Thousands Dead!

Could Your Salon Be Next?
How to Avoid Being the Next Victim!

This edition is about making your salon different than others.
Are you different than the other salons in your town? Lets talk about what makes clients come to you or go to your competitors.

Let’s start from the beginning. Here’s a list of what a client looks for and experiences when they come to your salon.

1. How does your salon look from the street? Is it visible? Can potential clients tell it’s a salon as they quickly drive by? Does it look attractive? How many times have you heard when a new client comes in; “I never knew you were here?”

2. How does your staff answer the telephone when a client calls? Quickly and in a rush or calmly with a smile on their face?

3. How does your salon look as you enter the front door? Attractive, organized, clean, inviting and welcome are what clients want to see and feel.

4. How are they greeted by the receptionist and stylist? Eye contact, a smile and a pleasant tone of voice are what clients want.

5. Are they directed to the waiting area and offered reading material and or a beverage or are they left to fend for themselves?

6. Are they taken to a chair for a consultation? Is extra time booked for a new client consultation? Is there a new client procedure that everyone follows and key questions everyone asks? This is where you earn the new clients trust, make a lasting impression and stand out as different from other salons they’ve been to!

7. Are your shampoo chairs comfortable?

8. What do they see when they look up from the sink? Clients don’t want to see stained ceiling tiles or vents with dust on them.

9. Are they given a comfortable, relaxing shampoo and conditioning? Clients want to be asked if they want the water cool, medium or hot and if they want a soft, moderate or vigorous shampoo.

10. Are they combed out & towel dried prior to being taken to the styling chair?

11. Is your mirror clean and your station neat and organized? Clients don’t want to see a mess on your counter filled with lots of products, pictures of the kids, coffee cups, towels that haven’t made their way to the washer, hair on the floor...well you know!

12. Are your combs and brushes clean? If a client looked in the drawers at your station, would you be embarrassed?

13. Do you educate the clients about their hair, the products you use on them and help them reserve their next appointment on the best day and time for them? Clients want information to help them make decisions. they hate to call when their hair is bothering them and can’t get an appointment, are then squeezed in, then get rushed, all while making other clients wait! This is a huge No, No! Treating clients this way doesn’t make your salon different. It makes it like most other salons!

14. When you are done with their service, do you thank them and use their name. Clients like to be appreciated, thanked and remembered.

15. Do you escort them to the desk and offer to help with products? Do you schedule their next appointment and thank them?

Here’s what your client experiences when they come to your salon. It’s especially noticeable to clients on their 1st, 2nd and 3rd visit. Try this fun exercise with your staff. Take a morning and look at your salon like a client. Stand in front of it for 10 minutes. Decide what looks good and what could be improved. Walk into your salon and sit on the floor at theentrance, in the waiting room and in the

middle of your styling area. You may be amazed how looking at your salon from a place you are not used to seeing it from will change what you see. You’re in the salon every day and through time don’t see things that could be improved. It is not necessary to spend a lot of money or make huge changes to make some very nice improvements.

Just think of the last time you bought something new for your home or a new pair of shoes for yourself. How long did it take for you not to “notice” them any more?

Take your staff on a tour of your salon. Have everyone write down five things they could help you do that will make a difference in the client experience.

Every time that you do something to keep a client in your salon and in your chair, you improve the paycheck for your stylists and improve your profits for your salon!

We can be artists but we don’t want to be starving artists!