The key to keeping customers i
s staff development, so let’s talk about building your own championship team.
Building your team requires that you take great care in selecting your staff. The inability to hire and train hairdressers is one of the leading causes of salon failure. Avoid a hit-and-miss approach to team building—it’s just too costly! By building your team to perfection, you will ensure your salon continues keeping customers.
Educate Your Staff — Invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential by educating your staff. Educate and train your staff in reaching higher levels of excellence. The higher your standards in employee training, the higher your client retention results. How can you expect your staff to perform to your high levels of expectations if you don’t provide quality education and provide the educational tools to reach higher levels of excellence? Invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential by placing a high priority on employee training and development.
Quality Control — Develop your own quality control system in your salon. It is your responsibility as leader of your team to set high quality control standards for your team to follow. Once you set these quality control standards, it is essential that you carefully monitor their performance to make sure they clearly understand and are following your educational and quality control guidelines. Higher levels of excellence will bring greater results in exceeding client expectations.
Customer Service — Customer service is always a high priority! A sincere and caring attitude towards exceeding client expectations is critical when establishing a more personable hairdresser/client relationship. Work hard at delivering exceptional customer service. Through your actions and behavior, let your clients know you value and appreciate their patronage. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. This is crucial.
Great Work — Take great pride in your work. Understand your clients’ needs or problems, and then work hard at fulfilling those needs by exceeding their expectations. Always strive for higher levels of excellence when improving your artistic and technical skills. The door to education is never closed. Good is not enough anymore if you want to gain that all-important competitive edge. The more you learn, the more you earn.
Great Communication Skills — Develop strong public speaking skills. Listen and understand your clients’ needs, and then skillfully offer your professional opinion in an articulate manner. Lack of communication is one of the leading causes of customer loss.
Staff and Business Instability — No salon or staff will grow with a constant merry go round of staff turnover. How are we to continue to raise prices in this kind of environment? Be extremely careful when building your team; hire only committed hairdressers who share your educational guidelines and vision. When staff turnover occurs, everyone is affected.
When we understand and meet our client’s needs, and their expectations are exceeded, you will have accomplished a tremendous amount of good will for yourself, your salon, and your profession. If you follow these guidelines you will eliminate many of the causes of customer loss. A steady and loyal clientele will be your reward.
I have shared with you some guidelines that will help you develop your own client retention strategies, strategies that will help you avoid the devastating effects of customer loss. It is important that you make your staff aware of your policy toward client retention. I urge you to customize a solid client retention program that best suits your individual needs.
We as professionals must all work together to bring our profession to higher levels of excellence in meeting and exceeding client expectations. Let us all work together, creating value in ourselves and in our skills to create a demand for our service. Greater fulfillment, raising our prices and our standard of living will be our reward.