SMME EP430 New Clients Are Not Always the Answer: How to Grow with Retention + Relationships

6:28AM Apr 17, 2025

Speakers:

Daniela Woerner

Keywords:

Spa marketing

leadership skills

spa CEO

spa booking software

client retention

new clients

lead flow problem

client journey

human touch points

AI integration

marketing strategy

client acquisition

spa operations

profit margin

customer support.

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy. A podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as spa CEO. I'm your host. Daniela Woerner, CEO of Addo Aesthetics and Founder of the Growth Factor Framework Program, where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dive into the show. Hey, Daniela here, and thank you for listening to the spa marketing Made Easy podcast. If this is your first time hanging out with me, welcome. I'm an aesthetician turned spa director turned entrepreneur, and today our company Addo Aesthetics is in its 11th year of operation. Yes, I love that. It's a magical number. I'm going to receive all of that magical energy for the incredible year that is ahead of us. Now, if you are an esthetic professional that wants to create a company, not a really hard job for yourself. If you're an action taker, if you're someone who does not have the time for those with a victim mentality, if you're someone who has big dreams to create a seven figure spa without overwhelm, without stress, and with the time to pick up your kids from school and still make it to karate, you are in the right place, my friend, you have found your home, and I am so glad that you are here. So I just wrapped up a two day event in Indianapolis with our spa Manager Certification students. This was our 2025 class. It's something that we offer once a year, and this program, it's a four month program, and right in the middle, we meet in person, and we really get to work. And so the the instructions so each of these spas that are in the program, they are told, come to this event with the biggest problem happening in your spa right now, which really makes it fun, because I have an idea of what they're going to say. We've run this program a few times now, and you know it's it's really interesting because we have some CEOs and we have some spa managers, and I love the dynamic of teaching a course with both of those roles. In fact, at this event, I brought to everybody's attention. I said, Did you see that all of the spa managers are sitting on this side of the table, and all of the CEOs are sitting on the other side of the table. It's, it was just a really kind of cool thing to witness. Don't know what it means, but it was just like, Okay, interesting. Anyway. I love the workshop style of these events, and I also just love being in person. When you get to connect in person, the you have shared experiences, the friendships are created or deepened. And so when you get on Zoom, you get a heck of a lot more done. So anyway, at this event, we spent a lot of time talking about sales and marketing, and when those topics come up at some point you're going to be talking about your spa booking software, because that's such an important piece of the puzzle. Now for years, I have been talking about mango men, and I, hands down, believe that they are the absolute best spa booking software on the market. Now let me preface this that it is my job to ensure that your spa holds a healthy profit margin. That is my pure focus, the profit of your spa. Now, are there better softwares when it comes to EMR, perhaps, but mango Mint is HIPAA compliant, and when it comes to the sales and marketing aspects of what you can do with this software, aka the automations and touch points that will be your support system and going deep with your patients, rather than wide. There is no other software that comes close. Now, you couple that with incredible customer support, and you have a winning combination. So you can see why I am like, hands down. This is the best software out there. Now, anyway, a few months back, I was a guest on marketing 100 which is a podcast powered by mangoment. It's hosted by two guys, John and kale, incredible guys in the esthetic space. And we created this really great piece of content around why new clients are not always the answer. And I thought it would be a fun episode to share a piece of content where I was actually getting interviewed rather than being the interviewer. And I think that this information, especially in the economic climate that we're in right now, where it is going to be even easier to go deep with your patient base, rather than going wide, really focusing on that retention and all those really important things, I thought it would be a really valuable piece of content for you anyway. I hope that you enjoy this. I hope that it provides you value. I hope it helps with any type of. Of perspective shift that you're needing right now. And if you're interested in learning more about manga min, we're going to have a link right below this video in the show notes. It's going to get you your first month free. So be sure to click on that link. Use that link let them know you're one of our Addo people. We send a lot of people their way, and they take extra good care of all of their people, but I like to think they take extra good care of our adult people because we have such a strong and established relationship with them. So click that link, and without further ado, let's go ahead and play that interview. Hey,

Everyone, welcome back to Marketing 100 I'm Kayle, your salon and spa business, bestie, and I'm joined today, as always, by my good friend and the founder of the salon business, John Halberg, but today is a very special episode. John is excited. I can tell already I'm excited, super excited. We've got a very special guest today, Daniela Woerner, founder of Addo esthetics and the host of the spa marketing Made Easy podcast. Daniela, thank you so much for joining us today. We're so happy to have you.

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here. Daniela, you

operate in the spa world, and maybe some of our salon owners may not be super familiar with your work. So would you mind telling us a little bit more about yourself and what

you do? I am the founder and CEO of Addo Aesthetics, host of the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast, and really our company's mission or what we do, what we actually do is help spa businesses with their internal operations, so that they can be more profitable on the

Marketing 100 podcast, our goal is to bring 100 snackable, tactical marketing tips to salon and spa owners out there in the world. But today, I'm super excited because you're bringing us a marketing tip. What are we talking about today? Daniela, why

new clients are not always the answer to your problems when a spa owner feels their numbers going down, or they're seeing their books not full. The solution that comes to their mind is, I need new clients, and today I want to talk about why that is not always the right answer. We've got to take a step back and first analyze, are we having a lead flow issue? Are we having a retention issue? Yeah,

I guess it just like, comes automatically, right? If you see you have gaps in the book, the reaction is, I need clients, and you just default to thinking that that must be new clients, right? Or, like, more clients coming in. It is

the default. And I think that we're either in action mode or reflection mode. As entrepreneurs, we tend to live in action mode a lot more than we spend time in reflection mode, and sometimes that's great. It helps us to move forward. It helps us to be innovative, but it would do everybody a service to actually reflect on what has worked if you see that you have a consistent number of new clients coming in, but your new client retention is very low. We have a different problem to solve. We don't want you to spend time and money and energy getting new people in the door, if they're just going to drop right off.

You have to consider the expense when you're trying to court new clients no matter what it's going to cost you money. And in fact, typically, it's far more expensive to acquire new clients than it is to retain clients that you already have. And in that case, if you are spending all that time, effort and money on bringing in new clients, but you're not retaining them, then you're just wasting money. You've got a leaky bucket there, right in Spa.

When we have a new client come in, that new client retention, we want that to be at no lower than 70% then when we look at total client retention of those clients that we've actually acquired that are coming to us more than that initial visit, we want that up around 80% if you are below either one of those numbers, then that is an area of opportunity that you found in your business. And it's also a great idea to look per provider, because we want to understand, as an overall spa what we're doing, but we also want to understand per individual providers, because you may have, you know, the weakest link as one person, and that's going to help you isolate even more. How do I solve this problem? Does this person need help with, you know, rebooking their clients or whatnot. It can be as simple as two or three conversations with that employee rather than starting an entire new marketing strategy.

It can be like a difficult discussion sometimes with team members right in these type of topics or like, why are you underperforming? But when you have the data, it makes it like it's not about you, it's not about me, it's not about us, and it's easier to have. These conversations with your team as well, you

can also lead into it and say, Hey, I'm going through these numbers, and it's it's my job to keep your books full. And so if I were having a tough conversation with a provider, I would say, How can I support you with this? What do you need from me to make sure that we can get your total client retention up to this that makes it a little bit easier to actually get results and not put that employee into, like, a defensive mode, curious,

like, on the 70% number, which to me sounds a little bit high, because, like, coming from the silent world. For those watching this who are, like, looking at their numbers now following this conversation, and I'm like, at 50% or so, like, what would you say? Because, I mean, you meet so many students, you have so many people coming through your programs. I'm

going to give you a lawyer answer. It depends. It really depends. And it has to do with looking at each individual spa. You have to make sure that you're marketing to your right person, the spas that are in alignment with their core values, their messaging, all of that. It's pretty easy to get to 70% because they're targeting the correct person, if my primary service is micro needling, but I am talking about things other than micro needling or spray tanning or something that really has nothing to do. Then again, I'm going back to the piece of what is the problem that I'm trying to solve, and so am I speaking to the person that I'm trying to attract? Am I on the right platform? You know? I I'm going to be 44 this year. I am in that perfect demographic, right? The 40 to 55 year old woman with a certain amount of discretionary income that cares about how she looks. I am, like every sponsor, ideal client. I am also rarely on social media, if ever. How are they going to target me? How are they going to find me? These are the types of things that we talk about with our clients, of like, really, if you want to get these KPIs, numbers are information. Their knowledge, and so we're looking at that, and it's if you're you know, who are you targeting? How are you targeting them? How are we aligning your message to make sure that you're getting those numbers?

Your target clientele is going to be in a specific place, and you have to meet them where they are to actually be able to reach them in a way that's going to make sense and come across as authentic and genuine. And I think that a lot of business owners default to this is true in the salon world, and I'm sure in the spa world as well as people default to, okay, well, social is where I need to be. I need to be on Facebook. I need to be on Instagram. You know, maybe they're making tiktoks, whatever it is, but how much of your clientele is spending in enough time in their day on one of those platforms to actually have a chance to where your impact there is going to make an impact on them, right? Like, how much of that is going to convert to people actually coming into your business? We talked to Brett Foreman recently from pony studios, who had something similar to say, where, you know, they spend a ton of time creating content for Instagram and Tiktok, but the amount of clientele that actually comes through their doors, that they get from being on social is not necessarily, you know, a lot bigger than what it was six months ago, a year ago, for the amount of time they spend on there. It doesn't convert in the same way that word of mouth marketing or really, taking control of their review scores and review collection and administration through through like automation and things like that. So social is is definitely a takes a lot of time and effort, but does it really equate to being a valuable part of your business? Two simple

exercises that a spa owner can do, or a salon owner can do number one, grab a notebook, pen and paper. Old school, keep it by the front desk, have your receptionist have a column for the name, and then have a check mark for Instagram, Google or referral. And every single new client that comes through your practice over the course of the month, you're going to write their name down, and you're going to check where they came from. I'm sure your guys software tells has this capability. You're going to use that data in mango Mint for bigger picture things that we're looking at. This is just I need to know visually. Is this coming from Instagram, Google or referral? If it's from Google, let's spend more of our time and energy on SEO, on pay per click, on those types of things. And if it's referral, who are the people that are referring them? Do we have a referral program in place? Exercise number two, go through your top 25 clients of your all time history that are still active clients. Ask them how they found you. That is a gold mine of information that helps direct your marketing strategy, that will, in turn affect your bottom line.

I just love the practicality of that. This channel is powered by mangamint, and we talk a lot about tech and software and all of that, but at the end of the day, just like the notebook to just write that down, just like regular. Conversations, it's so easy to like, forget that that is actually like, where the magic happens. If we're looking

at it in terms of, let's be reflective, let's, let's analyze the data we've collected it for analyzing it, and we determine, you know, okay, do we have a lead flow problem? Do we have a retention problem? What's our the practical way that we go about approaching that from that point, if it

is a lead flow problem, then we're going to figure out where we get our leads from, Instagram, Google or referral, because those are the three places that most leads are coming from. And we're going to formulate a strategy. Right now, we're seeing a lot of success with many chat on Instagram and creating, you know, some automation there to get people to actually book Google, really getting into your Google business profile, getting people to find you through search, understanding what people are searching for. A big problem that spas do often is they'll write their type of business as skincare and what Google thinks skincare is is like a Sephora or an Ulta, you're a day spa or you're a med spa. And so really understanding that is going to help you get up there and search, building out your entire profile, including the map section, and then having a strategy around reviews. Okay, so there's always going to be a short term plan and a long term plan to get those leads coming in consistently. If we have a retention problem, then we need to look at client journey. Are we calling them to see how their service went? Are new clients getting a handwritten thank you note? Do we have touch points if they haven't been in for a specific amount of time, flows is the answer to the client journey. How can I create a specific flow that really makes sure that that patient knows that I want their business, I care about them, and I'm going to be consistently checking in with them in the world we're in today where AI is incorporated into everything we need to understand where the human touch points should be, and the more specific that we can get to that individual patient, the more real, the more authentic it becomes, and the deeper the relationship and loyalty of that patient to your practice,

John, we were Just talking about this recently, just personalizing your messaging, making, you know, those touch points you have with your clientele feel real and not just feel like a, you know, an email blast that's generic or a sales pitch, the communication you have with your clients within such a personal business and such a personalized business should feel personal. It should feel like getting a message from a friend. It shouldn't feel like somebody's trying to sell you something all the time. This is a relationship that we're building here with clientele, and it needs to feel that way. I

know in Spa, they're coming to us with all their insecurities and vulnerabilities, and I don't like this about myself. I don't like that about myself. I know in salon, the stereotype is that your hair stylist is your therapist, right? So these are people that are opening up and telling you so much about themselves, and they don't want to be met with kind of canned communication

a lot of businesses are doing as well when sending communication is also like sending it from like, no reply address, or like, you get a text message and you cannot respond to it, and it's, you know, it's like we talk to you, kind of thing. But just was allowing, actually, for, allow for like, one to one interaction. Sounds simple, but, I mean,

it seems like,

yeah, it does, but it's what tech does to us. Makes us, like, think about scale and simplifying and saving costs, and like automating, but in that whole journey with where there is a lot of like, logical reasons for why that makes sense, tech, AI, etc, but also, like the human element, and like where it makes sense, married it to where it doesn't make sense, don't right, knowing

the right pieces to do that with and, yeah, we are somewhat AI resistant. I know a lot of people are very worried about AI taking over their jobs. And, you know, all of these things, there is a robot that does lashes, but I've not, I don't see that as, like, you know, taking over our provider industry.

Is this for real? That's so scary? Yeah, I would never, I would never.

But yes, there is a robot that does lashes. There's the creativity of the human mind that's needed to solve problems, whether it's with skin or hair or whatever the services that we're doing, and they refer to our services as self care. It's a part of our overall health to come in, and we saw that after COVID, when so many people missed the human connection and the interaction and they they looked at Spa and Salon services as a part of their overall health and wellness routine. Humanize it and the way that you can do with flows, where you can create your own custom messages, you can have them from your. Specific provider. So it's not just like response C,

you customize it text Y for yes, it's important

to understand how and when to incorporate the human touch point. You

mentioned COVID. And I think we really saw that come full circle at least a year and a half or so, where salons were just they were in trouble. They were, you know, they were down on services. If you were performing services, you had to sort of do it low key. And I think a lot of people felt like they were left in the lurch on the service provider side. And I think a lot of you know clients and and patients, you know of salons and of practices, kind of felt like I really just want to be I need this part of my life, right? Like we talk about how important grooming and like self care is here on the show a lot, and I think that a lot of people really felt that during that time. And when we finally got out to the other side of that, we saw this boom in in this, you know, these service industries again. But there was something that was sort of like that forever changed, I think, during that time period in terms of, like, how we talk to people, how we communicate, or the ways in which that we interact. And I think that a lot of businesses, maybe as well, had trouble sort of getting on track with, how do we grow our business quickly? Because we need to get back to get back to where we were. We need to pay bills. We need to be able to to, you know, pay for our space and our employees and everything else, and still be able to maintain that personal touch point. So we're like, we're embarking on this new part of our business journey. We have these new, you know, needs that we had to get keep our business going. And then on top of that, we've got this sort of like crater, this dent that was left by the impact of COVID, where now our communication skills are sort of altered, and the tools that we use communicate are different and less personal, and that sort of makes it more complicated, I think, to really put all those elements together and have a cohesive Marketing Strategy that feels genuine and feels honest and personal, sort of

brings it full circle, back to that action or reflection that we were talking about earlier, where COVID was it was a challenging time and and people were in such action mode, there wasn't the time to reflect on how meaningful those relationships were for the spa owners and salon owners that were like, Let's have a coffee chat on Zoom. Let's let me teach you how to do a facial at home. Let me teach you. Know, Like the connections with those in our community were really, really meaningful and really impactful. And then we just went straight into action mode before reflecting and saying, Wow, what if I incorporated this relationship aspect and not just be behind the screen, you know, all the time, expecting my business to grow in that way? How could I be more fulfilled, be more impactful, and also get more referrals by showing up and connecting with community in a meaningful way? 2024, was a tough year. Election Year causes uncertainty, inflation. We saw a big drop in the summer. It was a lot slower than usual. And I think that that, like, sent panic waves to a lot of people. And I really do believe that this is going to be an incredible year for our industry. Fingers

crossed everybody. I genuinely do hope so I think that, you know, there's always a need for service. There's always going to be a need for salons and spas and self care businesses. And I think that people are going to need self care more than ever in 2025 so do genuinely hope that that, you know, service industries continue to run strong, and salons and spas are in a good place in 2025

so much gold and value that you've shared today. Daniela, I'm so appreciative of that. I've learned many things here. New clients are not always the answers. Where does your problem really lie? Do you have a few takeaways for people watching this who will not remember everything we talked about, but like a few key points, the action

item that I want you to do is first evaluate, do you actually have a lead flow problem, or do you have a retention problem? So look at those two things. Use the notebook strategy. Use the asking your top 25 client strategy to really understand you can go through and use flows if you're a mango mint customer, highly recommend. And if you need lead flow help, there's first figure out where your leads are actually coming from and formulate a strategy around that isolated channel so that you can get the most efficient results, simple,

easy to action. That's what we always try to do here on marketing 100 Daniela, thank you so much for joining us for joining us. For marketing 100 we had a ton of fun with you today. A lot of great takeaways as well. Where can our audience, our listeners, our viewers, learn more about you? Thank you

so much for having me. I had a blast as well. You can listen to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast on Apple, podcast on Spotify, or any of your podcast listening apps. And you can learn more about our company, addoaesthetics@addoaesthetics.com,

and we'll make sure to include links to those down in the description below. If you want to try the tools that Daniela mentioned today on the show, we have a link where you can try mango Mint for free for 30 days, 60 days, whatever. You get a little bit of extra time on us. Don't tell anybody. Thanks so much for joining us on another episode of Market 100 I'm kale, your salon and spa business bestie, and we'll see you in the next one you.