How to Create a Cohesive Client Experience for Your Multi-Location Self-Care Biz

Showing your clients they can rely on you everywhere you do business is a great way to build lucrative relationships that last a lifetime

So your business has expanded, and now you’re the monarch of a multi-location self-care empire. Managing the business side of things is a critical part of any successful expansion, since without the right foundation your glowing empire is likely to feel more like a house of cards. 

But while you’re busy building your back-of-house systems, it’s important to continue prioritizing your clients and their experience. Your clients are the citizens of your realm, after all, and the success of your self-care business depends on them.

Maintaining a cohesive client experience across all your locations is an equally important part of the expansion puzzle. Let’s look at how multi-location owners can work to elevate the client experience everywhere you do business.

How does consistency impact the client experience?

Cohesion ensures that clients will have the full experience they have come to expect from your brand, no matter what location they visit. Because the experience is consistent everywhere you hang your shingle, your most loyal clients will know that they can confidently pop in anywhere — or recommend your services to their friends and family — even if they’ve never visited each specific location in person.

Creating a consistent client experience does take dedicated time, effort, and attention, but the investment is sure to pay off. Cohesion leads to deeper and more meaningful client relationships and fosters trust. Success in the self-care industry relies on building a certain level of intimacy with clientele, and that’s impossible without a strong foundation of trust. Strategies like loyalty and relationship building aren’t just nice to have, they’re directly connected to your bottom line. The more your clients care about your business and the more deeply they engage, the more likely they are to keep coming back for more.

Establish a strong brand voice

Taking the time to refine your brand voice will serve as a kind of glue that can hold together your multi-location business model. Luckily, this step will also support both back office and front-of-house efforts. Develop your branding across visual and written elements, including:

• Logo marks and brand color palette

• Typography and photography guidelines

• Voice/tone style guide

Establishing these rules at the start will make it easier for employees at every location to manage all the public-facing content they put out, without diluting the brand. Even if your goal is for each location of your business to have its own hyper-local flair, creating these unifying principles will ensure that they’re variations on a theme, not separate entities speaking a totally different language.

Offer a consistent booking experience

Arguably one of the most important steps in any client journey is the booking experience. If there’s too much friction during that interaction, clients will be less likely to successfully book appointments. It’s a good idea to offer online bookings that empower clients with self-serve experiences, instead of requiring them to call your receptionist, endure earworm hold music, and juggle calendars in real-time without a clear view of what’s available.

For multi-location businesses, inconsistencies in the booking experience can add to the obstacles for clients. If consumers rely on a seamless, branded booking procedure when they plan to visit one location, they will come to expect the same level of experience at every other location under your umbrella. A change in the process or even inconsistent branding can give clients the ick, or even inspire doubt in the security of their transaction. Implementing software designed specifically for the salon and spa appointment booking process will help create a consistent experience across all your locations.

Design cohesive client communications

No matter what kind of self-care business you manage, chances are you spend some time communicating with clients before and after their service. Confirming appointments helps avoid no-shows and can help wrap up paperwork and waivers before the client ever walks in the door, for example. Follow-up emails encourage re-booking and post-service product sales. Make sure these ancillary interactions slot in smoothly to the experience you’ve been creating overall, starting with the brand guidelines you already took the time to develop.

Consistent client communications are particularly important for multi-location businesses, since many of those messages are geared toward logistics. If a regular client is expecting a confirmation email a few days before their appointment, but they don’t receive one at a new location because you have different procedures in place, they may wonder if their appointment is even on the books. Avoid confusion and take that consistency one step further by automating client communications with the right tech tools.

Provide comprehensive staff training

Strong branding and technology tools can certainly get the ball rolling toward a more cohesive client experience, but at the end of the day, your clients are going to interact with the people on your team. From receptionists and assistants to aestheticians and practitioners, make sure that everyone on your team is trained to provide highly personal interactions that reflect your core company values.

Developing training resources like employee handbooks and manuals can help everyone on your team — regardless of their position — get on the same page about your expectations. Whether you’re offering clients a selection of beverages or escorting clients to different lounges and waiting rooms based on the services they’ve booked, make sure that your team is equipped to roll out the red carpet so that every experience is stellar at every location.

Self-care business owners should look for brand-building opportunities every chance they get. If you follow these guidelines to build a strong brand and implement them at every step of the client journey, your community will quickly learn that they can rely on you. At the end of the day, your clients won’t just remember the service they booked, they’ll also remember the experience they had. Make sure it’s a great one at every location you manage, and your self-care biz will linger in their memories for a long time.