Holiday season is creeping up on us (at long last), it’s time to think about putting procedures in place to ensure you’re on your A-game this summer. Mike Aronson, general manager at iSalon shares strategies that will not only help to improve salon profits over the season, but that will also help to retain current clients and attract new clients all year round…
Consider summer-ready packages/offers/discounts/new menus
Summer is a time where many clients head on holiday and are looking to get themselves booked in for all their favourite hair and beauty treatments before they travel (from fresh hair to nails, lashes and brows). With that in mind, it’s a good idea for salons to put together a package of these services and to offer a few of these services as a set cost to attract clients to book in for all their services under one roof. Salons may also want to be creative and put together new hair colour menus to inspire clients to book in for their seasonal hair update. These can include name and frame services with attractive summer inspired names – think sunshine and sandy blondes, sun kissed brunettes and sunlit/sunset inspired red and copper tones. Marketing these services is incredibly important so clients (current and new) know about your new offerings. Through software like iSalon, email marketing features such as regular newsletters can be used to let clients know about the packages/menus you have to offer and encourage them to book. Text messaging features can also send your clients texts with promotional offers for summer services and packages.
Ensure you are stocked with sufficient summer-ready products
Alongside offering summer services and treatments, it’s important for salons to have summer-ready products available for clients too so that they can upsell these following the client’s appointment. In summer, client’s will want to keep their hair in as best condition as possible, free from colour fading and damage from the sun, therefore having good quality hair masks/treatments available, as well as UV hair protection products is essential. Beauty salons will also want to consider great skin moisturising products, as well as SPF to keep skin nourishe and protected at all times. Having minis available is also beneficial for clients who are perhaps heading for a weekend away or going to a summer wedding where they’ve booked an overnight hotel stay for example.
Upsell on salon treatments/services
With the summer sun being damaging towards hair, making it dull, brittle, frizzy and resulting in colour fading, clients will be looking for treatments and services that can help to nurse their hair back to health. Upselling hair masks/treatments to colour services or colour services such as glossing when clients are booked in for a cut are a great way to encourage clients to indulge in additional services at the salon to keep their hair always looking its best. To increase team morale, you may want to have upselling targets put into place with rewards/incentives for the team member who reaches the targets first. With the iSalon Reporting features you will be able to keep track of your team’s performance and see how many products/services they have sold.
Provide the team with summer training
Over the summer it is an incredibly busy time in the salon and it’s a great time to refresh your team’s training. Customer service and retail are two areas of training you may want to focus on in the lead up to summer for your team. With the help of salon software like iSalon, you can not only check when your team members have space in their column to block out for training, but you can also track your team’s performance following their training and check the customer feedback they are receiving to see if they need any additional training support.
Encourage salon reviews
Reviews play a pivotal role in bringing in new clients to your salon. When trying to find a new salon, many clients look at reviews, therefore ensuring your salon has fantastic 5* reviews is crucial to ensure you stand out from your competitors in the busy summer months and thereafter. At iSalon we work with salonspy.com to engage clients and encourage them to leave customer ratings and reviews. There really is no better way to build trust, credibility and confidence in your brand than to request feedback from your clients and act on it.
For more information on iSalon and to book a demo, click HERE
For more of the latest industry news click here
Respect is a hub for UK hairdressers of all ages and stages to find out what We Love, We Hear and We See as the best product launches, styling advice, hairtools, education training and seminars and hairshows! Sign up to our newsletter which is sent fortnightly direct to your email, so you stay up-to-date with salon styling information, trends in session work, advice on presenting on stage or progress in educating – whatever your interest, whether you’re a trainee or creative director, an educator or team leader, you’ll find all the opportunities and ideas on www.respectyou.me
We love hairdressing; we see and we hear how you can become the best hairdresser, colourist and salon owner possible. Contact us if you’d like to know more about us. If it’s worth talking about, you’ll read it here.
