Do you know how successful your hair or beauty business really is? How do you measure that success?
In reality there are probably few salon or spa businesses that have a solid, measured approach to determining their success, and not doing so can make a huge difference to your bottom line and potential growth.
Sure, healthy revenue and breaking even are helpful metrics, but how can you tell that your business is performing well and growing – that it’s truly successful?

Rebooking Rate
Rebooking clients benefits both your team and business. It secures a pre-booked schedule, boosts job security, and ensures future income. This leads to better profits, as less time, money, and energy go into finding new clients. For clients, regular visits strengthen relationships, offer preferred appointment times, and improve overall maintenance.
Rebooking means scheduling a future appointment within 24 hours of the current one, so aim to do this before the client leaves. Encouraging clients to book multiple appointments secures optimal future visits. The average rebooking rate in New Zealand’s hair industry is above 50%, so aim higher!

Retention Rate
Client retention is about fostering loyalty through excellent service. Loyal clients spend more, cost less, and refer new business. Retention is measured by whether a client books again, even if it’s not within 24 hours.
To boost retention, encourage clients to book early through automatic email/SMS reminders and offer online booking to make the process easy.

3. Client revisit period
The average period of time between your client’s appointments is your revisit period. The length of time between appointments has a huge impact on your annual revenue, and reducing it by even the shortest amount of time can result in a massive jump in revenue.
If you’re not quite convinced of the power of shortening your client revisit period, here’s an example:
If your annual revenue is $400,000 and your average revisit period is eight weeks, reducing it by one day (seven weeks and six days) will increase your annual revenue by $7,200!
That’s an incredible result, but imagine if you moved it by one week? Your annual revenue would increase by a massive $56,000!
When starting out with reducing your client revisit period we recommend beginning with the goal of reducing your revisit period by one day, then analyse the results of your efforts. Once you’ve found methods of reducing your revisit period that work, set goals for reducing that period even further.
When starting out we recommend trying to reduce your revisit period by one day, then analyse the results. We’re sure you’ll be impressed and as you become more confident you can reduce the period even further.

New client rate
Retaining clients is vital, but acquiring new ones is crucial for business growth and revenue. New clients compensate for attrition and drive long-term success.
Aim for a minimum 10% new client rate to offset natural client loss. If your rate is low and your schedule has gaps, consider promotions or online ads like Google or Facebook ads. If you’re fully booked but lacking new clients, it’s time to expand—grow your team or move to a larger space to scale.
Want to learn 100 ways to grow your salon, spa or clinic? Download our free ebook.

5. Client retail attachment
Increasing your client retail attachment rate can boost your bottom line by adding value to each appointment and increasing overall spend.
The attachment rate reflects the number of products sold alongside services. Set a goal to improve this percentage—if it’s at 10%, aim for 25%. Make it fun by challenging your team or running a competition.
To succeed, remember your expertise. Clients rely on your recommendations, so guide them. For example, when shampooing, explain why you use a specific product and how they can benefit from it at home. Providing value through product suggestions leads to more retail sales.

How to track your business’s success
Tracking business metrics is crucial for measuring success in your beauty business, whether it’s a salon, spa, or clinic. But how do you track them efficiently without wasting time on admin?
Specialised software is the solution. You need reliable software tailored to the beauty industry that automatically tracks these metrics. Kitomba Salon and Spa Software provide all the tools you need to measure, analyse, and compare your business results with ease—just click to run your report and see your progress, book your free demo.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 8 Dec 2016 and has been completely revamped updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
Thank you for your great tips it is so wonderful to be able to see and know where you sit and how to improve keep up the good work kitomba
Thanks for your feedback Anita, we love it when we can help out customers to be more successful! 🙂
Thanks very cool tips
Cheers
Sharon:)