Salon Today - July 2008 - (Page 34)

in the bag SALON TODAY taps salon coaches and sales-savvy owners to address some of the biggest hindrances to retail, helping you ring in a healthy cha-ching at your cash register: Q. How should I introduce my new employees to retailing? Q. What’s the most effective method for retailing? A. “It should start even earlier,” says Patricia Owen, owner of the skin-focused Faces DaySpa, BeautyBoutique and SpaShoppe in Hilton Head, South Carolina. “We include questions about retailing in our interviewing process.” Kristi Valenzuela, success coach, speaker and owner of the consulting ﬁrm Crystal Focus, Inc., suggests that it can be as easy as handing the applicant a red pencil and asking her to attempt to sell you the product. “They may feel silly, but what you’re looking for is their willingness to try. If they push it aside and say they can’t do that, chances are they won’t attempt to retail your products either.” Once you’ve made the hire, retail training needs to be an integral part of your orientation and training program. Valenzuela recommends developing a retailing system, writing it down, scripting the pitch, and role-playing the system during orientation. “Finally, draft an agreement that says they’ve been introduced to the system and agree to play by the rules, and ask new employees to sign it the ﬁrst day. It makes them take retail seriously.” But make sure all your employees play by the retail rules, or your new employees will quickly backslide into bad habits. Valenzuela saw the power of an entire organization in retail action when she recently coached a salon in Round Beach, Illinois. “Their retail to service ratio was a startling 23 percent, where the national average is about 8 percent,” she says. “We kept questioning the math, but found the ratio was right—so we took a hard look at the system. We found that when appointments were booked, the front desk advised clients of upcoming product specials. When clients checked in, they were again reminded of specials and told to ask their service providers what products would work best for them. Service providers talked about products during the service and at the shampoo bowl. At the end of the service, the stylists pulled recommended products and handed them to the client as they checked out. It’s solid and it’s brave, but because everyone in the salon did it, it didn’t feel uncomfortable, and it worked.” A. While there are many systems that work, it boils down to the trusted professional recommendation. “The saddest thing for me is the missed opportunity to make a client feel happier or more beautiful by advising them of the right products to maintain their style,” says Peter Millard, owner of Millard Design and the author of Reinventing Space: The Clear Logic to Successful Salon Design and Retail Merchandising. “What if you had a bad cold and your physician gave you a concoction to drink at your appointment? You immediately feel better, but your physician didn’t tell you what he gave you, and your symptoms return several hours later. How mad would you be to ﬁnd out he gave you Theraﬂu, which you could easily have bought over the counter and felt better all along?” Salon owners use many systems for relaying product knowledge into a professional recommendation. Some require stylists to pull products and place them in a basket to await the client at checkout. Others have stylists list individual product recommendations on paper. Valenzuela prefers a simple system she refers to as the two-step process. The person checking in lets clients know about product promotions, the shampoo assistant talks about the products used during the shampoo, and the stylist continues the education chairside. “During the service, the stylist places the products on the station with the label facing out. As each product is used, it’s moved closer to the client.” Q. How can I get my staff to take retail seriously? A. The most effective retail systems directly tie retail goals to an employee’s ability to advance in the salon. Daired Ogle, owner of Daired’s Salon and Spa Pangea in Arlington, Texas, maintains a system where staff providers advance through a series of levels with goals set in retail, retention, pre-booking and conditioning treatments sold. “When a staff member accomplishes these goals and maintains them for a period of three months, they are promoted where they can charge more money for their work and they receive a new title. Each time they receive a promotion, they are given new goals.” Employees are evaluated weekly, and management discusses strategies for improving if necessary. “Our main goal is to elevate our customer service level, and all these areas we measure tie together, doing them all well we really are creating a great experience for our guests.” “The saddest thing for me is the missed opportunity to make a client feel happier or more beautiful by advising them of the right products to maintain their style.” —Peter Millard 34 | July 2008 www.salontoday.com http://www.salontoday.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Salon Today - July 2008

Salon Today - July 2008 Contents Editor's Note Reception Fashion Sense Roundtable FirstAdvice Spa Menu Décor Share Tactics Perfectly Polished In the Bag 25 Years of Growth Products Owner to Owner

Salon Today - July 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.