Why Measuring Everything In Your Salon Means RESULTS!

http://www.salonpunk.com/salontips/salon-tools1.htm

Why Measuring Everything In Your Salon Means RESULTS!
Alan here.
How many new clients did you have two months ago?
How many of them have become regulars? If not, do you know why not?
What is your average ticket price?
What was it 3 months ago?
Has it increased or decreased?
Why has it?
How many clients did you do this week?
How many clients did you do last week?
Is it constant, if it is you must be losing some, because if your feeding in clients one end and the number of clients you are doing is the same you must have a whole in the bucket?.
Where is it?
What is it?
Who is it?

You must measure everything to keep up into days market. Look at what all the big guys do( I mean Wal-Mart, Starbucks) do you think they measure? Yep they spend thousands doing it.

Book out time to get these things done yeah you may have to turn one or two client ‘s away to get time to do it but the rewards are amazing. As I always say “where you put your focus is where you get your results”

Try new things out and then measure them! How did that perform if you move the clock in the salon do the stylists run on time better? You can laugh but I did this and it worked. You see sometimes the silliest little things make all the difference.

A perfect team
Make your team perfect, yep that’s right look at them what things do you need to change to make them perfect, you know the stuff I am talking about “Mary would be so much better if she would just talk to her clients” WELL TRAIN HER DEVELOP HER COMMUNICATION SKILLS” if you cant then send her on a course then when she get back to the salon get her to teach the rest of the team!

You Know what some of the things we miss tend to be right under our noses. YES OUR CLIENTS. We spend thousands a year on marketing in this industry yet how much time do we spend getting our clients (the converted) talking about us to their friends and family, work colleges. Yes I am talking about “word of mouth” this is becoming one of the latest buzz words in the marketing world and we have our clients sitting with us for 1,2,or even 3 hours and we talk about Holidays, boyfriends and girlfriends, TV shows how long do you actually talk about hair and do you think those Salons that are really flying DON’T talk hair? Well you would be wrong guess what they do…….

Create great personal service, look at all the big guys they are trying to develop ways to create that personal feel into their companies and spending millions doing it. We are able to do that every day and easily so make sure you do!

Some wise words
A Fantastic bench mark is a happy client
Look after your team and they will look after your clients
The world has changed clients don’t want good customer service they want an unforgettable experience
Alan

Well you may think I am going over the top but guess what there are loads of salons out there that are definitely "not" controlled by the salon owner.
So who controls the Salon.
Listen I have been there and I know how it feels to not have control. There are stylists that love the feeling of "we run the salon" ( you know who I am on about ) and you know what happens then don’t you… the others love to follow them.

This is what happens.
New Stylist come to the salon and thinks they are top dog… irreplaceable. To some extent we might put them in that position after all good top stylists are hard to come by.
So are we treating them like Demi gods being frightened to show them the rules… letting them do their own thing as long as they bring in the money.
It does happen…I have let them do it in my salon. There is there a solution… if you dare to do it
Listen it is easy but can be hard… very hard.
So why the contradiction? Easy the bottom line is we need to take the cash. No money we are sunk… right.
So what do we do? Really want my advice on this? You need to get rid of them.
Why? If you don’t they "will destroy your business" and guess what. When they have destroyed it… they move on and I have seen it happen. They go for a new job and you are left in tatters.

I have been low with this one in the past and it hurts. I have gone from 8 stylists to 1 in a space of weeks. Why? Because I did not act on what I could see going on in my own salon at the time.
You can though and avoid the pain I have gone through in the past.

So there are steps you can take to avoid this happening.
· Build in to your salon a new training program ( this will guarantee you have a constant stream of new home bred talent. It works for Manchester United and "will" work for you also. Ring your local training colleges or your suppliers they may be able to help you).
· Create a induction day for the salon ( this ensures that any new comers will know from day one what is expected from them and of course… GET IT IN WRITING contract… )
· Improve your interviewing technique ( this will increase your success in getting the right people dramatically )
· Know the big picture for your salon ( know the big picture means that you know exactly what you want from your salon long term. Know this and stick to it and you are on to a winner )
· Persevere… persevere… persevere ( when you know where you are going perseverance over comes virtually everything NEVER GIVE UP )
Now I know the above is only a quick guide but it will work for you. DO NOT do anything stupid now by rushing back to the salon and sacking everyone ( although I know you might want to ) or you could end up with a big unfair dismissal claim on your hands but start to plan ahead NOW and set you mind on what you really want from your salon.
Alan