How Improving your Salons Skincare Consultations will Increase your Sales

If you want to sell more services and home care products, improve your consultation!

It is a beauty therapist’s job to treat people’s skin. Therefore, it is imperative that a thorough consultation is conducted for every client that undergoes a beauty treatment or wants to buy products. This can help improve salon customer service and increase sales in beauty retail. It should be the goals of beauty therapists to offer high quality service and help clients. There are two very significant reasons for doing a skin analysis: 1. It provides a point of difference for the therapist when compared to purchasing from a store or pharmacy. In a salon, the client is recommended specific products that are determined by a skin specialist to produce the best possible results. 2. Once a client places herself in the position of allowing you to look closely at her skin, you now have the right to prescribe home care products as well as in salon treatments. The simple fact that you are standing over the client in a position of authority, as an expert in your field, allows you to direct the client towards the most appropriate skin care products.

How to carry out a skincare consultation?

There are 3 stages: 1. To explain to the client what you are planning for today’s service. 2. What home care is needed to reinforce the benefits of today’s treatment, and 3. What the plan is for the next follow on treatment, as a single once off service will have a very limited result. All treatments are based on what you discover during the consultation, but from now on, remember to include home care items suggestions. Mention to the client at this stage, that you may be recommending items to improve her home care regime. That way she has time to think about it and she will be more prepared to purchase at the end of the service. Start to think of treatments and home care as a combined service, and communicate this to the salon client. Your client probably thinks of your salon in terms of services only and your retail competition for her products. Educate your clients that you provide both services and retail items, which will give her the best possible outcome.

Ask relevant Questions

The best way to accomplish a great consultation is to ask relevant questions, enabling you to establish your client’s needs. Attention to detail is the key to a successful beauty salon customer service. Asking questions is a skill which needs to be practised, especially if you want to find out what your client thinks. How you frame your questions has to be considered. Start to give as much attention to the questions and the consultation process, as the treatment. There are two types of questions: open and closed. 1. Closed questions are to be avoided as the client needs only to answer yes or no, making having a conversation quite difficult. 2. Open or leading questions will require a more detailed response and are a good way to break the ice, helping to put a new client at ease. After you ask a question, the next step is obviously to listen to the answer. Learn when to stop talking and when to listen. If you want to increase your sales in beauty retail, remember to discuss the client’s current home care regime. Ask in depth questions about current product usage. If the client uses lots of products, that is brilliant because she is used to purchasing home care. If she is a soap and water user, that is equally brilliant because now you can educate this client on the benefits of investing in your quality products.

Keep a written record

Remember that consultations are a legal requirement. In the event of a problem arising, failure to perform a consultation could invalidate your insurance. But, as well as a legal requirement, you need to keep a written record of details because you will need to information to refer back to for future appointments. And, update the written records each time the client visits. For salon marketing purposes, be vigilant about recording correct personal details. If it is the client’s first visit to the salon, ask her to come a few minutes early to complete the paperwork. Otherwise, you will be under time pressure, if treatment time is taken up completing a consultation card. Don’t spend too long on the consultation, just allow sufficient time to ensure all information is collected and recorded. Never stand over the client when doing a consultation, as this can be intimidating. When offering good salon customer services, it is a good idea to have a copy of the salon and retail price list to hand. You are in a position of trust. Clients trust you with their most important information and it is vital that this information is stored correctly, from a sensitivity perspective. But, also for data protection – this is your responsibility and the client is well within her rights to take a claim against you, if confidential information gets into the wrong hands. Remember to always under promise & over deliver!