If you are a salon owner and want to see more revenue, check out these tips.
RESERVATION DESK
This is where the customer experience begins and ends. Your reservationist should be equipped to help your salon reach many of its objectives by:
1. Increasing guest traffic and frequency of visit Rebooking is key. Every guest should be rebooked or given an appointment card for their next visit before leaving. Your reservationist can also send an email or postcard to guests who have not returned. Tell them they’ve been missed.
2. Increasing average ticket price Your reservationist should be educated about product knowledge and add-on services, and should recommend an add-on service every time a guest checks in or calls to schedule an appointment.
3. Increasing Take Home tickets Provide the reservationist with a list of products you recommend for each guest checking out. The reservationist should bring the guest to the Take Home area to explain the benefits of each product.
STYLIST STATION
This is where your initial consultation occurs, making it the perfect place to showcase your salon’s Wash House and Color Bar menus. Even if they don’t book an additional appointment that day, it may prompt them to book one for their next appointment.
1. The consultation is where you can focus on your guest and not on performing a service.
2. It may be helpful to create notecards for each guest, jotting down any special conversation you had about friends, family, work and so on. Reference these notes before their next visit.
3. By showing clients that you care, you set the tone for a strong, trusting relationship, which leads to success.
Paul Mitchell identifies six areas in the salon (they call them the Six Economies) where you can maximize revenue.
THE TOOL BAR
Creating a Tool Bar is easy if you keep it simple. Work with your team to locate an electrical area within your salon where you can fit a fixture and styling chair. Build this area and then, as a group, come up with events to launch your new Tool Bar. Use social media and referrals to drive traffic and create buzz.
1. Blowout events You can offer blowout services and drive retail when you explain the products you used and why.
2. Style session Plan an event to teach guests how to “get the look.” Show them how to curl, smooth or perform an updo. They’ll love your insider tips. If you charge a service fee, offer travel-sized versions of the products used to achieve the look and present them in a gift bag.
You might call it the shampoo area, but it’s more than a place to focus on treatments and service upgrades. Why not create a solid advertising initiative to support Wash House services throughout the salon? The idea is to find cost-effective ways to entice your guests to indulge in an upgrade.
THE WASH HOUSE
1. Reservation Desk This is the place to showcase point-of-purchase (POP) materials.
2. Stylist Station During the consultation, talk about the professional treatments offered in your Wash House and how your guests may benefit from a therapeutic massage or a strengthening treatment.
3. Take Home Area Place POP materials around your retail area to create buzz.
THE COLOR BAR
Organize products by brand and color series—the rainbow makes an impact.
The Color Bar is an excellent way to promote and merchandise haircolor. Use this checklist for maximum visual impact.
1. Keep it clean and tidy—no dust or color stains that look unprofessional.
2. Organize products by brand and color series—the rainbow makes an impact.
3. Add imagery for visual interest and to spark a color conversation with your guests.
Is your Take Home area good or great? Use these five easy tricks to transform the retail area in your salon.
TAKE HOME
1. Facings Use multiple facings of your best-selling products. Make sure your shelves are full—you can’t sell product if it’s not there.
2. Product Mark prices on the bottom of each bottle and make sure the area is well lit.
3. On the Edge Every bottle should face the front and sit on the shelf’s edge.
4. Inventory Everyone is looking for something new, so freshen things up every six to eight weeks.
5. Team Work People support what they help to create. Enlist your team for sell-through success. —Marianne Dougherty, Editor in Chief