Are You In Demand?

   

   

       I’ve been seeing emails from a few of my salon friends sent by Demandforce. They have been on my radar for a while so I thought I would investigate.  What is Demandforce? According to their website  “Founded in 2003 by Rick Berry, Demandforce’s mission is to help small businesses thrive in an evolving and increasingly complex connected world. Demandforce bundles the marketing and communications tools that any business needs to succeed with customers today into one powerful web-based application that seamlessly integrates with existing work flow systems, works automatically, and delivers guaranteed results.”

     Salon owner  Maisie Dunbar has worked with Demandforce for two years going on three. I asked her what working with Demandforce has meant to her business. She does not recommend it if you are a one person operation unless you are not fully booked and you have the capital to pay for it. At $300 per month it is not cheap. The salon with one or more employees looking to take their business up a notch it’s definitely worth looking into. As a salon owner Maisie feels that constant pressure to make sure her staff is being fed with enough clients to generate a good living. She feels partnering with Demandforce has helped her build her already strong marketing message. She can also modify any message they send to make sure her brand is consistent.  For those salon owners that don’t have a marketing mindset  partnering  with Demandforce will help you build a marketing strategy and provide helpful tools. It is not fully automated though, Maisie told me that you still have to be diligent and committed to your marketing campaigns to ensure success.  She also shares that their customer service is excellent and they will spend as much time as needed to help with challenges making sure you get what you need.  

     They help grow your business through communication in the form of Social Campaigns, Customer referrals, Automated communications, Customer reminders, Appointment confirmations, satisfaction surveys, postcards and management system sync. So what does all that look like?  It uses something called Timely  to stay active on Facebook and Twitter. By committing to just 30 minutes a month you can have an active and engaging social media strategy. Demandforce keeps track of customer referrals and sends an automated email, asking them to refer their friends & family. It then tracks top referrers, so you can reward them. With their Automated communication   they  customize the frequency of your messages for each client,  automatically update the email frequency with management system updates and bring clients back with tailored  communications.  Customer reminders go out to clients that have gone AWOL making it easy to reach out to those who haven't visited in a while. You can set up automatic reminder messages based on individual clients' needs or past-due services. Free up valuable time and resources by having Demandforce  automatically deliver reminders and confirmations using email and two-way text messaging. Reduce the chance of no shows by 40%, yes I said 40%.  Satisfaction surveys  automatically collecting customer surveys to show how your business is performing. You can customize your questions to focus on things that matter in your business.  Demandforce automates retention postcards, offering various templates  you add your target and they do the rest.  And last but not least it syncs with your salon software to be always up to date. 

 

     They also enter your business in their Intuit business network and market you to other small businesses helping you form strategic alliances. So if you are willing to make the commitment, are ready to take your salon from good to great Demand force might be smart marketing for you.