The economy may be floundering but there is no belt tightening here, with manicures, massages, hair removal and tanning high on many men’s must-have list.

And this much needed boost to the sector is not just limited to London and the larger cities. The Welsh are leading the pack in the glamour boy stakes with a massive 47% choosing professional hair removal services.  A further 35% of Welsh guys use tanning services – the highest percentage in the UK – according to the Salon Services’ survey.

So, how to make the most of this image-conscious trend in your salon?

Ideal gift for Father’s Day

Promote male manicures, facials and massages to your women clients as the ideal gift. A pre-booked treatment makes a fun and different Father’s Day (17^th June 2012) gift from partners or the kids.

Salon promotions

Men tend to be more loyal than women to a salon. For hair salons, 50% off their first cut and finish visit works well as men often need to be tempted more than women to change salons. And make sure you let all your women clients know about it – you’ll be surprised how many of their partners go to another salon in town. Advertise the offer on your website, in-salon, on your social media and in your e-newsletter.

Don’t be shy

The Salon Services’ survey revealed a huge and increasing demand from men asking for beauty treatments. Make sure your salon isn’t missing out. Men are often shy to call and ask whether a beauty salon offers male grooming services. Make it easy for them with a clear section on your website and an obvious male price guide.

Increase your salon retail sales

Many women buy for the men in their family. So have male grooming product promotions prominently displayed around the salon and especially near your reception desk. With Father’s Day on Sunday 17 June there is an opportunity just waiting to be seized.

Men tend to be loyal to a brand and aren’t so inclined to browse as women. Display all products from a brand together to boost salon sales across the entire range.

Keep it simple. Research shows they are more likely to buy products that solve a particular problem such as acne or hair loss. A training session devoted to men’s product knowledge at your next salon team meeting will pay dividends.

Richard Hull, managing director of Salon Services, told the Daily Mail: “With the male hairdressing market estimated to be worth £1.2bn alone, this market now represents a significant opportunity for hairdressers and salons across the UK.” Don’t miss out on this substantial salon marketing opportunity, especially with Father’s Day looming.

If you found this salon marketing article useful you may like these salon marketing ideas:

• Facebook Marketing Tips For Hairdressers: Increase your ‘Likes’
• Secrets of profitable salon advertising
• Increase Salon Profits with 7 Relaxing Marketing Ideas

Why the importance? Because when you are consistent your clients will trust you.

Only when they trust you to deliver will they feel comfortable to recommend your salon to their friends and family. And recommendation is the Holy Grail for growing your business.

Four simple ideas for improving consistency in your salon marketing:

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.” E. James Rohn

Salon Service Consistency

Ensure your team have the right information about your clients at their fingertips so they consistently deliver excellent customer service. But please don’t let them crowd round reception gathering client information from your salon software screen and gossiping! A second screen towards the back of the salon is ideal, but is an expense. Or print all the client information off each morning and hand out to your stylists.

Salon Communication Consistency

Clients like to be kept up to date with news about your salon but make sure you know how they prefer to be contacted. There are lots of different options these days including e-newsletters and Facebook so check with your clients first. Then make sure you record the information – it is very irritating indeed to be phoned if you’ve specifically asked to be texted, not called.

Salon Training Consistency

Deliver ‘seamless’ service. Your clients shouldn’t be able to notice a difference whoever is dealing with them at your salon. Good reception training means the first impressions of your salon are consistent. Bear this in mind when delivering your training sessions and in one to one reviews.

Salon Brand Consistency

Is your salon business consistent in everything it does to build its “brand”? Building a brand is more than just developing a logo. Your look and message (e.g. Tesco’s “Every little helps”) on everything from appointment cards to posters to window displays needs to be consistent. Your salon’s brand needs to be consistently and continually “cemented” in the mind of your clients.

And finally measure, measure and measure again…

If 65% or more of your clients aren’t returning after their first visit ask yourself whether you are really delivering a wow service at a good value price. Chances are you are there is room for improvement – otherwise they’d be returning in their droves!

However, something I was reading the other day struck a real cord. Jason Cohen suggested that sometimes we’d be better focusing on making the less good customer experiences better rather than solely looking at making the best experiences even better. Think about it. It’s an interesting concept.

He argues it is easy to focus on the best customer experiences, ensuring clients are blown away from start to finish and love your salon. But what happens when you improve your customer service at the poorer end of the scale? I think it can be a fruitful and fairly straightforward exercise with a potentially big payback.

We’re talking small, positive steps here, not giant leaps. Here are a few thoughts to get you started on this route.

Identify some easy salon wins

Start by some simple in-house research to discover which negative client niggles you can easily and inexpensively iron out. Then eliminate them. Up your order of monthly magazines, improve your choice of drinks or just get your receptionist to smile.

Just do it and watch the grumbles start to melt away.

Make life easy for salon clients

Clients want a trouble-free experience and don’t want to jump through hoops. A visit to you is meant to be a pampering, relaxing treat not a chore. Look at your systems carefully. Then make it as effortless and simple for your client as possible.

Take booking for example. Give them online booking facilities by all means, but make it straightforward to use otherwise clients will give up half way through. Ensure phone numbers are highly visible on your website and social media. Do a mystery shop on your reception team and follow up with some customer-facing training, if necessary. All small, simple wins.

Aim to find, and improve, one single ‘not so wonderful’ client experience – today.

Deliver on your salon’s promises

Do what you say you’re going to do.

Simple enough you’d think, but often understandably difficult in a busy spa or salon. However, remember we’re focusing on improving the less good client experiences so a couple of small tweaks will make a real difference.

For instance, a visit which starts and finishes promptly is a fair customer expectation. Yet poor time keeping is a frequent source of irritation to a spa or salon client.

We’re all human and it will inevitably happen from time to time. However, improve the worst offenders’ poor time management most of the time and you’ll immediately reduce client grumbles.

It’s good salon business…

Stop trying to please everyone all of the time.This may sound radical. However, it makes good business sense.

Some clients are never going to be satisfied and indeed, are not right for your salon. And your salon may not be right for them. If you’re a top-end luxury spa or salon with prices and service to match then whatever you do you’ll never please the budget-conscious customer. So don’t try.

Remember we’re focusing on improving the less good client experiences not on trying to keep every client totally happy all of the time. That’s impossible if you want to remain in profitable business.

For more ideas of improving your salon customer service try:

• Marketing for salons: 6 ways to grow your salon in 2012
• Increase Salon Profits with 7 Relaxing Marketing Ideas

What are your ideas on improvements which make a real difference to a client’s experience?

The study found that 41% of Facebook users ‘liked’ a page in order to receive discounts and special offers. Whilst 28% cited their motivation to click ‘like’ was to take part in a special promotion.

The message is clear: many of the users who follow you on Facebook are hunting for great hair salon offers and promotions.

A balance needs to be struck. Salon discounting can be a tricky business. Do it intelligently and you can fill those gaps in stylists columns. Overdo it and you damage your salon brand and your profits.

Here are my 6 salon marketing tips for discounting:

• Keep it time-limited and short-lived. It is easy to get hooked on offers and discounts. Only use them when you have to and manage them carefully.
• Good terms and conditions are essential. These should be clearly shown on your salon website then link your Facebook page back to this web page.
• Use offers for selected hair stylists on their quiet days. There is no point giving discounts to Facebook users on busy salon days. Obvious, you may think. Yet hairdressers can, and do, fall into this trap.
• Make the rationale behind the salon discount credible and obvious to clients. This is key. Your actions need to appear sensible and reasonable, not an act of panic.
• Use added value offers wherever possible , such as hair care treatments, rather than discounts.
• Measure the effectiveness of your offers

How to keep followers ‘liking’ your hair salon

The report by Chadwick Martin Bailey also commented on why Facebook users ‘unliked’ a business. The top two reasons, with 42% each, being:

• that the information on the Facebook page was no longer relevant to me and
• too many notifications from the business.

So keep your users ‘liking’ you with carefully managed salon offers combined with news, and don’t bombard them with too many messages otherwise they might just click that ‘unlike’ button .

If you’re interested in salon social media try my blog article Stay on top of your salon social media.

Do offers work for your Facebook followers? What succeeds best for your salon?

One of your salon’s most precious assets is your email database. A large, accurate database of all your clients current and lapsed plus a large chunk of new potential clients should be one of your main business goals.

“But we Facebook and Tweet,” I hear you shout. Nevertheless, email marketing is still one of the most powerful marketing tools your salon or spa has.

Why?

• Because you’re not fighting it out to be seen with a torrent of social media messages streaming into their feed.
• You are delivering a specific message direct to your clients’ Inbox.
• Let’s face it, not everyone uses social media but most people have an email address.
• Email marketing allows you to be targeted and relevant in a way social media does not.
• It also drives traffic back to your salon website and Facebook pages.
• It keeps your salon at the front of their minds.

Grow your salon database: grow your salon business

Here are 4 ways to build your salon email database

In your salon

Use your salon software. It is a great tool for collecting email addresses (and other customer information). Validate existing clients email addresses every visit. People regularly change their addresses these days. Make sure your reception team understand the importance of accurate details ksmith @hotmale.co.uk is incorrect and won’t get through!

On your salon website

Always have an email newsletter sign-up on your website in a prominent position.

Salon & spa social media

Regularly ask your Facebook followers to join subscribe to your e-newsletter and put a link to your website subscribe form to make it easy. Do the same on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Salon marketing ideas

• When you’re out and about networking, always collect business cards from the contacts you make and add to your list.
• If your salon is helping out at a charity or other event this is a great way of collecting new names. Hold a competition on the day. People have to fill in their email address to enter and the winner is notified by email. Hey presto, lots of new email addresses. Remember to comply with Data Protection law though.

Unsubscribe

By law, you need to make it easy and clear for people to unsubscribe from your e-broadcasts. If you’re using a professional agency their broadcasting software should routinely add this to the e-broadcast and then automatically remove people if they opt out.

Let me know of any other ways you collect email addresses.

Are your team entitled to time off?

Many salon employees believe they have the right to have Tuesday 5^th June off as it is a public (bank) holiday. This is not correct as there is no statutory legal right to bank holidays. Whether someone is entitled to the additional Jubilee bank holiday is entirely dependent on the wording of their contract.

The law only requires you to give your salon employees 28 days holiday per annum (for employees working 5 days per week). This minimum 28 days can include bank holidays, so there is no requirement for you to let your salon team take the day off unless your contracts of employment say otherwise. It is important to check each employee contract very carefully as many contracts give employees a number of days’ holiday PLUS bank or public holidays. If you have these contracts then you are under a contractual obligation to let your employees take the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee bank holiday as paid holiday.

A word of caution before you decide to insist on enforcing your employment contracts and making the team work on the 5^th June. The Chartered Management Institute recently reported a survey which revealed that the promise of more holiday has a greater impact on team motivation than the prospect of a secure job. Particularly interesting to salons was that younger people ( aged 16-24 ) are especially keen to be offered more annual leave, with 49 per cent revealing they would be prepared to work harder in 2012 in return for more holiday allowance.

Is there a right to be paid double time on a bank holiday?

There is no legal right to be paid any extra for working a bank holiday. It depends on the terms of your employment contract.

Can a salon refuse to give time off for holidays?

Yes. An employer can decide when employees may take time off and how many people can be off at any one time.

Remember: set the rules out clearly now to your salon team, be fair and consistent and you’ll save yourself some holiday headaches come June.

When a stylist hands in their notice the key is to move quickly to retain your clients with proactive, trust-building steps.

Get in touch.
Contact the stylist’s clients immediately to recommend another member of your team. It is far better that clients hear the news from you rather than from the departing stylist or rumours ‘on the street’. A personal phone call is best; a text  is too short and impersonal and may well offend them.

Keep it  personal and focus on the positive.
Acknowledging the loss reassures your clients  and shows your salon in the best light. “Jane was a lovely girl and we wish her well”. Then keep the message simple and focused on them and the benefits. Do not talk about why the stylist is leaving or what they might be saying about your salon. Instead, emphasise all the fabulous things about your salon – latest training courses attended, awards won, new team members, your outstanding customer service or your recent salon refit.

Don’t let your team gossip with their salon clients about the situation – no matter what your former employee is doing or saying. They too should focus on the positive and the future. Give them the help and tools they need and ensure they understand what is expected from them.

Be prepared.
Fully brief your reception team as soon as possible. When clients phone to re-book with “Jane” your receptionist needs to have a well rehearsed  response  at their finger tips.

Keep an eye on your salon social media.
Check your Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts regularly for bitchy or derogatory posts from ex-employees. If any appear deal with them swiftly and offline.

Tempt them.
Your clients are likely  to receive tempting discounts  from the stylist’s new salon. So do offer them a promotional price and/or added value  for their next visit. This is not a time to be tight-fisted. If you don’t hear from them in response to this, send them another gentle reminder. It takes time and energy to keep a client but remember it takes 7 times more money and effort to get a new client than it does to retain an existing one.

Talk to them.
Increase the frequency of your communications with them. Use Facebook, a follow-up personal email, increase your e-marketing frequency or a card through the post. Nurture them. Rebuild trust. Above all don’t give up on them.

Even if they leave your salon…
If clients follow the stylist  don’t despair or just forget about them. They may not receive that ‘wow’ experience at the new salon so you want to remain at the front of their minds. Leave them on your database so they continue to receive your e-newsletters. Include them on your lapsed client mail-outs. You never know they may soon be back.

What other things have you done to keep clients when a key member of your team has left? Let me know, I’d love to hear your experiences.

 A quick re-cap on ‘brand’. Think of it this way; every time someone sees your website, visits your salon, speaks to your receptionist or sees your advertisement they get an impression or image of your salon. It’s this image which is your brand. And whether or not they receive the image you want them to, depends on how effective your salon marketing is.

Strong salon brands attract talented candidates

Wear a certain fashion label (brand) and you’re part of the in-crowd.

In the same way, your recruitment advert is an invitation to join an exclusive club – your salon. Think of the RUSH recruitment adverts which call on applicants to join the ‘RUSH revolution’. RUSH has a powerful, well-known and respected brand and people want to be part of this vibrant, contemporary ‘club’.

So does your branding and image let you down? When applicants see your advert do they think “What? Work for that lot? No way!”

Differentiate your salon from your competitors

Your competitors probably offer everything you do – great training, good commission and flexible working hours. Yet, if you have a stronger, more attractive brand this will help sell your salon to the top-quality applicants you want to attract.

A strong brand saves money

Why enter into a salary war with your competitors for the best stylists? Does Apple have to pay over the odds for the world’s best programmers? Do Michael Van Clarke and Andrew Barton pay more than other salons? Probably not. Yet talented people are queuing up to join them. You don’t have to be a renowned national name to have a strong local brand. If your brand is attractive and respected, you could be saving on your salary bill.

Create a career/opportunities section on your salon website, include an application form too. Not only will you reduce your recruitment advertising costs, you’ll also help your Google ranking by keeping your website fresh and up to date.

Inspire team loyalty

A candidate will not only be attracted by your brand but, on realising some months later that it really is living up to its promises, they will become a fully-fledged advocate for your salon and its brand and in turn will inspire other like-minded recruits to join.

Measure, measure and measure again. The only way you know if your salon marketing is truly working is by measuring it.

Yes, I know – you’re very busy and collecting figures is tedious. However, marketing is as much about maths and numbers as it is about creativity. Make measuring and monitoring a regular part of your salon marketing. I find tracking your key statistics every four weeks or by calendar months works best for most salons.

Which Salon Marketing Stats?

Measurement is not a one-off event; collect these figures either every 4 weeks or each calendar month, whichever suits you best. Your salon till software should run most of these reports at the click of a button.

• Service (professional) sales i.e. everything except retail sales.
• Retail product sales (net of vat) for the current period.
• The value £x of your average services invoice (net of vat). Remember to exclude retail sales.
• The number of new salon clients you have gained in this period.
• The number of new clients who returned for a second salon visit.
• The number of clients who took up your salon promotions and offers in this period.

Make sure your figures are always net of vat so you compare like with like.

Build Your Salon

With this detailed information at your fingertips you can now look for patterns and trends, compare last year’s figures and see what really worked for you. Did that Monday colour sale bring in as many clients as it did last year? What percentage of new clients only came for one visit? Are your retail sales growing steadily each month or are they in decline? Armed with hard facts and figures you can assess what impact your salon marketing is having and make more informed decisions about your business.

What other marketing statistics does your salon collect?

Your salon’s students are its future. Nurture them and you’ll reap the business rewards.

Last week I talked about National Apprenticeship Week (6-10 February 2012) and how your salon team and marketing could benefit. Well, here’s another opportunity, hot off the press, to showcase your talented students and create some exciting local PR. The Hairdressing Council have just announced their 2012 UK Student of the Year Awards (run by the Hairdressing Council and in association with L’Oréal Professionnel and VTCT).

Impress the judges: Patrick Cameron and Andrew Barton

Hairdressing icons Patrick Cameron and Andrew Barton will be judging together with other high-profile industry names.

Level 2 in Hairdressing students have to impress with a stunning red-carpet hair-up whilst at Level 3 the judges are looking for a commercial, yet innovative, cut and blow dry.

The competition is initially being judged regionally. The 8 students with the overall highest marks  will go on to battle it out in the final at the L’Oréal studios in London on 14th October 2012.

Winners announced at Salon International

The two winners will be announced live on stage in front of the crowds, later that day, at Salon International. As well as the prestigious title they’ll each receive an iPad 2, a fantastic day with Andrew Barton, tea at the House of Commons and vouchers for a course with L’Oréal and Wella.

Whether your apprentices make it all the way to Salon International or not this is an exciting chance to recognise your team, challenge them to give their very best and shout about your salon in the local media.

How to enter

Students need to send digital photographs plus a short personal statement describing their entry. For details and rules visit  The Hairdressing Council website. Closing date 18 May 2012.

Good luck!