Building Clients
Whether its at the beginning, or rebuilding your clientele during your lash journey it can be stressful.. Here are some tips to have a full book plus a waiting list!
Staring off:
Models - Using friends and family use them as your models and walking billboards. These people will usually will be more patient and understanding especially at the beginning. Let them know your just starting out, but your looking to build your portfolio and because of this, you’ll do it either for free or for product cost only. You should at least do 10 people that you can take videos and photos to build your speed up, critique your sets and feel comfortable doing different eye shapes.
Social Media Portfolio- Make you have a theme, always have clean work in your photos and videos, have a place for protentional clients to see or be redirected to your services and prices and have your area noted.
Pricing- when looking at your pricing make sure to look around your area to see what lash artist are charging. make sure to also look for how long they been lashes, certification and quality of work. you don’t want to set your prices the same as someone who has amazing sets and been doing it for 5+ years if you only been doing it for 2 weeks. You get the idea.
You want to take into account also your product cost, and your time and make sure you are charging enough to cover it all.
As you build more clients, take new trainings and each year gain more experience you should be at least upping your prices by $5-$10 every time its a new year or you take a new training until you reach what your market is charging and your business needs to thrive. BUT you need to let your clients know and give them warning so you don’t surprise them when its time to pay.
Consultation- This is something, I don’t believe is talked about enough. Did you know a consultation is one of the first major steps in getting sturdy clientele? How are you going to know what they want, what has been their experiences have been and what they don’t like if you don’t ask? You need to make sure this is a strong communication in order to start off on the right foot!
Application- We all have different training but all of us should have the same foundation. Prepping properly so we aren’t getting fumes in the eyes and checking with a mirror to make sure their eyes aren’t open, making sure our clients are comfortable and nothing is to close to the eyes that can cause irritation. This is a safety step and also to make sure our clients are comfortable at the start. It can be scary to go to a new lash tech or get your lashes done for the first time and we need to make sure we can make them feel safe, comfortable and relaxed this will also help us when it comes to the actual application, avoid twitching eyes and moving around. Followed up with a great work you do, giving them the set you talked about in your consultation and untapping gently will go along way.
Pre booking your clients - Get comfortable pre booking your clients and get in the habit from the start, even your clients because once you really do start getting busy you wont want your clients trying to book the day before and now you have to turn them away and a chance of loosing your client after working hard to get them. Ask what days work for them, don’t offer every space especially when your starting out, you want to create a need for pre booking so they do it. if you always seem to be free, no one will ever pre book and you’ll wonder why you your days look empty, clients will forgot to book their appointments and then last minute you will have a million messages asking for appointments and now your scrambling to get your day sorted.
Referral Programs- Have one place, word of mouth ( this is how I build my business) is the easiest, more cost effective marketing you can get! After each client you do, let them know if they refer anyone they will get _____ every time they refer a client. also the client that is coming they will get something too. this could be $10 off or a free aftercare kit, something that shows gratitude. Also remember that people feel more comfortable from the start if someone they personally know recommends them.
Building Relationship- Building relationships with your clients definitely helps with them staying local and wanting to support you. Now side note** not every client is for you and if you feel its not working, recommend to another ;ash artist in your area. this is a way to avoid getting you name thrown around in a negative way if you just cant achieve what they are looking for or your stressing every time they come in because something is always “wrong”.** If you cant remember key factors in their life, make notes on where you store their client card or record so you can ask about them and be genuine about building your relationship. like any other honesty is best. if you set doesn’t look 100% perfect because they have a gap let them know. If you can see they aren’t cleaning their lashes educated them. it might be awkward at first but they will take it as you actually care and know your stuff.
Problem Solving (Poor Retention) - If your client messages you about a problem with their lashes, address is right away. Remember they spent a lot of money on them and it could be our fault? Make sure you have a policy with ____ amount of days grace period that if they message you in those __ amount of days because a problem with their lashes, you will try and troubleshoot the idea, If it isn’t the clients fault example. All the lashes are falling our without the natural lashes, then you will do you best to get them complimentary to touch up the set. This can suck for us because now maybe we need to stay later or come in earlier or on our day off maybe? but if it happens to be our fault we do want to take care of the problem this can be a make it or break for many clients. Now, if you can clearly tell it is your clients fault, example: went home and used an oil based product on their eyes. When they come in, if you find out this is the case reminder them of aftercare and let them know maybe this time you can do a “mini fill” or something but next time you wont be able to accommodate as easy snice its not on your application. Say if with grace as they aren’t as knowledgeable as you are in this area and maybe it was just the lack of communication that day or they didn’t realize that product contain oiled.
You want to be understanding but don’t get taking advantage of, the easiest way to know most times for example: is if you do say three clients in a day and one client says their lashes aren’t sticking maybe its something they are doing? if two or all of them are saying the same thing, then maybe its on your end and check your room temperature/humidity or your glue? It SUCKS, this has happened to me a few times before but till this day I still have the most loyal clients because I took the time to either fix them or educate them. If your client always has an issue, fire them they might just not be the client for you if they have an issue every single time you do their lashes. It will save you the headache.
I hope you can use these tips to build and retain your clientele. If you need private mentoring feel free to send me a message via my contact information.