words Alexa Wang
Despite not being considered essential and hit by the coronavirus pandemic, beauty salons have always represented a successful industry – even from ancient times. The industry is back and stronger than ever.
Loyalty is essential at this stage – imagine living with the wrong hairstyle for months. Mess up a few times, and people will remember you and never come back. The clientele is quite picky when it comes to beauty salons – all in all, here are a few tips and tricks to ensure a successful business.
Going cheap will take you nowhere
Going cheap may work for a few teenagers or perhaps a few elders, but other than that, it will take you nowhere. If you do a lot of hairdressing, opt for quality paint and proper brands – the types of brands everyone can recognize.
If you hire a few people for haircuts, make sure they are well trained and experienced. Invest in quality tools and machinery too. Quality is essential. If you find it too expensive, you are better off with beauty salon loans than with cheap stuff.
This is a proper investment, and again, going cheap will give you a bad reputation, even if your prices are also quite low. In the long run, your business will suffer. Keep in mind that you do not paint your hair or get a haircut everyday, so most people would rather spend a bit more for quality.
A mix of formal and informal communication
Communication is essential when dealing with customers. The lack of communication is likely to lead to numerous mistakes, as well as confusion. The bad news is that such a mistake will keep the customer unhappy for months.
Transparency is just as important. Make sure your staff understands all the updates, ask for feedback, and do the same for your customers. You need to keep communication formal, but do it in a fun way, so everyone is relaxed and open to your updates.
Instant daily communication is just as important. Such techniques will prevent misunderstandings, add to the energy or your team and build a top-notch workplace culture. Make everything engaging and ensure your staff follows the same principles.
Simplify everything with a proper software
A beauty salon is a business like any other. In the age of technology, writing everything in a notebook is no longer the most effective way to run things. Sure, it helps, and you can use the notebook to make appointments too.
However, software is great for everything – from managing appointments to messaging customers a day before the appointment with reminders. The software will also help you keep an inventory of tools, as well as materials.
You can see sales. You can see where you lack and what your best services are. Check the sales, the busiest times, and so on – this way, you will be able to tell when your salon needs more staff on site and when it needs less people around.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options out there, and many of them work for all sorts of businesses.
Employee recognition works wonders
If you have worked in beauty salons, you have probably noticed already that people come and go – there is always a better job out there. The bad news is that good employees tend to leave with customers too – after all, customers are loyal to certain professionals.
If you hate a low turnover, employee recognition will keep your staff happy and add to productivity. Simple employee incentives and benefits will improve the satisfaction – even if you pay well, the truth is financial rewards are simply not enough.
Moreover, the more people leave the company, the lower the morale will be. Someone goes, and everyone else will feel disappointed. Bottom line, employee recognition will add to productivity, ease the management, bring in engagement and loyalty and improve customer satisfaction.
Keep an eye on numbers
Whether you use software or you study everything on a piece of paper, a beauty salon is different from other types of businesses. This is the type of business that requires visual perfection. It is the type of business that needs a more artistic approach, and everything revolves around customer satisfaction.
For instance, there are lots of payroll errors in small businesses, so most managers fail to properly track employee working hours. Breaks are also worth some attention, not to mention sick leave. Overtime should be given only when really needed. Otherwise, it becomes a waste of money.
Marketing goes a long way
Any form of marketing will do. If your customer is happy, feel free to ask them to review your salon, be it on Google, Facebook, or any other platform. A simple review and stars will work wonders in the long run. Put yourself in a new customer’s shoes.
Would you go to a salon with 12 reviews and 3.9 out of five stars? How about a beauty salon with 149 reviews and 4.6 out of five stars? You get the point. Most people feel like leaving reviews when they are unhappy only. They rarely do it when happy, so you need to encourage this behavior.
Other than that, try to maintain a good presence on social media. Engage with customers, upload useful content and maybe even start a beauty blog with tips and tricks for maintenance. Your following will skyrocket overnight.
Conclusion
In the end, beauty salon management is a challenge, just like any other business. The good news is there are things you can do to make sure the operation is smooth, and customers are happy.
You are less likely to change anything overnight, but good practices will bring in excellent results that will provide consistency in terms of business.
