The Golden Touch: Perfecting Client Experiences in Your Salon

Sit down and see what's going on with the Queen of Salons. Hair, beauty, and more successful tips for business owners. All on Build Your Salon. Hello, hello, hello, my salon friend. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. Your old Uncle Phil here, your Queen of Salons, coming in your ear with more wisdom. And welcome to the Build Your Salon podcast. I can't remember how many episodes we've done. It's about a million now, I think. It feels like I've been doing these forever. Bless me. Anywho, how are you? And how are you particularly if you are my listeners down in Melbourne? I've never been to Australia, but I've just been checking my statistics for my podcast downloads and Melbourne is right up there in the top five. So you're very welcome here. It's wonderful that I could be reaching right across the world with my little message. Never been to Australia, never been down under at all, never been invited. So please, by all means, reach out phil at buildyoursalon.com, drag me over, pay me as a consultant, throw a business class flight in there, and let's make a dream come true for someone today, shall we? Okay, my dears, what are we talking about today? Well, today we're talking about client experience, customer service, and customer loyalty. Building, actually, on a topic, we had a bit of a workshop, a bit of a brainstorming session and workshop when I was on my delicious salon owner's retreat over in Lanzarote last month. And this was a topic that a couple of delegates wanted to talk about. So we workshopped it together, and it was fascinating to understand what was in place in different salons, what could be in place, what we could be striving for as far as customer experience is concerned. And I also want to emphasise the need to share this around your team a little bit, and we'll come to that a little bit later. So how do we deliver an exceptional client experience? Why do we want to deliver an exceptional client experience? Well, to be blunt, there are too many salons around. Here in the UK alone, I estimate there are about 20% too many salons for everyone to make a brilliant living. That means we've got to stand out in a very crowded marketplace, and retaining clients is an absolute must. It's expensive to keep a flow of new clients running through a business. So if we can deliver exceptional client experiences, we've got more chance of keeping people in the business.

The other thing is, to be honest with you, this is a business, not a charity, not a social project for most of us. And that means if we want to deliver exceptional client experiences, guess what we get to do? We get to charge exceptional prices. And I want us to be pricing high. I've always said to you that my personal belief is that the middle ground is going to disappear, and it's happening quicker and quicker. I'm being proved right, which is a lovely feeling for once in my lifetime. But I've always said that you either need to be bottom end, no appointment necessary, grab a seat, we'll get to you when we can. Or you need to be top end, delivering an exceptional experience that a client's going to remember, that they're going to share on social media so that you don't have to, and so that they're going to keep wanting to come back for more, and that we can charge properly for. And I think that the polarisation of our marketplace since COVID has happened more and more. I think that there are more people that have flexibility around their work hours now. There are more people that are prioritising experiences because they've realised that actually life is short. And if you can go and get yourself a bog standard haircut, which doesn't really turn heads or make you feel amazing about yourself, versus a client experience, which makes you feel incredible before you've even left the salon and got anybody's feedback, of course there's no contest. And I think people are willing to spend on those experiences. The other thing that I think has been really interesting during this, and I'm using inverted commas now, darlings, this cost of living crisis, and I would love someone to invite me on a podcast to have an argument about the cost of living crisis. What's happened is that we thought that everyone was going to stop spending completely. That hasn't happened, or certainly not in the salons that I'm coaching. What's happened instead is people are reprioritising their spending. What we need to bear in mind during a cost of living crisis is there's not less money around. There's not less money in the world than there was yesterday or the day before. In fact, there's probably more being pumped into economies around the world. There's more money being processed, being pushed through banks. It's just that the flow of money is slowing down. That's what happens during a cost of living crisis. But I think what people have been doing is saying, actually, I'm okay going to the beauty salon or the hair salon, as long as I feel amazing at the end of it and I get some results that are tangible, and I can see that it's an investment in myself and self-care. Where people are cutting back is maybe that second holiday, that ski trip, those extra weekends away. That's where they're cutting back a little bit.

And I think they're actually freeing up more money for self-care by not taking that second holiday. And if you compare us making people feel brilliant several times a year for a few hundred pounds, compared to the few thousand pounds that you might drop on a family holiday for a week, well, actually, we're a bit of a bargain, aren't we? Anyway, I digress a little, though I do think it's important points, actually. If you disagree, please fill at buildyoursalon.com. I love a decent argument. So how do we make sure we're delivering these exceptional client experiences? Well, the first thing is your communication has to be amazing. Two-way communication. That means not only receiving information from your customers, through your consultations and through decent listening skills, but also keeping them informed around new services that you have, relevant updates, things that are happening in the business, your social media updates, though don't over-egg the pudding, and we talked about this last week, special promotions that you've got coming up. Make sure that communication is open and two-way. Now, the one thing I will say is if you're employing people in your business, and I know lots and lots of you are, and thank you for doing it, because you are the guardians of our industry for the future, but do bear in mind we have a generation coming into the workplace now, actually probably one and a half generations, nearly two generations of people, who do not communicate brilliantly well one-to-one. Face-to-face communication is not their forte, and you're going to have to train this stuff. You're going to have to teach them how to deliver effective communication so that we can deliver an amazing client experience. You're going to have to work really hard on making sure they are comfortable in one-to-one conversations, because you and I take it for granted. You and I, us who are a bit longer in the tooth, we're much better at building those quite intimate relationships very, very quickly with our customers. That's not so. Don't take it for granted. Yes, they might have got through the interview process unscathed. It doesn't mean when they're meeting Nellie, who's been coming to your salon for 30 years, and she's quite a bit older, and they're struggling for stuff in common, it doesn't mean they're not going to struggle. Part of that effective communication is something that I'm seeing taken much more seriously these days, which is consultation. We need those personalized consultations so that we can understand our clients' needs, their preferences, their goals, and taking time to tailor that consultation is absolutely vital.

And in fact, this is something that we made into one of our promises. So you may have heard me mention in a previous episode, our salon five-point promise. And one of the promises was that you would get a full consultation every single time because I prioritized this as part of the client experience. Now, that took some doing because the consultation that you have for a new client might feel very different to the consultation that I have with, let's say, one of my best old regulars, not old in the age sense, but old as in she's been coming for a very long time, Pat, who comes to us at least once a week for a blow dry and has the same colour on her roots every single week and has done for nearly 20 years, my listeners. How does her consultation look? How do I make sure I'm giving her a full consultation and promising her that I will? So we had to have some team meetings around what a full consultation meant. And it meant that we would be asking how things were from last time, offering ideas for next time, making aftercare recommendations, talking about lifestyle and upkeep in between visits, now those things might be a very short conversation with Pat and might be a much longer conversation with a brand new customer, but those points have to be hit every single time. That way, if somebody comes to me and says, I'm going to pull you up on this promise, Uncle Phil, I'm going to pull you up on the promise that you said I was going to get a full consultation and I didn't, I can say, did you get some ideas for next time? Did you get aftercare recommendations? And if there's ticks in all those boxes, then a full consultation happened. So those consultations are vital every single visit, every single time. We're going to come back to consistency a little bit later. Ultimately, though, all of this relies on active listening. And if you need to do some research, jump onto YouTube, find yourself some videos on active listening. There's plenty of information out there. It is a real skill, but because it's a skill, not a talent, you're not born with it. It's something we can work on. It's something that we can get better at. And it's something that your team members need to be getting better at too. Are you feeling like you're stuck in a rut? Like you're just going through the motions or that whatever you do, the next level in your business stays just out of reach. Well, it's time to shake things up. With one-to-one coaching, you'll have buckets of support, inspiration, and accountability to help you bring the buzz back to your salon business.

Whether you're looking to achieve a specific goal or just feeling that things are lonely at the top and you want someone to coach you to be the best version of yourself, I am here to support you. And don't worry, even though it's called coaching, I won't make you join a gym and I will never suggest you give up your Toblerone habit. What's the alternative? More of the same? Come on, you can do better than that. Ping me an email at phil at buildyoursalon.com with the subject line coaching and I will send you all the details. I can't wait to help you on your journey to salon success. Aside from communication, how do we deliver this amazing customer experience then, Phil? How do we keep our customer service high? Well, it's about understanding the journey of the client through your salon. And of course, that journey begins way before they set foot in the premises. We need to understand how that client journey begins on our website, on our social media, on our booking process, on our reminders, all the way through, all these touch points that happen before they've even met us face to face. How do we enhance that client experience? I actually think for a new client who's maybe been loyal somewhere else for a number of years, to come to you for the first time is a big deal. Coming into a new salon is intimidating. And the more we can do to build that relationship, the better we can make that experience before they come in, the more relaxed they're going to be, the more they're going to enjoy that first visit with us, the more we can reduce that anxiety about setting foot into a new space. And it could be some simple stuff. And we've done lots of work with my one-to-one clients on this new client journey. And if you'd like a podcast on it, then reach out, let me know. We've done lots of work on how can we make people feel comfortable with a salon before they get there? Maybe we do need a little walkthrough video on our website so that they understand what the environment's going to be like. Maybe they do need a little personalised email from you, just introducing you and telling them what your values might be. We need to be training our teams on effective customer service, making sure that they're attentive, making sure they're friendly, making sure they're responsive to client needs, making sure they're listening, understanding how we might be able to wow a client, how we might be able to go that extra step to making sure that our client experience is amazing.

You know, if they suddenly hear that a client's parking is about to expire and they're worried about getting a ticket, is there someone available who could run out, put another ticket on that client's car? You know, if they're not, if it's a small town like the town where I operate, it's not a huge town. There's only a couple of car parks they might be in. It's not going to take us more than five minutes to pop out, put another pound on somebody's parking and make sure they're not going to get a ticket. So they can relax and enjoy the end of their visits. Is that not possible? Then your salon as well. We need to be looking out for these queues. And when you might say, well, we can't afford to do that. You know, maybe you're going to ask the client for the pound. That would be a bit cheap. But what if you put that pound in for them? Well, how can we afford to do that? Well, that brings me on to something else, which is talking about fostering loyalty. And what we're not talking about, for me anyway, is loyalty programs. I don't believe in them. Where people can save up visits, save up points to get discounts or a reward after an amount of time. And the reason I don't like it is I don't believe it's actually fostering loyalty. I think actually what we're doing is a discount under a different name. And I'm not against discounts per se, but I don't like discounting as a matter of routine. And I think that's what a lot of loyalty programs are about. So we stripped out our loyalty programs. And what that did was free up a certain amount of budget for providing exceptional service. All of the money we would have been giving away in those discounts and rewards and perks for those inverted commas loyal clients, we suddenly had a budget for making our client experience amazing. For those pounds that we could put on people's parking. For somebody running late, didn't have time to grab themselves a sandwich, can we pop to the shop next door and grab them a sandwich and a drink for them to have on their way back to work? All those little things, those little surprise and delights that we're looking for. Unexpected gestures, tiny gifts to show appreciation. It could be something as simple as just somebody popping next door and grabbing a birthday card because you happen to know that it's someone's birthday. Or maybe giving someone a sample of a new product that would normally cost you a couple of pounds. Or maybe even just saying, do you know what, you've been loyal for a while now. How about I upgrade your service today? I've got time to do it. Why not try our deluxe facial instead? These little unexpected surprises, I think, work a lot better in wowing and enhancing a client experience. Much more so than a few points. And to be honest, if you've had a stinking visit at my salon,

if we've really cocked things up and you're thinking of going somewhere else, does the fact that you've got 200 points on your loyalty card make a damn difference? Of course it doesn't. You're still going to go somewhere else. It's not going to be enough to keep you in the business. It's not fostering and maintaining loyalty. But I'm telling you now, all of this stuff is amazing. Those little surprise points, those little delights that we're throwing to our clients on an unexpected basis. Perhaps we're doing personalised follow-ups after someone's appointment, checking in, asking for feedback, responding to that feedback, taking it on board, making sure that our whole journey through the salon is surprising and delighting people at every touchpoint, making sure our teams are trained, they've got exceptional communication skills. All of that will fall down if you can't do it consistently. You are only as good as your worst day. There is no point in delivering exceptional experience on one visit and then lousy experience on the next. And you'll know this is happening in your business if you're not getting referrals. If your clients aren't referring you to their friends and family, that's because they like you, they trust you, they know you, but you're not consistent enough for them to recommend you to someone else. Because they don't trust you not to be having a bad day and it's embarrassing to recommend someone to somewhere that lets people down. So if you're not getting referrals, look at your consistency. And sometimes, my dears, and this sounds counterintuitive, I know, sometimes it's actually better to lower the standard of service but deliver it consistently than it is to deliver an inconsistent service, to be great one day and lousy the next. We did this with our receptionists. So we were a small salon at the time that I was making the decision. We could only afford one full-time receptionist. The problem is, a full-time receptionist is not full-time cover because they have a lunch break, they have comfort breaks, they have days off, they have holidays. So it meant that the experience that somebody received during the day on a Tuesday was different to the experience that they received, let's say, on my receptionist day off on a Thursday. They might be waiting a bit longer for the call to be answered. They might be waiting a bit longer in reception without refreshment. They might be waiting a bit longer to check out because the stylist had to do it themselves.

So we made the decision, in fact, to sack the receptionist that we had and find a different way of doing business that we could consistently offer rather than having this inconsistency in service, something to think about. And that consistency can only come through training, and I'm afraid, processes and procedures. And I know processes and procedures aren't sexy. I know that putting systems in place is not the most joyful thing to do for your business. But do you know what's joyful? It's when these things become automatic, when these things become routine. And we talked about routines in last week's podcast. I hope that's been useful to you. I hope it's been helpful. I hope it's got the little grey cells firing a little bit with ideas. If you implement anything from this podcast, please reach out. Let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com I love hearing from you, wherever you are in the world, on what you're doing with your business. Honestly, it always baffles me, bewilders me, and fills me with joy that there are so many more things we have in common, even if you are in a different place in the world. Let me whiz through some of the places where people are listening. Columbus, never been there. Denver, London, Dublin, Dubai, places I can't even pronounce. And yet, we have so many things that unite our businesses week after week after week. We're all having the same struggles. We're all having the same problems, the same difficulties. Might be with a different accent, might be with a different flavour. But my goodness, we all struggle in the same way. So reach out, let me know, and let me know what you need help with. I'm literally talking to myself in a room on my own. I would love to know how I can serve you best. If you've got two minutes to share this episode with someone you love and someone who could use it, and maybe 30 seconds to leave me a five-star review, that would absolutely make my week. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your ears again. Until then, take care. Sit down and see what's going on With the queen of salons Hair and more Successful tips for business owners All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon All on Build Your Salon

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