“Happy Birthday” discounts

Birthdays are important days. They are individual to each person and a day that I believe ought to be celebrated. I know I love celebrating my birthday, and I suppose this is one of the main reasons why I also like to commemorate my clients’ birthdays. Plus, doing so is good for business.

I like to reward my regular clients with discounts. And who doesn’t like to get a Happy Birthday gift from their aesthetician? The following are several different postcards (PCs) I send to clients to help them celebrate their birthday (month) with me.

You’ll notice on the address side of the postcard it mentions that this gift is good for the month of this client’s birthday only. So you’ll want to send these the week before the month begins or even a few weeks prior to. This way you give a fair amount of time for your client to make plans with you.

If I have a standing client or a client who has already booked an appointment during her birthday month, I may still send the card but sometimes I just present it at the time of her facial. Also, if she has booked an appointment just a little before or after her birthday month, I usually still acknowledge her birthday with the discount. Ten or $15 is not much to spend on relationship building with your clientele.

When I confirm the appointment the day before, I ask (remind) the client to please bring the postcard in with them. Of course I have already written down the day I sent the postcard on this client’s chart, but I also like to staple the PC onto their receipt (the one I keep) so I have it for my records.

After the 2008 downturn, many people were pulling back from “extra” services such as facial treatments. For some, facials are a necessity; for other—a luxury. I wanted to encourage people to keep coming in for their regular facials, so I adapted my normal facial into a one-hour treatment at a lower cost. Below are the PCs I printed to give the one-hour facial clients a birthday gift.

Also, it’s a good idea to always have your phone number as well as an email address and/or website on your printed materials. Giving your clients several ways to get in touch with you simply makes it easier on your client. It doesn’t cost any more to include all your information. Any postcards I send to clients always has my return address printed on it as well. If you plan on moving or even if you don’t, you can always use a stamp or preprinted return address stickers if you don’t want your address printed on material such as these PCs.

I had all of these PCs printed at vistaprint.com.

For more discount ideas, see:

• Special Promotion Discounts
• Referral Appreciation Discount Takeaway & Postcard
• “I want you back!”—discounts and postcards