Service as the main tool for influencing sales volume

Irina Shapravskaya-Bench, specialist in the field of marketing and advertising, sales management, motivation, head of the Cosmo-Trade training center (Ukraine)

When we talk about service, we mean not only the provision of services, although in the modern economy service is usually contrasted with goods. A product is something produced for sale. A service is any activity that one party can offer to another and which is largely intangible and does not lead to mastery of anything. A service can be defined as a product of labor, the beneficial effect of which appears not in the form of a thing, but in the form of activity aimed at the thing. It is not stored separately from the process of its provision; it cannot be preserved, like a product stored in a warehouse. The service is directed to a thing or a person. It exists only in the process of its production. High-quality production of services allows you to change and increase the usefulness of a thing in many ways.

All tools for influencing sales volume can be divided into direct and indirect. Service is one of the most powerful and most often ignored tools for increasing sales by managers by increasing the frequency of purchases and the average customer bill.

The main tool for influencing sales volume

Let's figure out what a service is.

Service is an atmosphere and rituals. Service in a beauty salon is a unique service experience designed to emphasize the client’s social status, give him a feeling of care, a sense of self-importance and significance.

Customers' ideas about quality service are very different. They depend on the social level or status of the client and his previous experience. They also change greatly over time: clients become more discerning and demanding.

Today, the service includes location, opening hours, a wide range of services and related products, and, of course, your employees: appearance, communication skills, cultural level and much more.

From the point of view of attitude towards the client, service is caring, polite, trusting, honest, professional and prompt service. The main task of the service is to build trusting and long-term relationships with the client.

Let's think about which client is more inclined to buy: satisfied and relaxed or nervous and irritated?

Only a satisfied client will return to your beauty salon again and again and buy more from you. Sales statistics show that loyal customers who enjoy service bring about 70% of the company's revenue.

Not all salons understand that service is, in fact, sales ! It is the service that is an effective sales tool; it is it that multiplies the results achieved by advertising, marketing and sales.

Poor service ruins your advertising and sales. No matter how much effort you put into attracting a client, if he is dissatisfied with the service, he will not return to you.

Moreover, often in the salon business, service is the only competitive advantage, because, in fact, all salons offer the same services and products.

In today's world, where the customer rules, where companies compete for the best visitors, the best technology, the best products, service becomes the main competitive differentiator. The winner is the company that is not only able to satisfy the client’s needs, but also exceed his expectations and provide a unique service. Beauty salons now judge the quality of their offering, be it coloring or styling, by the quality of service.

An analogy can be made with rest. When you go on vacation, you choose a hotel. Before your trip, you have already formed a number of certain expectations regarding this hotel: what the beach, rooms, restaurants, etc. will be like. You arrive, and from the first day you have a favorable impression: you are satisfied with the service, or, more precisely, it meets your expectations (the staff is polite, responds immediately to comments, serves quickly, there are always free tables at breakfast, the room is cleaned daily, clothes are worn on the beach chilled face towels, drinks, etc.), overall you are satisfied. As a result, you recommend this hotel to friends or return there again. The same thing happens in a beauty salon.

Nowadays, many beauty industry enterprises, due to rising costs of services and fear of raising prices, are looking for ways to save money. They save money primarily on service and do not immediately see how this affects the number of clients. Managers think that clients are leaving due to a reduction in their own income, but in fact, more often the client leaves precisely because he feels that they are being skimped on. So, as soon as you start saving, the client is faced with unjustified expectations and disappointment. After all, after something better, it’s very difficult to switch to worse.

Exceptional level of service

One of the most outstanding companies that managed to turn service into a powerful sales tool and competitive advantage is the American Zappos. This online shoe, clothing and accessories store was founded by Tony Hsieh in 1999. Initially, it was a small company that dared to be one of the first to sell shoes through an online store. The main problem in the business model was the lack of habit of the client to buy shoes online without trying them on. The company did not have its own shoe warehouses, and delivery was carried out directly from the factory. Not many suppliers agreed to work this way. Delivery was often carried out late, the goods arrived either incorrectly or in an unsightly condition. It was then that the founder realized that only an exceptional level and order of service could distinguish his company from its peers and create customer loyalty to the brand.

The company managed to build a unique service, which included earlier delivery, the possibility of free returns and replacements, a unique experience of communicating with a call center operator, and other subtleties.

The company’s motto became the slogan “Delivering Happiness” - thus, the online shoe store turned its main business into the process of “delivering happiness” to the client. Ten years later, in 2009, Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion. Experts say that the Internet giant was interested not so much in the store itself, but in the opportunity to buy a company with the number one service and corporate culture in the world.

What is important to the client?

Let's look at global statistics. Thus, according to the results of the survey “What is important for the client?”, conducted by the American Journal of Marketing, what matters is:

• product quality – for 100% of respondents;
• quality of service – for 97%;
• price – for 92%;
• caring attitude – for 86%;
• location – for 65%.

The study also showed that 80% of customers, when choosing a cosmetics retail store, are guided by the criterion of being able to get their money back without problems. Give them this and they are yours forever.

Of course, any owner when investing in a service is interested in monetization, or return. Various studies have been conducted on this topic, and statistical data is available.

For example, according to research, customers of one telecommunications company, Internet connection provider, faced with unreliable and untimely service, are 4 times more likely to say that they will never contact this provider again. In turn, airline passengers who like a company's employees and service are 18 times more likely to choose that airline again. Fast food customers believe that if the staff does a good job, they are 5 times more likely to come to that restaurant.

Data from the research company Nielsen revealed that employee training and the implementation of service standards increases sales per manager by 57%, sales volume for the company as a whole - by 37%, and the company's market value - by 20%. These figures suggest that by introducing and maintaining service standards, a beauty industry enterprise can earn 30% more with the same number of jobs, goods and services. Service is a sales multiplier.

The statistics can be continued, but I think the conclusion is obvious: the service will help you retain existing clients, attract new ones, and most importantly, create in all clients the desire and need to be serviced in your salon constantly.

First published: Les Nouvelles Esthetiques 2015/№4