What would a customer usually do while waiting for her beauty treatment at a salon? Strike up an idle conversation with one of the employees, or with another customer. She could also pick up one of the old magazines and get updated on stars’ romantic interests. Or maybe fish out her Kindle from her purse and continue reading that book she finds so interesting.
What if, she would rather gossip with her friends over chat on her mobile, or reply to those pesky mails from her office so that she has free time later?
With free Wi-Fi at her local salon she has an additional incentive to use its services – this way she wont be bored while she waits for her appointment or when she is relaxing in between treatments. All she needs to do is ‘like’ the salon on Facebook and she’s good to go. It doesn’t take much effort, and in all likelihood she wouldn’t think twice, considering she is already a customer of the salon and probably likes its services anyway.
Now, out of our customer’s two hundred odd Facebook friends that notice that she has ‘liked’ the salon on Facebook, if even ten of them are from her neighborhood, they might just ask her about the salon and drop in to experience its services for themselves. In turn, while they are getting pepped up, if they want to access to the WiFi, all they have to do is click ‘like’ when they have a free moment. And the cycle continues.
So the salon now has a whole lot of potential customers who are aware of its services and are likely to give it a try; especially since the salon has been recommended by a friend of theirs. And if the services are good, these potential customers will soon convert into loyal ones and hundreds of their friends will learn about the salon’s services all thanks to that one ‘like’.
Facebook is one of the most popular platforms for social marketing. It gives business owners tremendous opportunity to get in touch with potential clients, and even the existing ones. Almost everyone has a Facebook account these days; yes, even 103 year old grandmothers! Everyone wants to know what their friends and family are up to. Facebook updates are equivalent to what word of mouth advertising was years ago. Besides, it lends a touch of credibility to the quality of services promised, as it implies that the services have been personally experienced and enjoyed by a friend or family member.
Plus, it’s a great platform to give business owners an opportunity to interact with new and existing customers, get to know them better, understand what they want and create special loyalty programmes to keep them coming back.
