Salon Today - August 2008 - (Page 34)

clients were recommended retail products and then how many of the recommended clients had those sales close,” Renaud says. “This allows your staff training to be very targeted.” Reavis suggests programming your goalsetting in units rather than dollar amounts. “Stylists can visualize bottles,” she notes. “Percentages and ratios are the worst way to introduce the concept; you can develop that culture, but it takes time. At the beginning, have your staff aim that for every two hair cuts they do, they will sell one bottle. Now they’re applying retail to something they can relate to.” COMING NEXT Leadership always counts in the salon industry, and so it is with retail: It’s probably more critical for the owner to master the retail software system than for anyone else on staff. Notes Scudder, “A ‘power user’ still uses only 60 percent of our system.” And before you know it, there will be more to learn. New developments are surfacing all the time to drive business growth. Many are salon adaptations of advancements that have shown success in other retail venues. “As online booking increases, I can see retail being more available online,” forecasts Mace. “The client could order the products at the time of booking so that everything is ready when she checks out.” Other forms of self-service may also be on the horizon. Software Creations already has a kiosk in place at some salons that lets clients input their own information into their client proﬁle. “When they do it themselves, the information goes in correctly,” says Renaud. “This is a forward-thinking opportunity that makes a salon look high-tech and professional.” Renaud also predicts that PDAs for stylists will become commonplace. The latest innovation in that regard is the PDA equipped with a credit card slide and a receipt printer. Renaud notes, “Toward the end of the day, the front desk staff can walk over to the remaining clients and say, ‘I’ll ring you out right now so that you won’t be rushed and your stylist can take her time ﬁnishing.’” Another method implemented by one of Renaud’s salon customers has a concierge walking from station to station with her PDA and inputting what the stylist is recommending so that the stylist can seamlessly continue educating the client. Meanwhile, salon owners have enough going on with today’s technology that Pagliaro reports Milano’s accounts increasing retail by an average of 29 percent the year the salon begins using the software’s full capabilities. “The stylist knows the client, knows her hair and has the product knowledge,” says Pagliaro. “All of the software’s components, together with the stylist’s expertise, will help to retain the sales within the professional industry. When salons can maximize sales and maximize the productivity of their space, everyone wins.” n

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

Salon Today - August 2008 Contents Editor's Note Reception Roundtable Decor Down to Business Get with the Program Products Owner to Owner

Salon Today - August 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.