Customer Relationships: Communication is the Key!

It’s just like any other relationship. Without regular and effective communication, customer relationships go stale.

Every business owner has busy days. Days when you need to get people in and out of the door as quickly as possible. It’s difficult during these periods to maintain that personal touch that keeps your customers coming back. Luckily, you don’t always have to do this face to face. It’s the age of instant communication remember? Email and SMS can, and should be used to continue building customer relationships no matter where they are.

Why is this important? Any successful business owner will tell you that you can only grow a business by growing your customer base. You’ll only grow your customer base by gaining new customers while also retaining old ones. Retaining customers therefore is the key, and it’s all about creating and maintaining exceptional customer relationships.

Timely’s new and improved customer messages system will empower you with the ability to keep up your customer relationships automatically! You can now easily schedule email and SMS messages to be sent to your clients with custom rules dictating when and where they are sent. Keeping up your customer relationships has never been easier!

We’ve gathered a bunch of tips on how you can use customer messages like Follow-up Messages and Rebooking Reminders for your business. Just click on the category that fits your business best and discover how you can sustain some excellent customer relationships.

Tips for Salons

Tips for Spas

Tips for Massage Therapists

Tips for Body Art Studios

Tips for Salons

Salons are busy places, so making sure that each customer gets the same exceptional experience should be your biggest concern. Our automated messages help you to easily maintain your customer relationships even after they’ve gone out the door.

1. Send an automatic email or SMS to customers who haven’t rebooked for a month and remind them to give you a call.
2. Make sure your clients are maintaining their hairstyle or beauty treatment with the best after-treatment care. Send a list of your recommended products to their phone automatically the day after their appointment.
3. Have an automatic message be sent out to your clients a week after their appointment reminding them to follow you on Facebook or Twitter. It’s also a good way to request an online review.

Tips for Spas

Customers come to your spa to relax. The last thing they want while they’re walking out the door is to be pestered about upcoming deals, rebooking their next appointment or posting a review on your facebook page. I’m sure you’d rather focus on making sure they have a good experience as well. With Customer Messages you can set specific rules for these automatic messages, detailing exactly who will receive them, and when.

1. Offer recent customers a discount via email if they post a Google review about their experience. This can be sent automatically in the days following a treatment.
2. Create a rule that sends a message to any client that hasn’t visited in the last 30 days. Tell them it’s time for a bit of pampering!
3. Gift your customers some sage advice and wisdom. You can create a rule that automatically sends helpful relaxation tips to everyone who came in that day.

Tips for Massage Therapists

As a massage therapist, it’s important to make sure your clients feel comfortable and relaxed for as long as possible. That’s why it can sometimes be awkward asking about rebooking their next appointment right after they’ve just finished a treatment. Timely now allows you to leave that till later, and focus on giving your customers the best possible experience at the time.

1. Ask your customers how they’re feeling after their massage. Set up an automatic message to be sent to your clients in the evening, or days following an appointment. You can even use this opportunity to request that they write about their experience on your preferred review site while it’s fresh in their minds.
2. Let your clients know you miss them. If a client hasn’t booked in for a while, you can have an automatic message sent to them after a certain time period telling them it’s time that they treat themselves again.
3. Reward regulars by automatically offering them a 10% discount after they’ve visited. This helps remind them to rebook too!

Tips for Body Art Studios

One of the most important parts of any body art is how you care for it once you leave the studio. Tattoos, for example, need to be kept as clean as possible and ointments may need to be applied. Every studio will explain this to their clients in person of course, but once they’re out of the store it’s often left up to the individual. With Follow-up Messages, you can make sure your customers have as much information as possible at their fingertips.

1. Schedule after-care instructions to be sent to clients in the days and weeks following their treatment.
2. Let your clients know when it’s time for a check-up by setting up an SMS to be sent a week later.
3. Remind clients that they can come in to finish their tattoo by having an automatic text message sent to their phone 3 weeks after their session.

Many of these tips can be used across different industries, so feel free to gain inspiration from the other categories as well. The key takeaway here is that consumers like being customers of businesses that care. What better way is there to show someone that you care, than communicating with them even when they aren’t standing right in front of you? Think about the relationships you have with your friends, if you aren’t chatting through text message or social media, it’s unlikely you’re going to be seeing them any time soon.

Having an automatic message sent out while a customer is at home is a great way to get them thinking about you and your business in a more personal way, just don’t be obnoxious about it! Ask yourself how often, and at what times, you’d like to receive these messages. Building good customer relationships will not only keep them coming back to your business, it will encourage them to spread the word too.

We’re so excited to add value to your business, and so to help celebrate the launch of these new messages, we have a special offer for you!