I am a big baseball fan. One of the reasons why is because of the great lessons the game teaches us. For example, when a team isn’t playing well for an extended period of time, the manager focuses on the fundamentals of the game. These are the basics such as batting, fielding and throwing. He doesn't try to get them to do fancier plays or hit only homeruns because that usually makes matters worse. Without the essentials, the great plays don’t happen with consistency, and homeruns, if they occur, can be meaningless. It’s the fundamentals that win games.

The same holds true in business. As a salon and spa consultant, I can’t tell you how many ads, plans and promos I hear about from companies that are looking to increase the number of new customers to their businesses. At the same time, their new customer-retention rates are dismal. So let’s get this straight: They want to spend huge amounts of money to ask new customers to come in to see how ineffective they are at retaining them for the long term? That’s expensive and crazy!

Avoid that in your own salon, spa or medspa by getting back to the fundamentals. Learn how to satisfy your current customers first. Only after you’ve put systems in place to accomplish that should you market to potential customers. If your company achieves excellence, you won’t be spending as much on advertising because you will be too busy serving the friends and family of the customers who recommended you!

Discounts and gimmicks only go so far. Master the fundamentals of customer retention, and you will be knocking them out of the park effortlessly and consistently. The back-to-basics approach has taken many teams from “worst to first.” It can do that for your team too.