[speech_bubble type=”ln-flat” subtype=”L1″ icon=”1.jpg” name=”Customer”] Um... to be honest, isn't it pointless to make a website these days? [/speech_bubble]
[speech_bubble type=”ln-flat” subtype=”R1″ icon=”2.jpg” name=”Odagiri”] Oh? Why do you think so?[/speech_bubble]
[speech_bubble type=”ln-flat” subtype=”L1″ icon=”1.jpg” name=”Customer”] Well, you know, in an industry like ours, new customers only come from things like Hot Pepper, right? And then LINE and Facebook and so on? Customers only look at places like that. So I think there's no point spending the time and money making a website. [/speech_bubble]

That's how it went... It was pretty much just small talk, so I didn't particularly argue back and just said...
[speech_bubble type=”ln-flat” subtype=”R1″ icon=”2.jpg” name=”Odagiri”] Well, that's certainly true[/speech_bubble]
and let it pass at the time. But...

Are websites useless for attracting customers to a salon?

In fact, quite a few salons really do think this way. Why?
People doing business in other industries may find it puzzling, but the beauty industry has some rather special circumstances.

As that staff member said, it is "the extremely strong customer-drawing power of Hot Pepper."
Simply listing your salon information on Hot Pepper brings in plenty of new customers.
Instead of going to the trouble and expense of creating your own website, one phone call to Hot Pepper brings a sales rep to your door for an interview and photo shoot, and within a few weeks at most, a salon page with beautiful photos is up on the Hot Pepper website! Since you can attach great-value coupons, new customers who see them come in one after another.

What's more, it isn't just online: it's also distributed as a free paper at convenience stores and other locations, so real-world customer acquisition is covered too.

Is Hot Pepper alone enough to attract customers?

Hot Pepper boasts overwhelming customer-drawing power, but is it really enough on its own? The answer is no.
That's because listing on Hot Pepper

involves expensive advertising fees.

That means that, large salons aside, small salons simply can't afford to depend on it.
On top of that, the following problems arise at the same time. Namely...

Just so there's no misunderstanding, we're not saying that Hot Pepper is bad! Even so, given the nature of the customers who come after seeing Hot Pepper, this is what ends up happening.

Why is that?

Because the motivation for visiting the salon becomes "it's all about the coupon"

As you'll see if you browse Hot Pepper, a huge number of salons are listed side by side, so it becomes hard to tell which one to choose.
Even though plenty of information for comparison is provided—reviews, photos and so on—it's difficult to settle on one and say "This is it!" So people end up picking a place that seems decent enough, and then choosing whichever salon offers a coupon that looks like a good deal for them.

As a result, customers who come via Hot Pepper use coupons at a very high rate. And that leads to a drop in the average spend per customer.

The customer repeat rate drops

Customers who come via Hot Pepper visit with the mindset of "well, I've got a coupon anyway," so they have little intention of becoming repeat customers at that salon. Next time, they'll simply go to another shop where they can use another good-value coupon.

From the salon's point of view, you end up in a situation where "we provided the service at a low price and they still don't come back."
What's more, when lots of low-spending new customers come in, support for your existing customers becomes thin, so you also end up losing the high-quality customers you should be valuing most.

A falling repeat rate is a matter of life and death for a salon, yet relying on Hot Pepper for customer acquisition can easily lead to exactly this situation.

You need to build a system that doesn't rely on Hot Pepper for attracting customers!

What we want to say here is not "you shouldn't use Hot Pepper." But you should understand that becoming completely dependent on it is dangerous.
If we list the most important points in order of priority...

...that's how it would look.
"A system for not losing your existing customers" goes without saying, but alongside it, building a system for turning customers who come via Hot Pepper into regulars is crucial.
This is where social media comes in. Social media is well suited to following up with customers who have visited and communicating with them. That's why you need to work on it proactively.

So what about "building a system for acquiring new customers from sources other than Hot Pepper"? Can social media substitute for that too?
To get straight to the point: it isn't easy.
That's because prospective new customers know nothing about your shop. Social media is a place for communication between people who already know each other, so reaching new prospects there isn't easy. And hard selling on social media is strictly off-limits—far from producing results, it will only put people off.

So what should you do?
This is where you should make use of your website.
Why do so many prospective customers look at Hot Pepper in the first place? The biggest reason is that "it comes up at the top for a huge number of search phrases."
"Hamamatsu beauty salon," "Naka-ku Hamamatsu hair salon," "Hamamatsu haircut"
Search for any of these and the top result is, yes... Hot Pepper.
However, not every customer looks only at the No. 1 result. And Google and other search engines will never fill all ten of the top results with Hot Pepper. That's because Google rolled out its "diversity update" in 2013, aiming to provide search users with a variety of information.

Aiming for the No. 1 spot will be difficult. That's Hot Pepper's exclusive territory... so paying advertising fees to be listed on Hot Pepper isn't a bad option.
But you shouldn't give up on attracting customers through your own website.

Making the effort to take measures that raise your search rankings takes time and work, but in the end it lowers your customer acquisition costs. What's more, users who visit after finding your own website are far more likely to become good customers who come back again and again.

This isn't just a story about the salon industry

Finally, while this article focused on the salon industry, other industries are no exception. Across all kinds of industries, major companies are creating one specialized portal site or comparison site after another. Even in industries where this isn't yet much of an issue, there's no guarantee things will stay that way.
So that you're not caught off guard when it happens, you need to start building your customer acquisition system now.