Client Retention

Client retention is the percentage of clients who visited your salon in a given period and returned within a defined subsequent period. For example, if 100 clients visited in January and 68 of them booked again within 90 days, your 90-day retention rate is 68%.

Retention is arguably the most important business metric for a salon. Acquiring a new client costs significantly more — in time, marketing spend, and discounts — than retaining an existing one. A client who returns every 6 to 8 weeks and spends $150 per visit is worth $975 to $1,200 per year. Losing that client costs the equivalent of acquiring a new one and then building the same relationship.

The drivers of poor retention are not always obvious. Some are in the salon's control — a bad experience, an inconsistent result, a booking process that is too difficult. Others are external — the client moved, changed jobs, or found a salon closer to their new workplace. Identifying which category your lapsed clients fall into requires looking at patterns, not just individual cases.

Effective retention strategies include: making rebooking easy at checkout, sending timely reminders and rebooking nudges, recognising loyal clients in personalised communications, and running win-back campaigns for clients who have lapsed before they are completely lost.

On OpenChair, retention is supported through the Engage hub — automated rebooking nudges, birthday messages, and the Reconnect win-back sequence for lapsed clients. The Intelligence dashboard surfaces clients at risk of lapsing, so you can act before they have already left.