Salon and Spa Front Desk Operations Ideas

All About Marketing – 2008 Success Club

If you want to increase your sales and margins (sales per customer) in 2009, you need to understand the customers= perceptions, buying trends, and competitive environment. They have changed.

The importance of the positive customer experience has never been greater. Customers are tense, some are even angry about the society and environment they find themselves in. Time is at a premium.

Customers are experiencing an information overload. The Internet purchases have increased dramatically while in-store purchases have dropped, and we have a slowing economy!

How can we create an environment that satisfies customers and develops new loyalty?

We need to re personalize our business to the way customer=s want to buy. Each customer and every customer event (transaction) needs to be a positive one.

We need to look at every event in our customers= relationship and make sure the quality, consistency, and follow up is there. At the same time we need to make sure our customer experience is differentiated from our competition and the differences are clearly communicated.


Advertising to the customer of the new economy means:
Coupon offers can still work but they must have a specific dollar value, not a percentage off.
Customers want to feel that they are getting something extra for the price.
Giving an add on service or retail product free with a service is effective.
Customers want real value for the price stress long term effects of a product or service.

SERVICE MENU IDEAS

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How to Double the Average Customer Ticket

In traveling all over the country working with salons and spa I get to see all types of service menus. It is amazing the impact of a good service menu can have on your salon or spa. Now I am sure you have a service menu with nice graphics and a great layout. Those areas are a given in most salons and spas these days. But the difference between a nice (good) service menu and a GREAT service menu is how much the service menu $ells for you!


Let me give you an example of this idea in the restaurant industry. David Frey tells the following story:

“ In my local town (Friendswood, TX) there is a privately owned sandwich shop that prides itself in offering more sandwich variations than any of the fast food restaurants in town. The owner is a friend of mine and he was mentioning to me the other day about how slow his sales were. Knowing that I was a marketer he asked me if I had any suggestions. I Asked My Friend to Show Me His Menu...

I looked at the menu and immediately spotted a major problem. I told him, "How would you like to increase your sales by 30% with the exact same amount of customers that currently come through your shop?" His eyebrows rose with interest. I mentioned to him that he was making the same mistake that many business owners make in not only the food industry but in most industries. He said, "I'm listening David."
Now I had his attention. (And I hope I have yours too.)






What I Told My Friend to Do...

As I looked at my friends menu it was packed with different types of sandwiches with all kinds of side dishes and about 12 different drink options. There were a lot of options. In fact, there were too many options. I told my friend to do 4 things...

1. Remove 30% of the sandwich and drink offerings on his menu.

2. Create 5 different bundled "value offers" such as a drink, sandwich, chips, and a cookie. Then increase the price by 30%.

3. Put a big red starburst on the menu next to two of the sandwich bundles. The first one should say "Voted # 1 in Flavor by Our Customers" (highest price) and the second one should say "Today's Special" (lowest bundle price).

4. Stock up on the ingredients for the two value bundles that had the red starbursts next to them and decrease the stock of the other sandwiches.
He was courageous enough to test my recommendations and low and behold, the average transaction value of his sales increased by around 20% (Not the 30% that I had hoped for but close.)”

David is a marketing consultant who works with many different types of companies. We can use his idea in our salons and spas. Read his book “Best Marketing Practices” for more ideas.

The idea presented to the restaurant owner can be modified slightly to work with our salons and spas. It is critical that we simplify our message to our customers and make it easy to do business with us. It is also important to make the services we offer easy to communicate for our front desk and easy to sell for our service providers.

Using these ideas and rules for menu and service development could double your average sales ticket without adding one new customer. That brings up another important fact:

With the number of customers shrinking in a slower economy and the competition increasing for those customers it is important to have the customer getting every possible service from us.

It will increase our retention and increase our sales dollars!

A smart marketer once said, "Confused Minds Always Say NO!" It's true, when you provide too many options to a customer then they get confused and often decide not to buy anything at all.

This marketing principle plays out in many different ways. Read the following examples of how you can implement this important marketing principle:

Example 1 - When asking for referrals, instead of saying, "Do you know anyone who would benefit from my services?" you say, "Is there someone you work with who might enjoy our services?

Example 2 - When selling multiple items, whether on your website or in your ads, or sales posters at your salon/spa always position your best products as "Top Seller" or "Todays Special" or "Best Value."

Example 3 - When advertising retail items only focus on one or two offers or one offer per category. Have a product of the month. Get your distributor to help with a discount you can pass on and free samples to give out. Get free backbar products to use to promote the product of the month.

Example 4 - When in a face-to-face selling situation, find out your customer’s needs and offer only one, or at most, two solutions. Give the customer two options to choose between.

Example 5 - When creating different price points for different packages of goods make one price an obvious choice. Put together a spa sampler for $99. Don’t allow swapping of services in the package.

Get back to your core services. If you have not done a hydrotherapy massage in 4 months get it off your menu. Delete it from your product classes. Take it out of your service inventory! If you direct your staff to concentrate on your core services and script them on selling, supporting and providing those core services you will be more successful.

Promote the things that make your core services unique. You always provide the service with a consultation. You run on time. You have special training in these areas. You have a great track record in the core service area with referrals, awards, and recognition.

Let’s take a haircut for example.

Many salons derive 40% of sales from cutting hair. How can you make your haircut unique? You offer a scalp massage with the precut shampoo. You have a quick conditioner that helps with your cutting technique.

Trademark your core service or name your core service to differentiate it. Your haircuts could be called precision cuts, the perfect haircut, custom cut, or whatever you think matches your core service. You use razor, clippers, or shears based on the look you want to achieve. You always style the hair so no customer leaves without a great look (and an advertisement of your work). You always do a consultation with the cut. You always prescribe the products to maintain the style and show the customer how to use them. You offer to do a free style training if they get home and can’t achieve the style. You always offer a survey card after the service and give a follow up thank you call or mailing.




When you have your core services look at add on services you can bundle with your core items to create a higher average ticket. Upgrade the quick conditioner to a deep conditioner for just $6 more. Add the paraffin treatment to the manicure for only $12. Do a nail art item with every manicure for a special price. Upgrade to a French manicure with hand massage for only $12 more. Combine a mini facial with your massage for just $30 and it only takes an extra 15 minutes. The options and opportunities are endless. They just need to be easy, uncomplicated, and provide a true value for the extra few dollars.




What can we do to get the Front Desk to generate more income, rebookings, and higher retention?

Let=s look at an example of how we can satisfy the customer, create consistency, include following up, and differentiate our business from the competition.

Use the booking of an appointment as an example. Most salons and spas have an interaction when a customer calls for an appointment like this:

The customer calls and asks if they can have an appointment with Mary for next Monday. The receptionist looks and says yes, gets the customer phone number and hangs up.

Now let=s use the model we discussed above to maximize the customer experience during the booking. The customer calls and asks for an appointment next Monday with Mary.

The receptionist says she will check and asks if the customer knows about the salon=s current specials. The customer says no what are they? The receptionist offers a special service that has a unique name (not a conditioning treatment - a hair rejuvenation process) that complements the service being booked and the customer wants to add the service.

The receptionist also asks the customer if they would like a phone or e-mail confirmation and the appointment is booked. The follow up is the confirmation call or e-mail. Look at the difference in the results.

With the new approach the customer is given options, an add-on service is booked, the service has a unique name that the competitors don=t use, and the customer receives a confirmation call. We must create this process with every step of the customer experience.

Using the strategy shown above for creating positive customer contacts will increase your sales and margins because of the upsell, increased customer loyalty by booking added services and naming the services to make them unique, and providing a confirmation call.

You can use our Preceptionist Upsell program to do the add on and upsell items at the time of the appointment and really make the whole system work!




Start with a few services

Script script script

Role play role play role play

Bonus the upsells

Support the upsells with e-mail marketing and table talkers

Celebrate the receptionists that do the upsells – run and post the reports!
Give the appointment booking staff the ability to upsell services to customers. McDonalds doubled their French fry sales at the drive thru window just by asking "will that be a large" when people ordered French fries! Have your appointment booking staff recommend a conditioning service at half price to every haircut customer, or a manicure for half price with every chemical service. Have the receptionist code the appointment for the service and give the receptionist a $ .50 bonus when they upsell the extra service. That way the services you are trying to build are "upsold" and the receptionist has the ability to make an extra $ 1.00 to $ 5.00 an hour!



Offer Slow times first – what an IDEA!

We recommend the use of the Red Yellow Green booking procedure. Define when your most booked days and hours are. These are Red times. Define your medium booked days and times. These are Yellow times. Define your least booked days and times. These are your Green times.

Note: don’t confuse this with your Green Booking times in MIKAL!




If Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. are your least booked times, these should always be offered to the customer first. These are your Green times and need to be filled as a priority! Get the customer to "buy into" the time by mentioning that the operator is slower then and will have the extra time to give the customer some extra attention. If the customer cannot fit into a Green time offer the customer a medium booked day/time selection. This is a Yellow time. If a Yellow time is not acceptable, as a last resort book the customer into a Red time (like a Saturday morning). Most Red times fill quickly, and a successful salon is great at filling the Green times first!

Check the appointment book for WHO booked the slow times and add up the number for each receptionist. Whoever gets the most (or most per hour worked) gets a bonus or dinner for two. Track this monthly. It will also show you (and the receptionists) who is not booking the slow times!

Price Inquiries An Untapped Marketing Area:

All prospective customers asking services and prices should be entered into your system and immediately sent a price menu and a gift certificate valid during their first visit.

Your employees should get the person's name and address before giving any pricing information over the phone. Tell the prospective customer that you need it to send out a detailed price menu and a special new customer gift certificate. The only people who will not give you their name and address are your competitors who are calling around doing price checks!

Just think the day after the customer calls to check on your prices they get a price menu and a gift certificate in the mail. How many of the other salons or spas they called checking on prices will have sent them anything?

What is your present script when someone calls for a price check?






Organize Your Product Displays and Increase Sales:

All retail products need to be labeled with the price. It is also suggested that the salon spa name and phone number be printed on the price label. This makes for a larger label but it shows the customer the name of the salon/spa every time the product is used.

The retail display area needs to be available to customers for examination of the product. Any shelf talkers or product information sheets should be available.

The retail display area needs to be merchandised by product line with each line receiving display area based on the line's contribution to total retail sales. If line XYZ accounts for 60% of your sales the line should receive 60% of your shelf space. If line ABC accounts for 8% of your sales the line should only receive 8% of your shelf space.

Four Corner Your Retail Area





Partnering with your distributors to increase your profits and their shelf space:

When the distributor for line ABC wants more shelf space, he/she can EARN the space by increasing sales as a percentage of total product sales. Ways of doing this include more education, distributor sponsored retail promotions, free samples, an aggressive back bar shampoo and conditioner program, and consumer advertising sponsored by the manufacturer and distributor. Use your Shop Performance Report – Retail Categories to see the percentage each distributor is contributing to sales. Note: also check the Inventory Cost Report for margin – some are not truly 50%................






Even with MIKAL inventory control systems in place keeping inventory carry costs down is a BIG job! Use these ideas to keep your retail products profitable.
A recent conversation with a salon owner reminded me of how much some small (and not-so-small) salons/spas struggle with dead professional inventory. My salon owner related how, slowly, gradually, over time, the percentage of dead retail and professional inventory had grown. And as it was growing, the problem was thought to be modest, because the rate of growth appeared to be modest, so modest measures were taken to deal with it.
An extra markdown here, a special promotion there, but still there seemed to be more of it this month than there was last.
Finally, when the sheer amount of retail and professional inventory involved became inescapable, and the dispensary was so full the door would not open all the way, and the realization came that the measures to deal with it weren't close to being sufficient, the whole thing started to feel overwhelming.

So if you're looking at a build up of dead retail professional inventory, and feel a little overwhelmed by the enormity of it, here are a few ideas to help you get started turning it into cash.

LOW HANGING FRUIT. This is the most desirable retail and professional inventory, the most marketable, and the easiest to sell and turn into cash quickly. It's the quick win. Start here. Break out a size, or item, feature it on a sales table, sign it $ALE, price it to move now 40% off (and no commissions!), and get your cash. When that item sells through, break out next item. If you've been struggling with tight cash flow, this is like a tall cool drink on a hot summer day. Most importantly, if you feel like you've been losing the battle, it's nice to get a win and feel like you're finally making progress. Note: put the sales table in a place where client have to trip over it to check in or cash out.

SLUDGE. We all know intuitively what sludge is: It's the bottom, the worst, the oldest, most shop-worn, most outdated. And it's toxic! When you see it mixed in with or merchandised near low hanging fruit, it makes that look like sludge as well! So get the sludge off the sales floor, away from the rest of your dead professional inventory, and most importantly, away from you customers. The ugly truth is that sludge has little or no market value. It doesn't merit the time and effort necessary to try to sell it. Think about donating it to charity. The resulting tax deduction is one tangible benefit you will receive; another benefit is that the rest of your dead professional inventory won't look quite so bad and will likely be more highly valued by your customers. In the end, if you can't find a charitable organization to donate your sludge to, donate it to your dumpster.



DEVELOP MERCHANDISING AND SELLING STRATEGIES TO MINIMIZE THE IMPACT ON YOUR REGULAR BUSINESS.

The last thing you want your store to look like is that it's going out of business. You want to protect the brand integrity of your store. This is why a slow, steady approach works best, so that your dead professional inventory never represents more than a small piece of your overall offerings. For some salons/spas, it may be a small feature just off the front of the store, or perhaps a dedicated table or rack on a traffic aisle further back in the store.


The Product Consultation and Prescriptive Sales Approach

I hear from owners and managers “Our retail stinks. Everyone is in a rut. They don’t talk retail, they don’t sell it. Our clients are buying shampoo somewhere! What can we do?