Jaimee Trio opened “Simply Brows and Lashes” in 2012, and in June 2013 she decided to join WOMO’s Happy Customers Program to help build the business. At the time, she says she was “just trying anything and everything and had decided to get the business listed in every directory possible”. She added their details to lots of online directories, tried letterbox drops, radio, and really did anything that came along.
The results were startling; “Pretty soon we found that WOMO overtook all other forms of marketing and allowed us to build up a reputation very quickly.”
Left image: Jaimee (top) with her team. Right image: Marta at reception
“People would say that they ‘found us in Google’, but when we probed a bit further, they’d say they saw our customer reviews.”
“It was surprising as my husband has a business and gets a good return from letterbox flyers, but for us, they were not cost effective. Radio was especially ineffective – very expensive and didn’t deliver more customers. It all came down to building a reputation online.”
Simply Brows and Lashes – Marta (back) and Mauli (front) treating customers
Jaimee’s business now grown to have 9 staff operating across two studios – one in South Yarra and the other in Camberwell. She says they get between 50-80 new customers a week, with about 40% telling them they’ve seen their online reviews.
Simply Brows and Lashes now also uses Google Adwords to generate new business but after testing this, Jaimee now points the ads to their WOMO reviews as she knows that they sell the business better than anything else.
Jaimee says their top 3 sources of business are;
- Online
- Referral (we offer a reward for referrals)
- Walk ins – we have a good position
“Reviews are vital as people don’t trust you off the bat. We can say ‘we’re the best’ but people don’t believe that unless they hear it from others. When one of our staff gets a couple of good reviews that mention them by name, people start requesting them specifically – that’s how powerful they are.”
Jaimee’s Advice to Other Businesses:
- Track where new clients come from. This is sooo important!
- Use loyalty referral incentives. When a client refers a new person someone too us we give the client $10 loyalty credit. If you think about how much it costs to get a new customer, referral programs are well worth it.
- Service customers well! It’s common sense, but it’s not common!
We also asked Jaimee what it means to service customers well in her industry. She told us that when they’ve surveyed their customers to find out what’s important, they found that the most important thing is for their team to really listen and understand the result that the client would like to achieve. “If it’s not what they wanted, we need to realize that we’re the ones in the wrong and set about fixing it up.” Judging by the glowing reviews for both studios (see here and here), they’re doing a pretty good job!
“When we started, we really didn’t know what would work. Now it’s clear that the more reviews we get, the more new customers we attract. Using the WOMO flyers, it’s very easy to get more customer reviews – we’re really happy with how it’s all working.”
See the WOMO Listing for Simply Brows and Lashes – South Yarra here <<
See the WOMO Listing for Simply Brows and Lashes – Camberwell here <<
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