With salons, spas and barbershops closed or closing around the world, the biggest question on your mind right now is how the HECK you’re going to keep up some cashflow, right?! How are you going to look after your staff? Pay your bills? Feed your families? Gosh, we hear you!

But you know what… There is a long-lost little feature that you already have  in your Shortcuts system and are already paying for as part of your subscription that could earn you cash money quick smart. It’s a win-win idea designed to generate cash for you, while rewarding your clients when things return to normal (hopefully sooner rather than later!)

The story

Flashback to 20 odd years ago, when COVID-19 wasn’t a thing, and hugs, kisses and high-fives were totally fine.

Salon owners, and Hair Expo founders, Anthony and Susa Wynne-Hoelscher had a teeny idea that niggled at the back of their minds. An idea to bring in a generous cash injection to their salon that would ensure the security of their business for the year to come.

They had the idea to start a new kind of payment scheme, tapping into their most loyal customer base and rewarding them for paying for their services upfront in January by doubling the value over the rest of the year.

Our Co-Founder, Jo, was a long-time loyal client of the Wynne-Hoelscher’s. Back in the day they gave her the Gwyneth Paltrow sliding doors style, and used the first ever hair straightener on her blonde Gwen-inspired locks. They told Jo their idea and how amazing it would be if the existing Clubs feature could be tweaked to include this functionality.

“It was a genius strategy!” said Jo. “They’d get a huge injection of cash directly to the salon every January, which is typically such a quiet time in the industry. But with this idea, they knew they were getting revenue that they could then use to renovate the salon, for example. The Wynne-Hoelscher’s were full of very clever and strategic ideas for the hairdressing industry and their own salon business.”

With a bit of clever coding from the whizz-kids at Shortcuts, this brilliant money-making dream became a reality.

Not only did Jo help build this feature into Shortcuts – she signed up to it herself at the Wynne-Hoelscher’s salon. The program was available for £1,250 and was closed off to just 40 of their most loyal clients, so it really was like a coveted, very exclusive VIP program. The Wynne-Hoelscher’s were getting a huge cash injection of £50,000 every January, and they even had a waitlist of people ready to jump in if a spot became free!

And so the Rewards Club feature was born.

The feature

Rewards Club is included within the Clubs feature of Shortcuts which can be accessed by ALL of our customers, right away. It enables you to set a variety of upfront payment level tiers such as £250, £500, or £1000 packages for example.

Each package will gain the customer a certain amount of points determined by you – for example, 2 points for every £1 of the package. What this means is the customer pays a set amount upfront but can redeem the points they earned from that purchase on double the value of what they paid for (on services only – not products.) The points can be redeemed over whatever timeframe you choose to set, like the rest of the year, or until the points run out.

It’s essentially a spend and save program for the client that guarantees you immediate revenue, with additional value for a loyal customer that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

“I had more services than I normally would ever have, like treatments and blow-dries, since I had those points there as my reward,” said Jo.

“I also bought so many more products – because I had already paid the set amount ages ago, it didn’t feel like I was spending money at my appointments. So I was always so happy to purchase new products to try out on top of what I’d already paid all those months ago.”

The strategy

Fast-forward 20 years and guess what? That very feature that gave the Wynne-Hoelscher’s a £50,000 cash injection to their business every single January still exists in YOUR Shortcuts system. Just sitting there, waiting for you to pounce on!

Without this genius little idea all those years ago, we wouldn’t have this functionality which can earn you much needed cash during the Coronavirus crisis. This feature was the star of the show well before Gift Cards were a thing in the software, and now it’s come back full circle.

☀️ It’s Rewards Club’s time to shine again! ☀️

So here’s our strategy for you…

To work out what Rewards Club value you should offer, use Shortcuts reporting feature to determine what your regular star customers spend over 6 months in your salon. This may give you a good indication of what tiers to set that will get them onboard while ensuring they get great value in return for paying upfront.

Once you’ve identified who your raving fan clients are, have your team divide and conquer. Call each and every one of these clients and tell them about your Rewards Club and sell them the benefits of joining it. (We’re prepping a phone script, email, SMS and social post templates as part of a communication kit to help you with the sales pitch! So stay tuned).

When choosing what tiers to offer your clients, Susa recommends really sitting down with your numbers and working out what will be best for your business.

Examples:

You choose to offer a few levels in Rewards Club. If you offer the packages to your hundreds or thousands of clients, it might start to look something like this:

£250 Rewards Club tier X 30 clients = £7,500 instant revenue 😍

£500 Rewards Club tier X 20 clients = £10,000 instant revenue 🤑

£1000 Rewards Club tier X 15 clients = £15,000 instant revenue 🤯

For the higher tier packages, you could even offer them on a payment plan over a 3-month time period so it doesn’t feel like such a big upfront cost for your client, and ensures an ongoing cash flow for you.

All without your doors being open…

This strategy is a simple way to generate a cash flow during the vastly uncertain times of COVID-19.

“The thing is, I became a raving fan of that salon and everywhere I went I told friends, family, colleagues – pretty much anyone! – I was part of their exclusive club!” said Jo.

And think of it this way – the investment you are giving back to clients, is probably one of the most effective marketing campaigns for your business. It’s almost like you’re paying someone to do PR for you!

“You could spend so much money on a marketing campaign, and still not see the return you would get with 30 polished, fabulous looking clients raving about how amazing your salon and this program is.”

Keen to learn more about how you can use Rewards Clubs right now?

🙌Register for our upcoming webinar to learn how to start using it ASAP! 🙌