We see time and again that tattoo and piercing studios only save the bare minimum to manage their appointments. Calendar entries such as “@bumblebee44, 3 hours” are not uncommon. Such studios are at a considerable competitive disadvantage: They completely dispense with analyzable data. And this in times of a declining market.
From the supplier market to the customer market
This way of working dates back to the days when there was a long queue outside the studio in the morning and appointments were handed out to submissive clients on a goodwill basis. This gave the industry the feeling that all these “supplicants” only came to you because you were such a gifted artist. Service and service were rather frowned upon terms.
That has changed.
Nowadays, you can get halfway decent piercings or tattoos of every conceivable style everywhere. And that’s all most customers really want: decent work … and good service, of course. After all, customers are customers, regardless of the product.
He who writes, stays
When a customer calls our studio, I can already see their name on the display. Even before I pick up the phone, I call up the customer in our system, answer the phone, greet him or her by name and ask whether it’s about next week’s appointment at Alba, for example.
You can hardly come across more professionally to your customers.
Of course, all customers receive an appointment reminder 3 days before their appointment and a nice birthday greeting for their birthday. If we are in the middle of the summer, you will also receive a voucher for €30 if you book an appointment within the next 6 weeks.
This runs completely automatically, of course.
And we ask each of our customers after completing a tattoo whether everything has healed well and whether they hopefully enjoy their new tattoo. The invitation to the nice Google review should then help other interested parties to find their own personal studio.
And if we have an event or are at a trade fair, I quickly write to the customers from the last 2 years and invite them. That way, our events and trade fairs are simply always full.
All of this (and much more) is only possible because we store data. And it is obvious that this sets us apart from the competition. This is what is meant by: “Those who write, stay”.
Knowledge is power: impressions deceive, data does not lie
- Do you also experience from time to time that in summer when the weather is nice, people suddenly get sick 2-3 days before their appointment?
- Are you wondering whether the opt-ins are any good at all?
- And which advertising brings more: Insta or Google?
Most studios decide and act according to their feelings and subjective impressions. But this can be very deceptive.
We record every appointment and every canceled appointment. If you analyze the cancellation rate over a few years, there is no noticeable increase in cancellations in summer or when the weather is nice, but mainly during flu epidemics. Yes, I wouldn’t have thought so either.
We also analyzed how many organ donation tattoos we have done for existing customers and how many we have done for new customers. And for new customers, we then looked at how many of them came back for further tattoos:
- 57% of OPT-INK customers were new customers
- 28% of them have subsequently had further tattoos done by us, with an average of more than two (paid) appointments.
If you then take into account the fact that we can use it to advertise in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries free of charge, the question of whether it is worthwhile was quickly answered.
And of course we also evaluate which customer and which booking came to us via which channel. Here is the evaluation of our last Small Tattoo Day:
Yep, the email campaign had by far the biggest effect. And yes, subjective perception can be quite misleading.
No time for that?
At this point at the latest, the argument often comes up that it’s far too time-consuming – you really don’t have time for that anymore. That’s right, we don’t either. That’s why we leave the data collection to the customer.
- We receive(almost) all tattoo requests online via our portal – directly into our system. With all customer data, tattoo request description and images.
- We send all offers (artist, price, appointment length) from our system with ready-made text modules. Takes about 30 seconds.
- Our customers book (almost) all appointments online. We don’t have to do anything anymore.
And I already have all the data I need:
- First name, last name
- Date of birth
- Cell phone number, e-mail address
- Any allergies or other medically relevant information
- Tattoo requests incl. description and pictures
- Customer and project appointments and thus the conversion rate
Of course, this also works for Wanna-Dos, piercing appointments and even walk-ins (self-check-in via QR code).
Properly organized, you don’t need time to collect data.
Separating the wheat from the chaff
Those who do not take advantage of these opportunities and do not manage to clearly differentiate themselves from the competition in other areas will not survive the next two years. In this respect, the market is streamlining and professionalizing. And yes: it is a business. Tattoos and piercings have long since become a lifestyle product. In the end, the customer always decides who he or she gives the money to. And customers are customers.
Stay on the ball
Learning keeps you young in the head. That’s why I can only recommend everyone to think carefully about their calendar entries. And if we have aroused your interest, we will be happy to show you in our free webinars what is possible in terms of customer data usage and how it works.
We look forward to seeing you!
Yours
