics industry is highly competitive and provider switching is easy. If you want your business to stand out from the rest, you need to offer something clients can't get anywhere else — like a high-value customer loyalty program. 

Through your loyalty program, you can provide cosmetic incentives that encourage customer retention and attract new customers. But approaching this program strategically is essential to ensure that it actually resonates with customers. 

Find out more in our guide to cosmetic and medical incentives for aesthetic businesses.

Why do aesthetic businesses need customer loyalty programs? 

Aesthetics is a booming industry, projected to grow to $21 billion by 2027. While this figure means you'll likely always have job security, it also means you'll always have stiff competition. 

Whether you offer medical services like Botox and fillers, or salon services like hair, waxing, nails, and lashes, your company can benefit from a curated customer loyalty program. Loyalty programs can help your business:

• Retain existing customers: Thankfully, beauty services require routine visits. Your aesthetics business can make sure customers continue choosing your business for their follow-ups with a motivating rewards program. 
• Attract new customers: With so many aesthetics businesses in your local area, customers are looking for the one that offers the best deals and discounts long-term. A loyalty program can reduce the costs of your medical and beauty services for repeat customers, offering an incentive new customers can't resist. 
• Improve brand loyalty: Loyalty programs not only incentivize customers to keep coming back to your business, but they also build a psychological sense of loyalty to your brand. Customers may feel like they're betraying your estheticians by choosing a different salon. 
• Get to know customers: Loyalty programs provide you with valuable data about your customer base. For instance, you can collect birth date data for birthday rewards, keying you into the average ages of your clientele. 

Incentive programs for beauty & aesthetics businesses

You have a lot of freedom and flexibility in how you structure your loyalty programs. Here are a few ideas to get your wheels turning: 

Attendance-based rewards

Most aesthetic services require regular upkeep. For instance, you may recommend that clients return for waxes every six weeks or haircuts every two months. Botox and fillers are also routine services that most customers could benefit from every three to four months. 

With attendance-based rewards, your customers can receive free or discounted services for visiting your business a specific number of times: for instance, buy five haircuts, and get one free. Alternatively, you can guarantee customer retention with a membership program using one of these models: 

• Customers purchase 10 waxes upfront and get a Virtual Visa Gift Card reward for an amount that makes it worth the upfront cost.
• Customers purchase monthly memberships and receive value-adds like rewards by the month (with Zapier + Giftbit, this process can be easily automated).
• Customers purchase 5 waxes and on the 6th one gets a gift card for a nice dinner! 

These programs reward customers for their attendance at your aesthetics business and when you offer rewards that aren’t services that you already offer, clients feel like they’re getting more value. They’ll begin to associate gifts outside of your services with your company (like a hotel or restaurant gift card). Meanwhile, your company benefits from higher retention rates and stronger customer loyalty. 

Referral programs

Referrals are powerful; over 90% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. And over 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend companies with good loyalty programs. 

These statistics show the importance of offering programs that incentivize referrals. When your existing customers refer your brand to their friends and family, those referred individuals will be much more likely to choose your business than another one in the beauty industry. At the same time, referring a business to a friend instills a sense of loyalty to that business, which can enhance retention with the existing customer. 

So how do you build an effective referral program? 

• Reward customers who share your business information with others. 
• Set up social media giveaways for sharing and promoting your business to their followers. 
• Offer rewards to your customers when they bring a friend in for a service — like discounts, free services, and gift cards. 

Over 80% of small businesses consider referrals their main source of new business. Don't lose out on this valuable opportunity for sales and growth. 

Points-to-rewards

Points-to-rewards programs are affordable solutions for businesses that can't dedicate much money to loyalty programs. With points-to-rewards, your customers can earn points every time they visit your business. Their points can accumulate over time, and they can eventually trade them in for cosmetic or medical incentives — or other rewards, like gift cards. 

These programs still encourage customer loyalty and retention, as customers will feel like they are building toward a goal every time they visit your business. 

Giftbit: simplifying medical & cosmetic incentives

Encouraging customers to choose your business can help you stay competitive in the dog-eat-dog beauty industry. With Giftbit, you can simplify and streamline your customer loyalty program by sending automatic, customizable e-gift cards as rewards.