Effective verbal communication in the salon is an integral part of an efficient and successful business. It ensures that everybody understands their duties, role and responsibilities, ensures quality customer service, engenders good working relationships and keeps staff engaged and productive.
If you want to ensure employee satisfaction and promote high performance, then prioritize effective communication. To become a better communicator means consistently improving your interpersonal skills and communication habits, such as:
- Reflect before you speak. As you pay attention to how you engage with your team and how they respond, you will begin to express yourself with a fundamental consistency that others will notice and respect.
- Communicate as authentically as possible, and always back up your words with actions that reinforce them.
- Connect with others, as your professional success depends on your ability to collaborate with your team, senior management, suppliers and clients. Demonstrate your respect for others and build a reservoir of goodwill to tap into when challenging problems or situations arise.
- Before you talk, listen! You will learn more and gain insight more quickly by keeping quiet. Don’t focus on what you want to say, instead, develop a habit of slowing down, listen carefully to what is being said and observing people’s body language as they speak. Then you will be better able to make responses and move to a place of deeper understanding. Your team will come to respect your assessment more and listen more closely to what you say. In this way, listening is more persuasive than speaking.
- When you have an important point to communicate, plan what you want to say and keep it brief.
- Asking for feedback makes it known to your team that doing so is acceptable and ensures that you learn about your communication gaps while there is time to rectify them. By asking simple feedback questions and accepting responses with interest, you signal to others that you welcome feedback, both positive and negative, and that you genuinely want to communicate as thoroughly and effectively as you can.
- Address problems head on. Differences are ok; they are often catalysts for creativity and salon breakthroughs. As you continue to develop your communication skills, such as checking your responses, making connections, active listening and asking for feedback – you reduce the likelihood of difficult interactions arising. But, when problems do come up, resist the temptation to avoid them or temporarily smooth things over. Instead, use the skills you have developed to thoughtfully address any salon issues head on.
There are several benefits that effective workplace communication provides a salon. These benefits include:
- Mitigated conflict:
Most conflicts arise due to ineffective communication tactics which lead to individuals misunderstanding what’s being communicated. Misunderstandings can result in employees feeling not understood, disrespected, disregarded or simply not performing in an expected manner. Effective salon communication will help reduce conflict or tension on the floor.
- Increased employee engagement:
Quality communication does more that just ensure information is accurately received. It also works to connect others and keep open lines of communication between employees and other members of the salon. This ultimately works to create better engagement between employees, which can lead to increased satisfaction and healthier salon culture.
Ways that communication improves employee engagement include:
- Helps management better understand the goals and needs of employees and what motivates them.
- Ensures employees’ skills and talents are recognised and utilized when possible.
- Improves the connection between employees for a more enjoyable atmosphere on the salon floor.
- Creates better relationships between employees and management.
- Improves productivity:
Employees who feel connected to their work and have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them are more likely to be productive and perform efficiently. If employees don’t fully understand their role or expectations in a position or have limited resources to perform their duties, they often end up feeling confused or as if they aren’t able to perform their job to the best of their ability.
Ensuring information is readily available and communicated in an effective manner allows employees to accurately perform their duties and can increase productivity throughout the salon.
- Improved client relations:
Excellent communication in the salon isn’t just relevant to the employees of the salon, it also directly affects client relations. Salons that communicate well with their clients are more likely to build solid relationships will retain clients versus salons that don’t prioritize client communication. Clients look for salons that value their relationship and keep them up to date on industry trends and salon changes.
- Healthy workplace culture:
Salons employ people of all different cultures, races and beliefs, and conflict will naturally arise when so many differences are present. A culture of open communication fosters a healthy and accepting environment where all employees feel equal and understood.
- Boosted employee job satisfaction:
Employees who are part of a salon that practices excellent communication are more likely to experience job satisfaction. A transparent and trustworthy environment supports employee satisfaction by creating a harmonious workplace that is enjoyable to work in and keeps employees engaged in their positions.
- Increased innovation:
Workplaces that encourage employees to communicated their opinions and ideas tend to foster more innovation that those that don’t. Employees who feel empowered to speak up and think in different ways often contribute meaningful ideas and strategies that help now only the employees, but the salon as a whole.
- Improved public impression:
Salons that have a good reputation in terms of communicating both internally and with clients often have a strong and positive public impression. This helps attract talent to the salon, which will always be a benefit to the business.
By learning to separate issues from personalities, managing complicated emotions and framing problems as surmountable obstacles to the team’s success, you’ll defuse tense situations and become more comfortable with difficult interactions in general. You will approach each challenging interaction as an opportunity for learning and free yourself up to drive your business to achieve your goals and vision.
