The best way to deal with the Jan/Feb lull in salons?
Have you ever noticed how business can slow down after the holiday rush? While it may seem daunting, this quiet period is an opportunity to refocus and reignite your passion for your salon.
Instead of viewing this lull as a setback, embrace it as a time to plan for the year ahead. Take a few hours away from the salon to map out your goals and reflect on your daily operations. Consider what frustrates you and your clients and think about the changes you’d make if money were no object.
This is the perfect time to assess your stock levels and enhance your retail area. Ensure your bestsellers are available, revise merchandising strategies, and make product displays appealing. A well organised retail section boosts visibility and encourages impulse buys, ultimately increasing revenue.
Keep your team productive during this downtime by assigning short-term projects. Open communication is key; conduct annual reviews and create action plans. Encourage organization, project planning, training, and even client follow-ups. Utilize this time to strengthen your team’s skills and knowledge.
A quiet start to the year can lead to a highly productive and profitable business. Embrace this opportunity to plan, reflect, and prepare for success.
Then, get back to revisiting the basics of a solid foundation for your business for the new year – providing outstanding customer service!
Are you selling an experience or are you selling a service? Remember, clients want an experience, not just a service. Only the client, and the client alone will pay out costs and provide out profits, so we have to conduct all business planning from the client’s point of view. It is amazing how different your salon looks when seeing it through the client’s eyes.
Check in with your team to make sure they understand what customer service actually means. Customer service is any or all of the following definitions:
Customer service is surprising yourself with how much you can do.
Customer service is not just meeting the client’s expectations, it is going way beyond it.
Customer service is being at your best with every client.
Customer service is the degree of service and courtesy granted to those who patronise your business.
Questions to ask yourself:
1.What experience do you hope your clients have?
2.What is your customer service process?
3.What is your process of making sure your clients are happy?
Take this lull time to revisit your customer service standards, design the full client experience, and remember there is no such thing as a minor detail – all details are major.
Standing out from the crowd is important because the customer experience is a competitive battleground and your clients have a lot of choice. It is necessary that you send out a very clear message that your salon is here and you are great at what you do. Learn to positively differentiate your business from your competitors – providing outstanding customer service is the key!
