Recent Posts

Hi

There are a few businesses that close on Mondays and Wednesday afternoons.  You could target them with a promotion as their leisure time could be your busy time.
I wouldn't close on Mondays and then have all your staff in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays if you are quiet.  Why not stay open on Mondays and stagger your staff days off over the first 3 days of the week?  I know you will have other overheads to cover by opening on Mondays but it is worth trying new approaches which could even save you these!  Such as taking your services mobile on Mondays.  Why not try corporate massage or use the time for promotional events?
Let me know how you get on

Hi

Any tips on how to make Mondays - Wednesdays busier?  It's always slower with maybe the odd walk ins but really need to make some changes as it hardly feels worth opening.

Thanks

In my experience it is worth still chasing this client.  Do you have her address from any record cards?  I would write to her, keep a copy and carry on with the calls.  If you get no response then it may be worth contacting citizens advice who may be able to advise about small claims procedures or do you know anyone on the legal side who could let you know of any costs involved if you wanted to take further action?  It may also be worth contacting Business Link as they sometimes have resources where you can get legal advice, or will certainly point you in the right direction.
Hope this helps and you get the result you need 

How can I get my money back? The client has had the treatments and took some products, but on banking the cheque it has been stopped.
The client booked an appointment and then didn't show, now she is ignoring my calls, I have left voice messages and she left a message on the answer machine back but is evading my calls again.
Was thinking small claims court or solicitor. How would I go about this ?

Any advice would be good 

In 2010, unfortunately, one size will not fit all.  You have a market of one but you have lots of them. Give each of them what they need.

For those who have a slow frequency of visit = Give them a reason to pre-book adn get regular
For those that don't buy retail = Give them a reason to start by getting them into the products for less
For those that have only one service = Give them an aggressive discount for having a second
For those who have never referred anyone = give them a neatly packaged gift card to pass to a friend
For those that haven't been in for a while = Reach out to them and tell them you've noticed their absence

You get the idea!

When you publicise discounts or any added benefit to EVERY client.  You will lose what you gain by discounting items that many clients were perfectly happy paying for anyway.

Good Luck.

To echo LucyD 's response.  Making the effort to contact clients with expiring gift certificates removes or diminishes the clients claim to reinstate that certificate. Basically, your client AND you won't feel bad about declining or being declined.

I am involved with supplying technology to salons and spas throughout Europe and one of the biggest challenges we come up against are owners that feel happy to have clients with amounts that expire.  Reaching out to these clients is a great service story and another step towards creating "fiercly loyal" clients rather than "merely satisfied" clients. 

You can't just make efforts to reach out to clients when its in YOUR interest! (appt confirmations, promotions etc) you need to show you also have their interests in mind as well.

Expired amounts are really bad for business!  Those clients will think twice about every additional pound they spend with you - IF they spend with you at all.

1. Create one standard that meets with your own vision and expectations.

2. Document it into as few words as you can possibly use (the less room for individual interpretation the better).

3. Makes sure everyone KNOWS the standard and has the capability to meet the standard (offer training if necessary)

4. Sit back and measure but be prepared to step in with encouragment when the standard slips (it inevitibly will)

**TIP** When you are creating your standard think about taking photos of certain aspects.  Images leave less room for individual differences in interpretation. i.e. How you want the room prepared, how you want the couch draping folded and so on.

YES!

Every pound you ever made came from a customer.

If you use a computer, answermachine or offer a list of boring options to greet your customer - you lose. The relationship won't even get off the ground.  If there is too much down time to justify someone to solely meet & greet clients, think about redifining the role to incorporate more.  
My company refers to it as a front desk professional and done well, can be the ultimate "communication" position helping keep everyone up-to-date with your daily targets.  How many clients bought retail, how many pre-booked their next visit, how far away from our service goal are we, etc etc.

We all look for different ways to boost retail sales, and a local salon that my wife went into this weekend had a brilliant idea, which I'm not too proud to nick and share!

Her hairdresser always tries to sell her retail products, and she usually resists, except this time, she was given an offer combined with a great idea - she was sold a *huge* bottle of a liquid hairspray (in a pump bottle), but the hairdresser suggested that she decant some of it into a smaller spray bottle to keep in her handbag to make it more convenient for use on the go.

This is clever in a couple of ways - firstly, if it is in her handbag, she will use the product on primping trips to the loo, so she'll use far more spray than she would ordinarily (so will use up the big bottle quickly and return to buy more).  Secondly, the hairdresser has sold a big retail product with a hefty price tag (and hefty margin!) so she's on the way to hitting her sales target more easily.

For most salons, this approach can be used for a wide range of products - huge bottles of moisturiser which can double as hand cream for chapped hands in the winter months, shampoo to take to the gym, etc.  You could even stock some of the little bottles for people to buy alongside their products - your local Poundshop should have packs of customs-friendly travel bottles that will serve the purpose brilliantly.  If you assume that these will cost about 25p per bottle, you could even give them away free with the larger products - a slight dip in margin, but you'll sell more, bigger products.

For more ideas on boosting your retail sales, download the salon-docs retail training podcasts (like a 'teach yourself French" CD, but to help you sell more retail products!) http://www.salon-docs.com/Podcasts.htm, or indeed, plan ahead for the traditionally quiet January and February by planning extra marketing with our Marketing podcasts.

I think you need to look at your clientelle and see if there are any patterns of previous promotions that have appealed to them.  You may find that open evenings have worked well but 10% off in March was still really quiet.  Stick with the ones that work and theme them depending on the time of year or event you are promoting, such as summer or valentines day for example.
If you are starting from scratch then you can look at a mixture of promotions as different themes will appeal to different people.  You should find that there will be a theme of popular choices.  Be carefull that you don't always discount your treatments as you don't want clients to feel you are having to always lower your prices as they were too expensive in the first place or because you are really struggling.  I do think people like value for money, promotions such as free eye lash tint with your facial or free back massage with every body scrub.  Use a treatment which you are giving away with low product cost.  Bring a friend for free always works well in quiet times. Typically January and June are quiet months in the Indusrty so look for really good promotional ideas for then.  Work with your product house, can they help with any 'give aways' with certain treatments?  Good luck and I'm sure you will have a great 2010