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The salon industry is a buyer’s market.
There are more stylists available to do hair than there is hair to be done. Therefore, marketing becomes pretty important. Clients, potential and current, have to be convinced that you will bring them more benefit for their money than the stylist in the next salon – or the next chair.
To do this, you don’t just need talent, you need a brand.
You’re probably familiar with the concept of branding. When you think of great or well-known brands, it’s hard to deny Starbucks. We like this example simply because only a great brand could charge $2.95 for something you can make at home for ten cents. So, let’s stay with this one.
We think you’ll agree that Starbucks is about more than the taste of coffee. They scour the world for the best and tastiest beans, and make sure you know about it. They create an environment where you can relax by yourself, work, or enjoy your friends. The staff, or “baristas”, are encouraged to know your name and your drink. In fact, they’ve even developed a way of talking that’s tied into the brand experience. We don’t actually know what the hell a decaf double tall skinny extra-dry cap is, but you can bet a Starbucks barista will. Now, they even provide music advice.
All with the goal of proving that they’re different from other coffee shops and making lots of money. Though they’ve slipped a bit recently, it’s hard to deny that they’ve done it.
So, how do you take a lesson from Starbucks and brand yourself as a stylist? It’s easier than you might think.
Find the one thing. What’s the one thing that’s special about you? In our experience as salon owners and in interactions with a variety of different stylists since launching stylistPRO this year, the one thing for almost everyone seems to be education/advanced training, customer focus or convenience. If you can come up with something truly unique, so much the better. Write it down, then…
Build it out. How do your customers benefit from the thing that’s special about you? If it’s education, maybe it means your customers benefit by always being in style because your train yearly with educators to conincide with fall and spring fashion changes. You should have a list of three or four things that build from your one thing to benefit your clients. To use us as an example, stylistPRO users benefit because they can take a call from a client at Starbucks and book the appintment right then, without carrying around a paper appointment book or making a note they have to transfer later. The feature that allows this is stylistPRO’s portability. Your clients really only care about benefits.
Keep it real. Make sure that your benefits are menaingful and make sense to your clients. The best way to do this is simply to ask them. “What do you like best about seeing me for your color?” If their view doesn’t match yours, one has to change. If you’re going to try to change the clients’ view, it will take time and dicipline on your part. Follow the next few steps.
Give it life. A brand is about experience and about stories. Apple runs right at Dell and other personal computer makers in its brilliant Mac-PC commercials by using little stories to illustrate the benefit of a Mac.
Make it pretty. The logo you use and the appearance of your marketing materials are generally the least important aspects of building a brand, but they’re an opportunity for stylists because there’s so much unprofessional work out there. Trade some services for desing help for your business cards and web site (or even MySpace or Facebook page) with a local designer. Make sure the material, including the look, aling with your message and benefits.
Influence the experience. Think about all the interactions your clients will have with your brand. How will they hear about you? Who will book the appointment? Who takes their money? Just like at starbucks, each of these interactions is part of the overall experience, and will reflect positively or negatively on you as a brand. Decide how you want these experiences to go for your clients and do what you can to insure that your vision is consistently applied. A cup of coffee and a conversation with a receptionist can go a long way.
Finally, remember that your biggest brand champions are going to be your clients. If you brand yourself right, they’ll have the experiences and stories to convince their friends and families just how much better than the next stylist you are.
According to ABC News, a stylist working out of her home in Pennsylvania shot a client after she complained about her haircut.
As she was completing the service, the stylist, Monique Reed, and the client began to argue about the finished look. Reed went into a back bedroom, returned with a gun, and squeezed a warning shot off into the ceiling. The client ran for the door, and Reed shot her in the back.
Reed was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, then jailed. The client’s injuries weren’t life threatening.
So, as salon industry professionals, what can we learn from Monique’s client relationship management strategy?
We could talk about complaint-handling, but this actually struck us as a better example of the importance of the consultation and setting expectations. The consult is a key step in what, in our salon, we called the service cycle (the steps the client goes through from the time they book the appointment until they leave the salon).
The consult is about aligning vision. The client has a vision of what she wants. The stylist has a vision of what’s achievable based on factors the client may not have considered or doesn’t have the expertise to evaluate: hair type, hair color, face shape, age, skin tone, lifestyle, and time required to maintain the look, among others.
Here’s how Danielle Kelly, Master Stylist, New Talent and Education Director of the John Dellaria Salon in New York, manages the consultation process to ensure that she and her clients have an aligned vision.
Danielle says she likes to shake hands and make physical contact at the beginning of the appointment. “It goes along with the introduction to new clients, and it’s a way to quickly re-engage with existing clients.”
With new clients, Danielle recommends a little levity. “Many people are intimidated by hairdressers. Even a small joke can go a long way toward making them feel relaxed.”
She continues, “For the consult, I simply ask them to describe what they have in mind. While they’re talking, I always maintain eye contact to show that I’m listening and what they’re saying is important.”
Danielle will also always ask about the client’s everyday routine with their hair, and take that into account when she’s giving an opinion on what she sees as the best way to incorporate what the client has described into a great style.
“During the consult, I’ll often compliment a feature – hair, eyes, jawline, skin – that can be brought out by what we’re trying to accomplish,” she says. “But, I never force my opinion. The client’s vision is the important one. The key is to make sure that we are both comfortable with what is going to be done. I make sure we’re in complete agreement before the shampoo!”
With a consultation approach like this, Danielle doesn’t need a gun. Check out her work at http://www.hairismycanvas.com/.
Live!
The new stylistPRO web site went live today!
We spent a lot of time working with real designers (shameless plug for the crew at Workroom Design) to make the site more informative, stylish and easier to use. We hope you’ll agree that we accomplished our goals. Check the site out here and let us know what you think!
One of the major debates around our new business strategy was whether to blog or not. In truth, there’s not a lot of purely business-oriented information for the salon industry. What does exist is focused on salons (we like Strategies from our days as salon owners) – there’s almost nothing targeted at individual salon professionals.
In keeping with our focus at stylistPRO to provide mobile business and client management software and tools for individuals in our industry, we decided to take the plunge and try a blog focused on the business side of the beauty business from the perspective of the individual salon technician. Ours is called The Change Agency.
Why The Change Agency? Because we think that technology as a tool to make work better, easier and more profitable for individuals in the salon business has been ignored for too long. However, we know that there is a subset of stylists, manicurists, massage therapists and others that are ready to take advantage of technology to provide superior service to clients, and be more organized to manage business better. Members of this group are Change Agents, and we think they’ll show that technology can be applied to the salon industry at the level of the individual technician, and pull everyone else along.
So, we’ll try and use The Change Agency blog to help them. We’ll focus on marketing, advertising, PR, relationship management, and other business topics. We’re not experts on everything, but if you want some info, let us know and we’ll try to find someone who has it. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
