2024 Client Experience Trends You Should Pay Attention To

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to The Modern Hairstylist podcast. Now, what if you were able to know exactly what type of client experience that you needed to create to make it so you created raving fans behind the chair? Like, clients who would shout your name from the rooftops, post you all over their social media and send their friends, their family, and other ideal clients to you.

And not only that, but also clients who stick with you throughout the price increases, ones that pay the money for the retail, tip you out well, always book an appointment whenever you want them to, ones that you could have a large revenue price increase and they would never even think about leaving you, and they're happy to pay your high-ticket prices. Now, the tea is, the way that we accomplish this is by creating a customer experience that is aligned with the way that consumer behavior changes and evolves, and in this episode today, I'm gonna be sharing with you some 2024 client experience trends that not only we're seeing thus far within this year, as of right now when I'm recording this, but also things that have been evolving and snowballing from even a couple of years ago and from 2023. And a lot of these experience trends I have been talking and teaching for years, because I knew that these trends and these types of ways that were working with businesses were just going to get deeper and deeper and deeper, and were just going to, yes, change, but just evolve from the beginning. And a lot of it has to do with technology.

Technology truly has been shaping the ways that businesses decide to do business, but then simultaneously, how customers prefer to do business as well. And so a lot of these things I already teach within my programs. A lot of these things, if you're a student of mine in Previsits Pathway, you're already in the clear, my friend. If you set up these systems years ago with me when we first started, you already have these things in place, and yes, they've evolved and adapted a little bit, but you already had these strong fundamentals to be able to offer these client experiences that are going along with these trends for now and even in the future, which is so beautiful.

But for the people who don't have these things in place, people who haven't joined us within those programs and walked through setting up these things with me, it'd be very advantageous for you to have these things in place, not just for aligning with current consumer behavior, but also aligning with your current pace of the way that you're doing business, because we all know that the effort and standard has raised so high for you to rise above the average salary of $28,000 as a hairdresser, right? And in order for you to keep up with that pace, you need to be adapting to technology, and the beautiful thing is, is we can adapt with our technology. We can implement these automations and systems that allow us to have more wo- work/life balance, but simultaneously serve our clients better and create more success for our business as well. And so I'm gonna be sharing with you some of these things today, and if you're looking forward to it, then stay here, get the notepad out, open up your ears, honey, 'cause we're gonna be spilling all of the tea.

So if you're ready to get into it, let's go. What's the tea, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So if you're ready to get into it, welcome to The Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay, my friend, so the very first client experience trend that we will be talking about here today is the physical retail store and how is- it is set to play an increasingly important, but also evolving role. So as we all know, over the past couple years, right, people have gotten really obsessed with online shopping, and it's been so obvious that online shopping has taken over a large portion of the market, and it's been an essential thing for tons of businesses to put into play. And we see retail stores, you know, around that are just completely going out of business because of this phenomena.

However, we're kind of moving into a space, and this is how, this has been something that has, uh, been creeping up on us for the past year. We're moving into a space where now consumers are actually more in like, a 50/50 mode, where they do want the convenience of the online shopping, but they also wanna have the option of going into the store and actually getting it. And so how is this relevant to us? As hairstylists, we need to make sure that we have retail within the store, but then we also have an option for our s- our customers to go and shop for that retail online.

So, I normally never recommend that you set up your own online store, okay? Like, 1- Square, where somebody can go on there and order online, and then you have to get the inventory, you have to ship it, you have to handle the processing of it yourself. I recommend that you use third-party channels, such as, like, ones that maybe your distributor sets up for you. So I know my distributor sets up our own online store.

I know that some product lines have their own affiliate link programs, right? And then also, there's, like, things like Salon Interactive. I love those guys. I love what they're doing over there.

Salon Interactive is fantastic, a beautiful option. And that way, those places, those things, those channels are taking care of all of the backend for you, and it's very passive for you, and all you have to do is just share it with your clients, and then they take care of the rest, and you get a kickback on that commission. I do not believe it's worth you putting in all that extra time and effort to, uh, for the results that you would get. But I think it is absolutely worth you maybe getting a smaller commission cut for letting somebody else take care of all that stuff, because your time is money, and it's worth it for you to have those other people do that, even if you get a lesser commission on it.

So, having an online option available to purchase retail is absolutely essential and important. Yes, make sure that you have that set up. Talk to your distributors about it, your retail lines about it, whatever it may be. But on the flip side, you should have retail available for your client to take home in the salon.

It is very powerful and important. And the reason why, one of the reasons why this is changing, that, this, uh, preference for online shopping versus in-the-chair shopping, um, one of the reasons it's changing is because people are finding that the fees or the waiting, right? The fees and the waiting of that shipping, right, um, are becoming, uh, uh, not as important or not worth it for the convenience of the online shopping, right? And so to give the client the option within the store is very important.

Not to mention, if you give your client the, uh, opportunity to shop online, then they also have the opportunity, time, and space to maybe look for a cheaper alternative way of getting that product, right? So it's not gonna be through you. It's gonna be through something else. And when you have that person in the chair in the salon, you have the optimal, most hottest-...

place for you to have the most successful rate when it comes to selling that retail. Like, you have that person's full attention. You actually just used the product. They are seeing real results on their hair in real time.

That is the best time for you to be sending them home with that retail. So, it's going to be important because your client prefers it, but also because you are gonna have a much more effective experience in selling that retail if you have it in the store. And I'm not saying have all of your retail line in there, just the products that you're selling the most and that make most sense for you to be able to give your clients beautiful solutions in between now and the next time they come to see you. Okay, the next client experience trend in 2024 is omnipresent marketing.

Now, what do I mean by omnipresent marketing? What I mean by this is you being in your client's life and in their face and in their brains as often as possible. W- we are living in an attention economy, where your client's attention is very scarce, and it's caught and distracted by so many different things. Somebody finding you on social media once and maybe following you is not, a lot of the time, the perfect way to then nurture them into being a client with you due to the fact that they're not always on your page, that they're not seeing your things super consistently.

We are fighting an algorithm. You're not guaranteed that all of the hard work that you put into your content is actually going to reward you. And so, to have multiple touchpoints, to be in their lives in multiple ways, is a beautiful way for you to nurture a new client into trusting you enough to come to see you, but then also a beautiful way for your clients to be retained by you and for you to stay top of mind. So, let's talk about a new potential client for a second, right?

Let's talk about how this is important for them. So yes, you have this social media presence, right? You have your website, beautiful, and maybe they follow you on social media. They get your posts every now and then.

That is fantastic. But again, you are not guaranteed they're going to get nurtured by you in that channel on a consistent basis. So, how can we speak to them and capture them and their attention in different ways? A really beautiful way that is guaranteed is email, okay?

We're not putting all of our eggs in one basket. We can place all- all- uh, some of our eggs across these multiple channels, and particularly a channel where you are guaranteed that there is going to be a communication that lands in their inbox. And so for new clients, setting up something like a lead generator, like a lead magnet, a way where you can grab their email in exchange for some sort of tool that further nurtures them into being a client with you. Then simultaneously, you'll even market to them in between your social media posts, right, on a bi-weekly basis or a monthly basis.

That will furthermore increase the likelihood of that client actually coming to see you, because you are consistently staying top of mind, you're reminding them that you exist, and you're reminding them that you are the expert that understands them inside and out, and that they should come to see you, right? So, having proper email marketing software to set that up is very important, and then setting up automations on the backend, like automated sequences of emails as well, after they opt in, is a really gorgeous way about getting them to want to sit into your chair, and being omnipresent across multiple channels and not putting all of your eggs into one basket with social. When it comes to existing clients and getting clients to be back into your chair, email marketing is beautiful as well, because you are gonna be sending, uh, multiple emails in between the visits where they normally wouldn't talk to you, right, and you're gonna be top of mind, and you're gonna be m- able to take yourself apart from all of the other competitors and competition for their attention that you have. You have all these influencers.

You have YouTubers. You have, uh, Sephora and box color brands. They are all wanting your client's attention. And so, if we just don't do anything in between the appointments, especially things that we know are going to land in their inbox, such as email, right, or that we know that they're gonna see, such as email, then we are losing the opportunity to stay ah- ah- atop of mind, and then we are risking somebody else taking their attention away from us, right?

So, having email, but then also making sure that your client is following you on social media, right? I think that we just assume that all of our existing clients that come to see us are already following us on our socials. Um, that is not the case. So, make sure that your clients are also following you on social, but make sure that you're leaning into the opportunity to email market to them.

Again, having a proper email marketing software and understanding how to set up the advanced automations on the backend. Plus, I mean, even learning how to set up a lead magnet on the front end, right? That stuff is really important, and it can really bring your shit to the next level. It's stuff that I teach within my programs.

But your booking system is not capable of doing it. I guarantee you bet money. I have looked through all of them. They reach out to me.

They ask me to try their stuff all the time. They ask me for consulting advice, et cetera, et cetera. They do not have the proper infrastructure or capabilities of carrying out the things that I'm talking about and that I teach within my programs. So, leaning into advanced proper email marketing to be omnipresent beyond just your social media in your clients' lives and stay on top of their mind is a really beautiful opportunity for you right now, and it's very in alignment with client experience.

Again, with the trend relevant to right now, this is a trend relevant to right now, because of the attention economy and how your clients' attention is getting pulled in so many directions. So, having places and multiple touchpoints where you're showing up will move that client further into trusting you more and move them further into wanting to come back to see you and not getting distracted by anything else. All right, the next client experience trend. This is something I have been talking about and teaching for years, and I have been preaching this so nonstop, but I don't think that people really understand the absolute power and opportunity you have here, okay?

Is personalized experiences. Now, this goes for before they get into the chair, when they're actually in the chair, and when they leave the chair. So, your pre-visit, your in-the-chair experience, and your post-visit experience, all right? There are so many opportunities to make your client feel like they are not just a number, right?

And that is really powerful, particularly because, I mean, a lot of salons out there are just hair factories, like just pushing people in and out the door. And when you show somebody that thought and care, right, it is absolutely beautiful. But here's the problem with personalization. The problem is, it takes a lot of extra work and time.

And so what I'm all about teaching you and what I've taught thousands of hairstylists how to implement in theirs- in their businesses is how to create personalized experiences without having to overwork, making it as simple, easy, automated, and systematized as possible.So, for example, with your pre-visit experience, right, people want the attention that they need to be able to understand what price they'll be paying and also to make sure that they're booked for the right thing online, to g- get their questions answered about what's gonna go on, right? And so normally what this would look like if we didn't have automation systems set up is texting, calling, DMs back and forth, just for them to end up ghosting you after spending days talking to them about their hair, right? Um, a- you having to ask all the questions.

It's, it's very intense, right? Even spending 15 minutes behind the chair for an in-person consultation is a big waste of time when you could have them fill out a digital consultation form, right? And a digital consultation form that is set up correctly with the right questions, with the right intentions, that is aligned with current consumer behavior and the way that they interact with digital forms, right? Then having things set up on the backend that allow you to onboard that client personally with control, but also with convenience for the client as well.

So this is offering a personalized experience because you're allowing your client to share with you their specificities. I am ha- I'm having trouble with that word. Specificities, um, of their own experience, but it's not taking a ton of your time to do it. So it's showing your client that you actually care about all of the factors that they're walking into this.

You're gonna be giving your client a personalized quote and telling that client exactly what they need to book online, but the way that I teach you how to set it up within my programs, you literally can do this with a click of a button, and I am literally... I am not exaggerating. I'm talking from a literal standpoint. You can make sure that your new client gives you all the information and they are booked for the correct thing online without ever having to even talk to them manually with a click of a button, okay?

With vi- without you losing control and still offering that ex- excellent convenient experience at the same time. In the chair, when it comes to personalized experiences, it's fantastic that you have all the next-level amenities, that you give a client a consultation that's thorough every single time, that you give a scalp massage. It's fantastic that you have all of that cool stuff, but how do we take that luxury experience and then personalize it every single visit for each individual client? Because I know for me, when I'm going to see my hairstylist, I have certain days where I want certain different, eh, things, right?

And in order for you to fulfill a actual personalized experience where the way that you go about the scalp massage, the way that you tal- uh, go about if you're gonna be talkative or not talkative, the scents that are going on in the salon, et cetera, et cetera, it's a lot for you to have to handle and to ask the client and communicate. And so I teach my students how to set up a non-confrontational way for them to customize all those parts of the experience. And there are so many, so many data, um, and statistic and touchpoints that share with us the power of a personalized experience, particularly in the chair as well, and there's so many opportunities, particularly if you are an independent hairstylist, that you have to create that type of thing and make it so your client would not think, couldn't even think, about going to somebody else and not paying your prices because you're the only person who creates such a beautifully tailored experience just for them, and you're solving a lot of people's pain points and traumas that they have when going to previous salons, which is absolutely magnificent because you get to make a bigger impact and you also increase your retention, and they're gonna scream your name from the rooftops, right? So creating that in-the-chair personalized experience is beautiful and then the post-visit experience.

This is another place where we can be omnipresent but be personalized in the way that we're being omnipresent, right? Because when we talked about being omnipresent, I talked about email marketing, and so email marketing can be personalized across the board. However, the majority of the time when we're email marketing, we're not making it super personalized. We're sending one cool, amazing email that is very important and impactful, but we're just sending it to everybody, and it's not really custom-tailored to everybody.

In the post-visit experience, what I teach my students how to set up is a personalized recommendation email that has other follow-up emails after it. So that'll include all of the client's maintenance instructions, their retail recommendations, um, what they should book and when they should book next online so that way they don't have to reach out to you, they know exactly what they need, um, et cetera, et cetera. Even personal little notes fro- from that appointment like, "Hey, Susie, hope you have so much fun on your cruise. Make sure to take some pictures and show them to me when you get back."

Although, oh, my God, I don't know about you, my friend, but, like, when my client is showing me a bunch of pictures on their phone, I'm just like, "Girl, like, I gotta do your hair, honey. Like, stop distracting me." Anyways, I teach my students how to set up this automated email that goes out after their appointment that takes less than 30 seconds to a minute to put in all the personalizations, but then sends them this completely automatically. This would normally take you, like, uh, at least me, this would take me, like, five to ten minutes to type up personally.

But the way that we have it set up and systematized, it sends super quickly and automatically, but it makes the client feel like you personally really took some time to type out all of that stuff, set them up for the most success in between now and later, make them feel like they were listened to and heard and th- they're actually cared about within the chair. Not to mention this also triggers customized reminder emails that tell the client when to come back to see you and reminds them, like, "Hey, you're four weeks out. We need you to book this online. This is the recommendation," right?

And so much more. This, this, this strategy is so freaking magnificent. My client, my students are seeing the most excellent results with this. Again, I teach it within my program.

So this is going to allow you to be more omnipresent but also simultaneously create that personalized experience that customers are finding a lot of value in nowadays. Another way that we can be omnipresent but then also fulfill one of these other client experience trends is a client-only app. So another client experience trend is prioritizing customer accessibility to information and being able to do business with the business without a person, okay? So what I'm saying is, is setting up digital assets and spaces and tools for your client to be able to use and access to get done what they need to get done without having to be- use you as the middleman, right?

And so what I teach within my programs is a client-only app. And with this client-only app, you have something on your client's phone that they can access super conveniently from their home screen in which they can get all of what they need to get done... to interact with you as a business just right there on the app. So your online booking is gonna be on there, your service menu is gonna be on there, your wait list is gonna be on there.

Their wait that they can reschedule their own appointments, FAQs, different ways to contact you. I have my stylists set up a way that they can reach out to you if they have questions about their hair right now, right? That don't involve having to text you, because God, like, texting me at 3:00 A.M.

about your hair and your purple shampoo is just, like, so painful, and I'd be- rather be able to handle this at a different time, right? Or, like, you have somebody text you a Pinterest picture, and they're like, "Hey," like, "What do you think about this? Would this look good on me?" And you're just like, "This is a waste of my time."

There's a lot of different ways that you can set up systems to make it so your life is a lot easier, but you're also giving clients these spaces to contact you, but then also just not have to contact you and do business by themselves, right? So you're being, again, more omnipresent and having multiple touchpoints within your client's journey by having this digital asset on their phone, this client only app. But then also on the client only app, they can do business by themselves without you, which creates a more beautiful, accessible, and convenient experience to the client, which is in alignment, very much so, with this customer experience trend. The last client experience trend, which I think is super fascinating and I think that I'm learning something else from it than what it actually is, um, which is sustainability.

So Gen Z and Millennial customers are 27% more likely to purchase from a company than older generations if they believe that the brand cares about its impact on people and the planet. So I am all about sustainability. I think it's, uh, very important. I think we should all be taking it very seriously.

But if you're listening to this, and this isn't really one of your core values or one of the differentiators that makes you unique as a salon or a salon owner, whatever it may be, that's totally understandable. What I think this really goes to show us, though, is that all consumers, not just Gen Z and Millennials, I think all consumers are shopping a lot more with their core values. And so, making your core values something that is a part of your brand, something that you speak about, something that is exemplified in not wha- not just what you speak about, but also what you actually do, is really powerful and a way that you can gain more retention and a way that you can attract people who are interested in the things that you're interested in and the things that you care about as well, too. In our pre-visit experience that we set up within my programs, we do a r- we do this really beautifully.

We share with the client what our core values are, what they can expect when they walk into the space and how they'll, they'll be treated and h- and what we actually care about, right? From the very beginning, before they even walk into the door, um, and I think it's really powerful. It's something that really sets you apart and also just- furthermore justifies the prices that you are charging. Because if you are, if, uh, you could charge so much money for something that somebody else is not charging as much money for, but just because somebody believes in the impact that you're making and the way that you're doing it, they are going to be willing to pay more money, right?

So I think that making sure that your core values are a really big part of your brand, that you really understand what your core values are, how they make you different, and how you are exemplifying them in the way that you're marketing and the way that you're fulfilling your client experience and the way that you're actually, like, doing things every single day, right? Is super, super important. So, I think these are really interesting 2024 client experience trends, and I think that these are things that, you know, not just are advantageous for us to be using for the client or implementing for the client and giving the client a better experience. But also for us, as hairstylists, to be giving us a better experience in the way that we're making an impact, in the way that we're setting boundaries between our clients behind the chair.

And so, I think that there's beautiful opportunity here for everybody to win at the end of the day. But, we have to make sure that we're doing it strategically, sustainably, and it does take a little bit of setting up when it comes to these things. And so, that's why I'm happy to help you set these things up. Again, I've taught thousands of hairstylists how to set up systems and automation that are in alignment with these client experience trends.

I've been teaching this for a long time now, right? I have a lot of experience doing it, and I just see how much more confident and more successful my students are when they have these things in place. It makes them so much more confident in their pricing and the way that they're serving their clients, and they feel like they're truly making a difference in their community. They feel like professional badasses, not just hairstylists anymore.

And it is really gorgeous to see. So if you would like to claim your power, lean into these opportunities, stay ahead of the curve, and stay in alignment with current consumer behavior, I would love to support you. You can go to hunterdoniell.com to check out all that I have to offer.

At the time of recording this and releasing this, we're about to open up the doors to pre-visit pathway, so definitely check that out. Hunterdoniell.com/PVP. So much love to you, my friend.

I hope that you enjoyed this episode of the Modern Hair Stylist Podcast. Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2024 Hunter Donia LLC.