Have you ever hosted a Casino Month?

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Every salon has seasonality, even the busiest of salons.   Knowing this, it’s important to create strategies in advance to keep productivity and traffic up during the slow periods.     Sometimes it’s tough to come up with creative ideas, especially when you feel like you’ve done everything.
I credit the fine folks over at Valentino’s Grande Salon in Whitby, Ontario for sharing this great marketing event with me a few years back.     It’s definitely a great way to create a unique and fun experience for your clients, while at the same time keeping your client flow and productivity numbers in check during those slower months.
Here’s how it works.    For all intents and purposes,  Casino Month is really just a glorified bounceback promotion, broken down into two steps.
Step 1:  The first stage of Casino month is designed to take advantage of the higher traffic right before a slow season.  This can be the holidays in preparation for January and February.   Or it some cases, it can be during the summer months just before September or October.    Typically we begin step 1 six weeks before the slow period since that seems to be the average customer sales cycle.    Here’s what we do.  During the first step, we ask guests upon checkout to pull a card from a stack of playing cards containing several 10’s, 9’s, 8’s, 7’s and 6’s.    The number on the card that they pick will be the percentage off that they will receive when they come in during the month that we designate as Casino Month.    For us it’s September since that is a slower month for us.  For example, if they pull an 8 of spades, then they will enjoy 8% off on a service during the month of September.
Step 2:  The second stage (the bounceback), is what we do during the actual month of Casino Month.  We’ll use September again for our example.  So, in September we decorate the salon with a bunch of casino decorations, etc. to generate a buzz and get the team and our clients into the spirit.  When clients check out during the month of September, not only do they get a percentage off on a service, but they also get to play a game.  We give each client 16 poker chips.  They can place the poker chips on a playing card to bet on services and products.     Once they place their bets, they roll the dice!  If the number on the dice matches the number required on the playing card to win, they win whatever service or product that is listed on the playing card.  We normally fill up the playing card with services and products  that we offer but aren’t as popular as a way to get clients to try new services and products.    If a client wins a service, we require that they come in within a designated time period which again helps maintain productivity.
Clients love Casino Month and we do too!  It’s a wonderful way to while building trust and loyalty.  You would think our clients won the lottery when they roll the dice and win prizes.  Keep in mind, you don’t have to give away much to create a memorable experience for the client.   There’s really no right or wrong way to host your very own Casino Month.  Every salon is different.  Feel free to add your own flavor and twist to your Casino Month.  Just be sure to come back and share your results.
I’ve included some visuals below to show you how we market Casino Month in our salons.

 
 
Here’s a sample of the playing card that we use in our salons.  These are kept at the front desk and are used when clients check out during Casino Month.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s an interior photo of our Guest Care area at our Escarpment Village location: