Cutting-edge promotions - Entrepreneur's Notebook - Column

Nation's Business, Dec, 1995 by Candi Ekstrom

In our business, the difference between Winter Wonderland and Winter Wasteland is a few days. In December our cash registers ring like sleigh bells; after the holidays, our shop can be as quiet as the night before Christmas.

Keeping those registers jingling through each new year, therefore, requires coming up with creative ways, within our limited advertising budget, to fight midwinter slumps--and summer dry spells, too.

Like a lot of businesses, my styling salon, Hair Benders, in Altamonte Springs, Fla., has to cope with seasonal ups and downs in clients' needs for our services. Although our 44-employee firm has annual sales of about $800,000, we have had to cope with uneven cash flow annually during our 23 years in business. We used to hold our breath and ride out the low spots. Now we've learned how to take steps in advance--while our appointment books are full--to generate business to carry us through the slow periods.

The process is actually quite simple. It requires only that we determine which of our services are most popular, identify our best customers (repeat clients and those who become our best references), and then offer something special that thanks them for theft business while motivating them to come back when we need them most.

We don't use slick advertising. One of our most successful "bounce-back" promotions is filled with simple homemade goodness. About three weeks before Christmas, everyone on our staff starts baking cookies, which we package in little red-and-green ribboned bundles.

Every client who comes in receives a package of cookies with a card offering a $5 discount in January on any chemical service, such as a permanent or hair coloring. As a result, our January sales have been boosted considerably with clients who decide to come in that month even in the final week--rather than wait until February.

Other promotions have included stylists giving customers Christmas cards with $5 and $10 discount coupons, at other times giving out gift packages of, say, three refillable hair-care products, or offering discount coupons on services or retail purchases during the first two weeks of the year or at some other slow time.

Such promotions not only offer the immediate benefit of increased sales but also introduce customers to products they may purchase repeatedly and start clients on an appointment schedule.

In the holiday bounce-back promotions, all customers--even first-timers--receive some potential benefit. But there's also value in giving special recognition to your repeat customers and those who spread the word about you.

Throughout the year, when a new customer books an appointment and mentions a referral from one of our clients, we send the referring client a card. On one side it reads, "We've heard what you've been saying about us." The other side says "Thank You" and offers $5 off the next appointment.

Saying thanks to customers who refer us to others is probably the best promotion we've tried. It helps identify our best and most satisfied clients, gives them special recognition, and brings in lots of new clients.

On a similar note, we're developing a year-round promotion aimed at frequent or special-service clients--those who come in for chemical processes, skin care, or manicures, for example. Like the airlines with frequent-flier programs, we plan to give clients points for each appointment.

Points will be offered on a scale based on the cost of the service provided. The points can be accumulated throughout the year and can be redeemed in January and February for special services.

Although these promotions are high in creativity, none costs a lot. More often than not, a client who is introduced to a new product or service comes back to us for those items, which enables us to expand our business with repeat customers--not just newcomers.

All of this proves that a few well-placed reminders can bring Christmastime cheer throughout the year.

Candi Ekstrom, founder and president of Hair Benders Inc., in Altamonte Springs, Fla., prepared this account with Contributing Editor Susan Biddle Jaffe. Readers with insights on running or starting a business are invited to contribute to Entrepreneur's Notebook. Write to Editor, Nation's Business, 1615 H Street N. W., Washington, D.C. 20062-2000.