Earning back the trust of our customer

As a salon owner, it can be frustrating to see a client once, and then never  again. The success of your business depends on keeping clients happy and turning them into loyal, long-time customers who will refer friends, relatives and business associates to your business.

When a client doesn’t return or have been away for a long period of time you have to wonder whether he or she was dissatisfied with your salon or one of your stylists, and if so,  find out why and get them back. The consequences of losing customers can be devastating . You not only lose potential referrals  customers you risk negative word of mouth advertising in your community.

There can be many reasons why clients may be dissatisfied with your salon or one of your staff members . Perhaps they experienced poor customer service on the part of their hairdresser, or were kept waiting too long, maybe they followed one of your staff members to another salon due to employee turnover, or it could be that they simply were not pleased with a salon service.

Whatever the reason, your challenge is to find out why they did not return and try to win back their business. This is important for two reasons: — you want to seek customer feed back and avoid repeating the same mistake, and you want to  give them an incentive to come back and  avoid negative word of mouth publicity about your salon and your team,which can be devastating to your business and your team.

The good news is, it’s actually easier to win back past lost clients than to gain new customers who have never visited your salon before. Why? For starters, your past clients already know about your salon and are familiar with your services. Also, they probably live close to your salon. Let’s face it, advertising for new customers is expensive. Keeping your current clients happy, finding ways to lure back past customers, and creating positive word-of-mouth advertising are far better ways to market your business—and cheaper too.

Win-back Strategy #1:

Turn Goodbyes into Hellos

Ever so often, pick up the phone and call customers you haven’t seen in awhile. A quick call to say you’ve missed them will go a long way toward restoring their trust and confidence. It will also give you the chance to seek out feedback, listen to their responses, and make the appropriate adjustments and improvements. Then make them an offer they can’t refuse!

Win-back Strategy #2:

Use Change to Your Advantage

Sometimes your clients will want to try a different hairdresser in your salon, but feel embarrassed or intimidated; rather than embarrass themselves they try another salon. It is essential that  your customers know you encourage all customers to feel free to select or change hairdressers in your salon at any time.  All you have to do is post a simple sign, like this one, at your front desk that says please feel free to choose from any of our stylists, your unconditional satisfaction is all that matters to us not our egos.

Win-back Strategy #3:

Focus on Your Follow Up

Make sure you collect addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses from everyone who patronizes your salon, then keep in touch. Regular, ongoing contact with customers is a proven way to build strong and lasting relationships with customers. Try mailing a postcard or personal letter every few months, or perhaps a monthly or quarterly salon newsletter. Better yet, send email.

Email is the easiest and least expensive way to communicate with your present, future, and past clients. Here’s a great online tool that makes it easy to stay connected: Constant Contact® (www.constantcontact.com) Their site offers excellent tutorials, provides a number of email templates to choose from, manages your address list, and will even help you write your own email newsletter.

When your past clients receive a note from you now and then, they’ll remember you. And over time, they will be more likely to visit again—especially if you exceed their expectations and offer them an incentive. The following is a sample letter you might send a past client. Feel free to personalize it for your own use or compose one of your own.

Finding new clients may be difficult and costly, but keeping them loyal to your salon doesn’t have to be. I encourage you to read my article “Build Customer Loyalty to Your Business by Developing a Powerful Communication Strategy,” in my articles of interest found on my web site for more tips and ideas on this subject

Please visit my business fan page on facebook for ongoing information found on my home page at www.hcds4you.com Also view my weekly blog as well. If your in the Palm springs area in Calif. and New Jersey,don’t miss my all day business seminar -click here

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“ Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough” ~Og Mandino

The impact of the recession has proven fatal in many industries but particularly for salons and hairdressers. Why you might ask? Because many salons were already vulnerable, due to several underlying long-standing problems with the structural core of business management aspects of the salon profession; any economic hit was bound to cause complete chaos.

If there are two words that best describe the beauty profession and in particular, the challenges of salon ownership, they would be apathy and turmoil. As our country struggles to get out of this recession, salon owners are facing many challenges and obstacles. Among these, rising business costs, price and commission wars and the challenge of finding and more importantly keeping committed hairdressers on staff has put exorbitant pressure on owners.

These problems are symptomatic of larger scale issues that include a lack of education on business ownership and staff management. Hairdressers end up under prepared in the work place with very little hands on experience seeking higher wages than the salon owners can deliver; which creates tension and high turnover. Conversely, salon owners lack the interpersonal skills and management savvy to salvage the promising hairdressers that could become successful down the line if mentored properly. And sadly, most hairdressers and salon owners do not even have proper health insurance, retirement, or other benefits to fall back on.

While other industries are finding solutions to adapt to changes in the marketplace, the beauty industry and salon owners in particular continue to struggle. New generations of young hairdressers and the small working salon owner will be especially vulnerable in these difficult times. So who’s at fault? Fingers could be pointed in many directions, but will placing blame fix the problems?

Although many of our colleagues are struggling, I urge you to keep a positive attitude, develop strong business management skills, persevere with a competitive spirit, and let Hairdresser Career Development Systems be your partner in addressing your concerns.

For more information visit our website.

“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” - Orlando Battista

By avoiding the simple mistakes listed below, you can improve your earning potential and successfully grow your business.

1. Crossing Off On Your Appointment Book — Far too many hairdressers cross off time on their appointment books or show an inconsistent work schedule that limits their availability for customers. Create a work schedule and stay in the salon. You never know when a customer will call for an appointment or just drop in. Don’t make it hard for customers to book an appointment with you.
2. Not Inviting Customer Feedback — Invite customer feedback as well as feedback from your boss.  If you receive criticism, consider it an invitation to perfect your skills and excel at customer service. Let your boss and your clients know you value their input.  Desire to exceed owner and client expectations.  I have yet to meet a salon owner that wants to see their staff fail. Give them permission to offer constructive criticism without taking the criticism personally.
3. Unprofessional Appearance — If you want to be respected and compensated like a professional, look and act like a professional. Hairdressers are in the business of making people look good and feel good about themselves. If you can’t make yourself look good, how can you make your customers look good?
4. Involving Customers in Your Personal Problems — At times there can be a fine line between being friendly and interactive with your clients, and pulling them in to your own personal drama. They have enough problems of their own, they don’t need to be part of yours.
5. Not Recognizing the Power of Customer Service — Customer service is often measured not by meeting your clients’ expectations, but by exceeding them. Go the extra mile with customer service. The rewards of doing so can be beyond even your highest expectations.
6. Frequent Salon Change — If at all possible, seek to find a solution to any work-related stresses that may have you considering leaving your current job. Try to work out a solution with your boss if at all possible. Misunderstanding each others view points is a big obstacle between staff and management.  If you still believe a job change is in your best interest, do so in an ethical manner. Never burn the  bridges behind you. Leave on ethical terms, you may need references or a chance to return at a future date if your new job is not what you expected.
7. Poor Work Habits — We are creatures of habit. Absenteeism and tardiness is a big problem in our profession. Work hard to value the time of your customers as well as the salon’s reputation.  Showing up on time and being ready to perform creates a sense of trust and projects professionalism to your clients and your profession.
8. Talking on Your Cell Phone — When working on your customers, your full attention should be focused on your customer.
9. Poor Customer Handling Procedures — Always greet your customer with a sincere and caring attitude. Develop powerful people and communication skills. You never get a second chance to make a positive first impression. A sincere and caring greeting shows you value their patronage.

In today’s tough economy we can ill afford making these mistakes in our salons, please read my book “A Hairdressers Guide to Success – Personally, Professionally, Financially” for additional tips that will  help you succeed in your profession as a hairdresser.

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Elliot

Sadly, far too many hairdressers struggle to make a good living and never reach their full learning and earning potential because it requires hard work, continuing education, extra effort, sacrifices, and a lot of perseverance.

Building a successful hairdressing career is a journey that requires patience and a quest for self improvement and knowledge.

Good is not enough anymore in today’s tough economy; especially if you want to stand above the crowd and gain that all important competitive edge.

You and you alone hold the keys to your own success or failure.

Are you willing to take full responsibility for your own success or failure or will you join the crowd of people who are always looking for excuses to fail?

Let my book a “Hairdresser’s Guide to Success—Personally, Professionally, and Financially’’ and my audio CD – “A Hairdresser’s Journey to Excellence” serve as your road map in helping you make your goals and dreams a reality.

Anything is possible if you believe!

“Retention is the key to economic success.” – Jeffrey Pfeffer

The following guidelines will help you address this very critical business challenge.

Ten Pitfalls That Salon Owners Must Avoid:

1. Poor Hiring Decisions — is one of the leading causes of salon staff turnover and internal salon challenges.  Make sure your staff development program is designed to minimize hiring mistakes. My book Creating Your Salon will help you tremendously.
2. Lack of Educational Guidelines for Salon Staff — how can you expect your staff to perform if they do not know what you expect from them and how your expectations will be measured?  It is your responsibility to provide educational resources and educational guidelines that will help your staff reach higher levels of excellence. Invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential…educate your staff.
3. Poor Owner /Hairdresser Communication — always keep lines of communication open between salon staff and management. From time to time seek out feed back from your staff members. Create a salon environment of trust, not fear.
4. No Salon Business Plan or Business Structure — show your staff that you are organized and structured. Make their jobs easy to understand.
5. No Employee Handbook — your employee hand book should serve as a vital part of your employee training and development program. Your employee hand book should include orientation procedures,  terms of employment, rules and regulations, job expectations and how they will be measured. My book Creating Your Salon will help you write your own employee handbook.
6. Lack of Leadership Skills — the inability to motivate your staff to higher levels of excellence is a major challenge among salon owners. As leader of your team it is your responsibility to take your team to higher levels of excellence. Refer to my book on Success & Leadership for many helpful tips.
7. A Negative and Unprofessional Salon Environment — make sure you create a positive and professional salon environment so your staff enjoys coming to work everyday. Do not allow salon gossip, pettiness and negativity to infiltrate your salon.
8. Turnover — work hard to prevent turnover. Turnover not only affects the growth of your business in terms of wasted time and money, turnover affects the livelihoods of your other staff members as well as contributing to a negative and unprofessional business environment for your customers.
   
9. Lack of Praise and Incentives — sometimes a little pat on the back or a note included in your salon employee’s pay envelope offering praise will do wonders. Incentives can also improve staff performance and productivity.
10. Inability to Combat Staff Pirating — sadly many salon owners will try to recruit your key staff members in the hopes that they bring a clientele. Please read and then share the following article with your team of hairdressers and salon staff:  Avoid The Grass Is Greener Syndrome.

For more information on addressing the above concerns, I urge you to use my management books.  They provide thorough information and solutions that will help you run a profitable business.

I’d love to connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn…if we aren’t already!

All the best,
Jon

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“The job of an educator is to teach students
to see vitality in themselves.”  — Joseph Campbell

As a salon owner and working hairdresser, you represent the heart and soul of the beauty profession.  Your personal, professional and financial success will bring success to everyone involved with the beauty profession.  For too long, far too  many salon owners have been facing the daily challenges of salon ownership in isolation, spending 10-12 long hours per day working behind the chair and sacrificing their personal life & time with family to keep their business growing and profitable.

Isn’t it time for educational reform and a new beginning?  I see a growing need for more quality education in the following areas:

• Personal Growth and Development
• Employee Mentoring
• Financial Planning and Money Management
• Improved People and Communication skills
• Staff Retention Development
• Self Management Guidelines
• Client Retention
• Better Work Habits
• Business Management Skills for Salon Owners
• Professionalism
• How to Combat Staff Pirating and Turnover
• Salesmanship
• A  Better Partnership Between Beauty Schools and Employers

The above areas of concern must be addressed if the beauty industry and salon owners are to move forward. As  a survivor of the school of hard knocks, and as a concerned hairdresser/ salon owner who for 41 years fought to overcome many of the above obstacles, I formed Hairdresser Career Development Systems free of any special interest groups to fill this educational void, to help committed hairdressers and salon owners take control of their own destiny and make their journey easier than mine.

I am committed to helping hairdressers, salon owners and everyone involved in the beauty profession raise their standard of living and improve the quality of their lives for themselves and their families. For more information, business tips and educational resources please visit my web site at www.hcds4you.com and join my Facebook Business Fan Page.

It truly is time for educational reform and a new beginning for beauty professionals! I would love to hear how you feel about this important topic.  Please leave comments below…

“Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything.”
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Below are tips on what to include in your Benefits & Rewards Compensation System:

Provide praise and recognition to your staff — sometimes a little pat on the back will do wonders.  It shows you appreciate their hard work and effort. A little personal note with their pay check acknowledging and praising their performance from time to time will always be appreciated.  So will a card on their birthday or flowers on their workstation on Mother’s Day.  Maybe ordering lunch on a busy Saturday would be a nice gesture.

Give a simple thank you card — let your staff member know you appreciate their efforts in contributing to a professional and positive team environment. Let them know you appreciate their loyalty.

Make your staff feel special — work hard to make each staff member feel special and important.  Always praise in front of others.  This will help your staff strive for greater success.

Award a gift certificate or time off — set targets with a rewards system for a job well done.  Give peak performers a gift certificate or a special day off for exceeding your goals and expectations.  A gift certificate to Starbucks or to a local dinner restaurant will always be appreciated by your staff.

Reward perfect attendance — offer something special for not missing work or being tardy for a year.  Perhaps a bonus or salon services for the most improvement in attendance and timely arrival.

Hold a team contest — have team contests and reward the staff member that sells the most in retail or other salon services.

Take your staff on a fun field trip or picnic — a day at the beach or another fun outing makes for a nice reward.  It is also a good team building activity and that sense of teamwork will carry over into the salon environment.

Improving staff performance and productivity will always be a challenge.  My “Personal Success Seminar” and Developing Your Skills Leadership Guide will be of enormous help in this area.  And just remember, rewarding performance and productivity leads to greater performance and productivity!

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by
helping others to succeed. – Napoleon Hill

Here are some of my suggestions for creating teamwork and growth in your salon:

Maintain staff stability — combat staff turnover, no salon or staff will grow when you have a merry-go-round of staff turnover.  Naturally your other staff members will question their job security and your leadership qualities if turnover is a constant problem.

Work hard to keep your staff busy — after your staff has proven that they understand your quality control system, work hard to provide them with a measured flow of new customers.  Be sure to monitor their performance as well as their referrals and customer return rates.

Work hard to create a team culture — so everyone shares your goals and vision.  Remember, a house divided will never grow. Teamwork helps contribute to a very positive and fun salon environment.

Maintain a positive & professional salon environment — where everyone is happy.  When you add a new member to your team, make sure your new team member will be compatible with your other employees.

Leadership — whether you like it or not, you are captain of your team, it is your responsibility to take your team to higher levels of excellence. It will be your challenge to earn the trust, confidence and support of your team in sharing your goals and vision for your business. Always lead by example.

Mentoring –- take time to seek out feedback from your salon staff in private one on one meetings.  It lets them know you value their input.  Make them feel that they are a valuable member of your team.  Let your staff know that your door is always open if they need help and support.

A suggestion box — ask your staff for suggestions on how the salon can be better then reward the person who offered the best suggestion.

Show that you are organized — an important part of leadership is to show your staff that you are organized and monitoring all aspects of salon performance.

Education — invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential by educating your staff. Your challenge is to help your hairdressers and other salon staff members to build self esteem and self confidence in themselves and in their artistic skills. I urge you to work hard to help your staff become successful. If you show them how to double and triple their income, you will double and triple your profits.  Always present information in terms of the benefit to them, not you.

Treat each employee with dignity and respect — create an atmosphere of trust, not an atmosphere of fear.  Always treat people the way you would want to be treated.

Following the above guidelines will enable you to build a staff of artists that thrive on teamwork and growth.  Watch for my next blog post, “7 Ways to Increase Salon Performance & Productivity” for ways to take your staff to an even higher level of performance and excellence!

Click link to learn about my Salon Leadership Guide – “Developing Your Skills” which will help you create teamwork in your salon as well as help you acquire the 26 Traits of a True Leader.

A house divided will always create a negative and unprofessional salon environment for staff, our clients, and management. No salon can experience long term growth, stability, and profitability without a team of professionals sharing the same goals and vision. As leader of your team it will be your responsibilityand challenge to cultivate a team vision for your business and your team.

Your business and your staff will succeed or fail as a team, period. The benefits of teamwork are invaluable. In a salon where teamwork exists, our valued clients will feel the ambiance of congeniality, where negativity is non existent. Teamwork and enthusiasm is contagious. Evidence of teamwork creates a positive and professional salon environment that offers tangible benefits to our clients, our staff, and management. As professionals, we should all do our part to contribute to a team environment by not only making our customers look good,but also create a  very pleasant experience for our valued customers so they will want to return again and again. As professionals we have a wonderful opportunity to enrich and impact the lives of our clients. Everyone on your team should work hard to do their part as a positive member of your team to make this a reality.

In addition to serving as a formidable management tool, teamwork instills pride with the other members of your staff and serves as a valuable tool in preventing many of the causes of staff turnover and staff instability. As captain of your team you must create conditions that foster loyalty and create a happy work environment by showing your team you are organized and committed to a positive and professional salon environment. As a salon owner your challenge will be in helping your team maximizes their full learning and earning potential, working hard to help your team succeed. Creating  a team environment  will help your staff strive for excellence within themselves and be a key management skill. I urge you to invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential— educate your staff. I urge you to read my book A Hairdressers Guide to Success. Every member of your team will appreciate your efforts in helping them achieve success and happiness. It will serve as a valuable educational tool in helping you instill your team environment and bridge the gap between staff and management.

After 41 years in the trenches as a working hairdresser/salon owner I feel I have earned the right to speak out and voice my concerns and opinions about the plight of hairdressers, salon owners and our profession as a whole.  Below are just some of the challenges that salon owners face in building and growing their businesses:

• Staff turnover
• Rising business costs
• Combating staff pirating (recruiting hairdressers from other salons)
• Lack of an apprenticeship employee training program
• Lack of unity among salon owners
• Booth rental issues
• Inability to find quality help
• Price and commission wars
• the list goes on and on

As salon owners we can no longer fight these obstacles and challenges in isolation.  We as professionals must unite and make our salons and our profession a profession we can all be proud of.  We must address the above deep rooted obstacles and challenges that salon owners face daily in their salons and we must do it now!

Although I am expressing my own views and opinions, I know many of these concerns are shared by thousands of hairdressers, salon owners and open minded educators I have had the privilege of meeting personally at trade shows, and seminars I present throughout the United States and Canada. I am talking about  committed professionals  who work hard daily in their salons  trying to reach higher levels of excellence personally, professionally and financially for themselves,staff, and  their families.

Unlike the large product companies, manufacturers and special interest groups who have manpower, money and resources to promote their products and viewpoint, the working hairdresser and salon owner has very little time, money or resources to fully express their views and their educational and business needs.

I am sure many of the special interest groups may not agree with this article and will profess everything is well in keeping the status quo.  But isn’t it time that those of us who work daily in the trenches of our salons have an opportunity to voice our concerns and take control of our own destiny?

As a fellow salon owner/hairdresser you can be assured that I will continue to seek out solutions to these challenges that will help you turn adversity into great opportunities.  As president of Hairdresser Career Development Systems  I am committed to helping you raise your standard of living and improve the quality of life for yourself and your family. It is time for salon owners to unite and address the above challenges that are causing turmoil in our profession.

Please read my blog about the need to unite through a Salon Owners Summit conference, which will be a first step in taking control of our salons and our profession. If there is enough interest I will provide further information.There is power in numbers.

Together we can and will make this industry respond to our educational and business needs.