How can we increase customer fidelity in the hair salon?

Well it all comes down to long term memory. Does the customer actually remember her visit to the salon and is she inclined to repeat it?

I agree that the term “long-term memory” isn’t as sexy as “consumer engagement”, “immersion intensity” and “consumer emotion”, but if you look at client fidelity in a logical way, the only thing you need in order to achieve it, is that the customer remembers you and your salon in a positive way and wants to come back and re-visit you!

 

Not all information we receive is stored into long-term memory.

If the salon experience and the link to the brand are not stored there, then after about half an hour, it will be as if it never existed. Memory is the time machine that will influence future behavior based on past experiences. This may sound obvious but there is an evolutionary argument behind it.

 

Every single day we are exposed to thousands and thousands of different experiences.

Do we encourage every single one of those into long-term memory with equal strength? No, we do not. If I was walking across the road and almost got hit by a car, I would remember that, or if someone stopped me while I was walking and offered me a rose I would also remember that. If I saw something that would make me curious, I would remember it. Equally if I saw something of special significance to me in terms of reminding me something else. I other words, memory has evolved because it has a survival value. Nothing in our brain evolves if it does not ultimately, directly, or indirectly have a survival value for us as an individual or for the species. The same applies to memory.

 

Memory did not evolve so that we can remember an add.

It evolved so that information our brain considers of greatest relevance to us can be stored most strongly. So, if a brand causes me to store the information in my long-term memory that means that the story or message or experience behind it have somehow created the conditions which say that it is important to me.

 

Long-term memory encoding is usually triggered by an emotion. Could be triggered by joy, anger, fear, curiosity, surprise, sense of engagement, jealousy etc. If the emotion “hits a hot button” inside our brain, then it is stored in long-term memory.

 

For professional coaching and training in ways to enhance consumer fidelity in the salon please contact us.