Want to attract terrific customers to your salon? Delight them!

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 lovelies. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. I hope business is treating you well as we march through the middle of July. July the 18th. This episode lands in your lovely inboxes, and I hope July is treating you well. Now I'm having some beautiful stories of business success through July, and July can be a bit of a funny one, and it largely depends, of course, on your customer avatar. So, for example, in my own salon, our customer avatar is a mum, a working mum, and as soon as the kids break up from school, we struggle in the salon. And that can be the story for lots and lots of businesses across the world. It just depends on how easy it is for mum to get into the salon as to whether you're busy or not. And then you've got a choice to make, a business choice, a management decision to make, because you can either rage against that, which means lots and lots of marketing through that summer period, to make sure that we stay busy, that we stay profitable over those few weeks, or we can go with it. We can recognise that the business has seasons. Every business has a spring, summer, a fall and a winter. Unfortunately, they don't line up with the calendar seasons. But it's okay to try and sow seeds in the winter, but it's bloody hard work trying to get them to grow. Equally, if you take your harvest in the spring, you're not maximising your returns. So for some salons, for some salon businesses, my own included, summer was actually our business winter. And we just kind of went, okay, it's going to be quiet. It's going to be a struggle. It's going to take a lot of marketing capital, marketing energy for us to market through this quiet period. So we're just going to go with it. We're just going to enjoy it. We're just going to make sure that this is when our team members take their annual leave as much as possible. It's when we invest more in in salon and external training. It's when we just kind of calm things down a little bit. And if you know that that winter is coming, winter is coming, then we can budget for it. We can make sure that in the couple of months running up to the summer holidays, we put a little bit more aside for that slightly quieter time. So how is it for you? Reach out. Let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com.

You know, I adore hearing from my salon owner friends. I always try and start the episode, the podcast episode with a little business lesson from the real world. And actually, this leads us very beautifully into our topic because I have to find a new eyebrow technician. I have to find somebody else to look after my eyebrows. They're in pretty good shape at the moment, but not for much longer. And I'm going to have to find a new salon to go to, which is never fun. I don't particularly enjoy shopping round for salons for my services. That first visit was a bit intimidating. And actually, I've talked about this as part of our new client journey. It's very intimidating for your customers to coming to a new salon where you don't know anybody. You don't know where the toilet is. You don't know whether you're supposed to take a seat or help yourself to a coffee. All of those things can be quite intimidating for a customer. So the more that you can build those bridges and make customers feel comfortable before they even arrive in the salon, the easier that new customer experience is going to be. Anyway, I digress, my darlings. Let's get back on track, Phil. For goodness sake, show some discipline. OK, so I've got to find a new salon because what I've realized is that my existing beauty therapist or previous beauty therapist is out of integrity. And integrity is what I want to talk about today because I obviously I'm quite nosy and I'm not I'm not a liar. I don't go into salons and pretend that I'm somebody different. I know I'm quite happy to share the fact that I'm a salon coach and a business coach. And that means that inevitably we end up with some conversations around the salon business that I'm visiting. And and that's fine, too. I enjoy I'm quite nosy. I like getting my nose into other people's business. And so I've enjoyed these conversations with her over the years. But some recurring theme in these conversations is that she has a lot of last minute cancellations and no shows. And, you know, there are things that we can put into place as far as last minute cancellations and no shows are concerned in terms of booking fees or deposits in terms of the reminders that we send out in terms of just positioning that appointment as important in the client's mind. We'll do an awful lot of that work for you. Anyway, she'd been complaining about this. But the problem is every time I go into that salon, she's running late, which is a bit irritating because it's not a salon in my town. I have to drive there and I have to park and I have to pay for parking and it's a pay in display.

So you have to pay at the beginning and guess how long you're going to actually be using the car park for. And I'm a busy guy. You know, I've got my own business. I support my husband in his salon, too. I've got children that I juggle, too. And, you know, I try and fit in some kind of social life, too. There's a lot of balls that I try and juggle. There's a lot of plates that I keep spinning during my week. So I don't have lots and lots of time. So I thought, I know I will fox her this time. I'll take the first appointment of the day. And I booked the first appointment of the day on a Friday. I traipsed over, parked my car, stood outside and waited and waited and waited. And she turned up late, which kind of annoyed me because I think it's a bit rude. I think it's disrespectful of other people's time to be running late in the first place. Secondly, there was no kind of apology. There was no kind of explanation. You know, it wasn't like, you know, she'd run over a group of children on the way to school or anything. And and I was just a bit cross about it, really. And then, of course, because it was my eyebrows, I had to wait for the wax pot to warm up and things. So actually, the appointment probably took longer than it would have done during the day when she was running late anyway. And I just thought, you know, what's going wrong here? Apart from the standards and practices, and we're going to talk about standards and practices in just a second. But she's out of integrity because she's not showing up as her own perfect client, her own perfect client will position an appointment as important. Turn up on time, spend heavily, I expect, leave a decent tip on the way out and rebook for next time. And she's not positioning that appointment as important in her own mind. So you can't then expect your clients to. Do you see what I mean? This is what we're talking about with integrity. I'm not saying that she's dishonest or a liar. What I'm saying is that she's out of integrity with what she says is an important feature of her business. And we see this with standards and practices, too. So we see people that talk about wanting high quality client, retaining loyal clients with high spend. And then you look at the standards and practices in the salon. That's not a reflection. They're out of integrity with who they want their ideal client to be. So that means raising the standards that you set. And I'm not just talking about the standards and protocols around your services.

I know lots of you take that extremely seriously and have very high standards of practice. But let's have a look at some of the standards around your customer service as well, shall we? What are we doing to make sure that we're getting those word of mouth referrals, retaining those high value clients? How are we positioning customer service as important? And I promise you, it's nothing as boring and dull as promising that you're going to answer the phone in three rings. My God, I've seen so many salons try and put this in as a customer service standard, bearing in mind most of us book our bloody appointments online these days anyway. So I couldn't care less how quickly you're answering your phone. It's how you treat me during that visit. How important do I feel? How are you keeping in touch with me in between appointments? How do I feel like I'm front of your mind in between my visits? What kind of atmosphere are you creating when you're in the salon? And I talked about this last week and I got a little bit of flack because I think somebody knew who I was talking about who used to be a previous team member. We've got that kind of relationship where I can be a bit waspish and a bit shady. Don't worry. But there's lots of people who spend a lot of time in their salons flapping and they're shooting around the salon at 100 miles an hour and trying to give over this atmosphere and this ambience of being busy, particularly when the salon isn't particularly busy, I've noticed. But the atmosphere that you're creating is actually quite chaotic and not terribly relaxing and a lot of clients don't respond well to that. Even if things are falling apart around you, you need to show up as if you're in complete control. Think about the swans, darling. Slide along the surface of the water with elegance and grace, even though underneath the water we could be paddling like crazy, trying to stay afloat. So think about the kind of ambience and atmosphere that you're trying to create. Also, I do think that sometimes we're out of integrity with the marketing, with the branding, with the pricing, with the promotions that we do. It's OK saying that you want high value loyal customers. But are you actually pricing your services to attract high value loyal customers? There's an interesting thing that goes on with pricing. I meet lots of resistance around pricing of services, particularly with salons that aren't doing particularly well. They feel that they can't raise their prices because supply and demand dictates that actually they're going to see less customers. The thing is, there's a lot of perception that comes alongside pricing, too. It's not as easy as supply and demand. Let me explain.

Clarify, Phil. For goodness sake, show some clarity through this fog of words that you're regurgitating into your microphone. OK, I will be more clear. Essentially, what I'm saying is that, yes, it's OK to be a bit anxious about suddenly going from charging, let's say, I don't know, £45 for a basic facial. And then you're going to increase the price to over £50. And there are some people that kind of go, oh, my goodness, we're breaking into a new 10. We're breaking into the 50s now. We're going to lose some clients. They're not going to like it. And I'm really nervous about that. And it's OK to have those thoughts. Yes, there are some clients who will not pay over £50 for a basic facial. They just don't prioritize that as important enough to pay that kind of money. But equally, you're tapping into a new potential clientele because there are clients out there, my darlings. I promise you there are clients out there who don't think you can get a decent facial for less than £50. So, yes, when we increase our prices, we're pricing some people out of the equation, but we're also tapping into a new, more profitable potential target market too. So have a look at your pricing and promotions. Is that an integrity with who it is we're trying to attract into the salon? And then is our marketing and our branding projecting that as well? So it's OK to be chasing those high value, high loyalty clients. Are you putting out high value, high loyalty marketing? What's the impression that I'm getting from your social media? Because if it's a little bit of fun and doing silly dances in the salon, well, that's out of integrity. I'm not judging. There are some clients who will adore that. But are they the ones that you've identified as the ones you want to show up for? Because how you show up for this thing is how you show up for everything. And my mantra, and I promise you, this isn't just coaching guff that I'm throwing at you. This is something that I use again and again and again. Every time I catch myself about to be a bit lazy, about to take a shortcut, about to push the limits of what's acceptable to myself in my business. I ask this question, what would the best version of me do? And I ask this even this morning, I promise you this morning, I didn't want to get out of bed. I had a rough night's sleep. It was a bit hot and sticky last night and I was struggling to get to sleep normally. And one of those annoying people, my head hits the pillow and two minutes later, I'm snoring in the land of nod.

But last night I was tossing and turning a little bit and getting very hot and bothered, not in a good way either. And so I had a rough night's sleep. Alarm was about to go off this morning. I usually wake up just before the alarm. Spooky, isn't it? And I thought, oh, should I just take the morning? Should I have a little lie in? Should I give myself an extra hour or two in bed? And then I asked that question, what would the best version of me do? Because guess what happens over time? If you keep acting like the best version of you, guess what you're turning into? You're turning into the best version of you. You're in integrity with the values and beliefs that you've set out that you've decided are important for your ongoing success. I hope that's been useful to you. I hope it's been a bit inspiring. I hope you've been able to join me over on YouTube. Now, a little word of warning. So I've committed to doing a weekly podcast. Honestly, I'm finding the YouTube videos a bit time consuming. I don't think I can commit to every week on that, even though the best version of me, I'm sure he would. But I'm struggling a little bit to get it to work in my calendar. So I'm still committed to a weekly podcast. If there's a topic that you'd like me to cover, please reach out. Let me know. This is just me talking to a camera and a microphone in a room on my own. I'd love to hear what it is that you'd like some help with in your salon business. So just seven short days until I'm coming in your ears again on the podcast. It might be a couple of weeks till you get a video on YouTube. But please head over to the Build Your Salon podcast available on all of your favorite podcast platforms. And until we speak again, please 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.