by Greg Milner | Oct 19, 2010 | New Zealand
Imagine being invited to someone’s house, having a really great time and then never being invited back again…you’d feel pretty hurt, right?
Well, two months ago I was asked to be a mystery shopper for one of Auckland’s top Day Spas and that’s exactly how I felt when I left the Spa….totally hurt that I hadn’t been invited back.
Now for obvious confidentially reasons, this Spa (who is not an Inner Circle member) shall remain nameless, but I wanted to share my experience with you and show how a failure to ask simple questions or do any follow up marketing could be costing YOUR salon a bucket load of money every year.
Before you read on, this story is not to bad mouth this Day Spa. In fact, I have to say that the service I received prior to and during the treatment was up there with some of the best I have ever experienced when visiting a Salon or Spa. But that’s what makes it so bad. They have spent so much time putting systems and procedures in place to ensure the customers have this amazing experience, but it’s then let down by complete neglect at the back end.
From the moment I made the booking on the phone the receptionist sounded delightful, asked all the right questions and took my credit card, explaining their 24 hour cancellation policy – a sure way to prevent those frustrating no shows!
When arriving at the Day Spa I was greeted and shown to a lounge where I was given a consultation and then shown the facilities available to me while I was at the Spa which included a sauna, steam room and gym. Everything was done down to the finest detail, even matching the tea I drank to the type of treatment I requested through my consultation.
Before being taken through to the treatment room I was taken to a relaxation room and introduced to my therapist, as well as another therapist. From the time I walked in the Spa I had met 4 different people, who all knew me by name and made me feel incredibly special. I felt like a valued client of the Spa, and not just one therapist!
The treatment itself was also excellent, with music and lighting tailored to my mood and post treatment I was taken to a separate room to relax even further, drink some more tea and fill out a satisfaction survey.
I think you get the picture, overall the WOW factor was huge!
So you can understand my disappointment that I was NOT ONCE asked if I wanted to rebook another appointment. It was pretty evident that I had really enjoyed my visit to the Spa, so as a guest to the Spa, why wasn’t I invited back?…HOW RUDE!!!
Please Let Me Come back To Your Spa…PLEASE!
Maybe I was missing something, was I meant to get down on my hands and knees and beg to come back?
One simple question would have turned a $140 sale, into at least a $1700 – $2000 client over 12 months, because you know what, if they’d asked me to come back, I would have said YES!
“Okay Chris, we would LOVE to see you back here at (salon name) again, so let’s make that next appointment for you now because we do get booked up very quickly and I don’t want you to miss out on the time that suits you best….how does 3pm on (date) or 10am on (date) suit?”
Now obviously I am just one client, so can you imagine how much money this Spa is losing if clients are not being re-booked…it’s scary! But that’s the difference between a great salon/spa and an average salon/spa. Members of our Inner Circle program understand the value of a customer, they don’t look at each client as a one-off sale, rather as a customer for life who will be worth thousands of $$$.
The next thing here was that I was not offered the professional products to go away with and use until my next appointment. It’s a fact that 70% of clients who are NOT sold retail will go down the road and buy it from a chemist or supermarket (a salons biggest rival) within 24 hours, the products will be crap and the client won’t be a happy camper! Who are they going to blame first…that’s right, the salon/therapist! So they will never return. How sad!
Maybe they didn’t ask me because I am a guy or some other lame excuse like that – whatever it was, it wasn’t good enough and will be costing the salon a fortune!
*If you have never heard about former Schwarzkopf CEO John Lee’s 1000 hour customer care policy, you should Google it, learn it and apply it to your salon!
Finally, the reason for me writing this story some 2 months after my visit to the Spa was to at least see if they did some follow up marketing. A welcome letter perhaps, with a voucher to use off my next booking or an email with their latest offers…did it ever happen?….Nope!
After my visit to the Spa, I filled out a lengthy mystery shopper questionnaire making specific reference to these issues and how all the positive aspects of my visit had gone to waste because of the failure to rebook or retail to me. I even made special mention that I would look forward to receiving follow up marketing from them as I REALLY wanted to come back.
I suppose I’ll NEVER know if they fixed any of these issues because I am still waiting to be invited back.
by Greg Milner | Oct 5, 2010 | New Zealand, The Smell of Success
I’m a firm believer in attitude playing a big part in the success or downfall of your business, whatever industry you are in. Winston Churchill once said “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” and when it comes to Inner Circle member Heidi Morton of Bodyscape in Wellington, NZ, her positive, massive action taking attitude has made a world of difference to her business.
Heidi joined the Inner Circle program in the midst of a global recession (July 2009), but this didn’t stop her from growing her salon by over 40% and being so busy that she had to move to a new premises that was double the size of her previous spa!
Here’s an email I got from Heidi just yesterday….
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“After a full year of being involved in Worldwide Salon Marketing the results for our business speak for themselves. Whilst I had a good grasp of business and marketing options prior to becoming involved, Chris, Rachael and the team certainly made sure that I didn’t forget how important it is to ensure MASSIVE ACTION means MASSIVE RESULTS. I am now a firm believer in all wheels of the spoke.
Just over a year ago I had a profitable business that was making ends meet but certainly not a retirement plan. Being a busy Mum and a non beautician partner in the business I often neglected the marketing aspect of our business, focusing too much on the numbers at the other end. We had no trouble attracting and keeping clients but I knew we could do better, a lot better.
12 months later we have a brand new spa on Lambton Quay in Wellington, double the size of our previous spa, all paid for out of the increased turnover in our business. I would not have the courage to do this if I didn’t know of all the tools we could use that could generate us money.
We try everything and anything that WSM throws our way or we think can think of. Our Queen of Referrals competition run during 2010 (a version of the Queen of Referral program, but our Queens are competing for $1,000 of prizes by referring the most new clients and the most spend) has so far bought in over 200 new clients in 8 months whose first visits have spent over $10,000 let alone what they have spent after that. This doesn’t count referrals outside the Queens competition we run.
We have a monthly package deal that normally sells over 30 packages a month with add ons not discounts! We regularly do the Wellington Women’s package (our version of Hollywood women’s ? yes I like to put my own touch on everything!) and bring in 20 or so new clients when we do it. We sold over 100 of the packages on a voucher site when we ran it. 100 new clients in a day, $10,000 in a day – fantastic.
We put our karma cards on car window wipers outside the shop a free 30 minute service. The recipients of this love it and rave about how we have made their day. They refer their friends and we get more new clients. We use the yellow pages to advertise a package, not how pretty we look. Over the last 12 months we have had over 500 phone calls from our yellow pages ad (last year about 100). We display our packages everywhere , have a montly newsletter, weekly e-specials (always with add ons now not discounts). The only time I discount now is with our txt-a-deal days, whereby we may have a quiet day once in a while and then it is a discount to get them in the door today. Of course we don’t forget the basics, new client letters, raise the dead postcards, birthday vouchers, referral thank yous. These basics keep your current clients happy. Funny enough we recently moved from a $10 to a $20 birthday voucher and doubled the number we are getting back in the month, and a larger percentage of these back were clients we have not seen for a long time. At Christmas we wanted to up our retail sales so packaged together the retail products with free gift vouchers for treatments, this went down a treat. From December to February we always offer a deal for rebooking a free ad on service or product. We find if we can get the client 3 times monthly in a row then they won’t shop around elsewhere for a while.
Numbers wise, our turnover is up over 40% year on year, month on month. I have employed more staff and we are still growing. We have not gone backwards in over 15 months. I want to double over two years and we are on track for this to happen. Our staff love that they are more busy and have more $’s in their pay packets.
WSM is not an easy fix, it takes time and effort. I love the way it prompts me to think outside the square, I have some great ideas to implement in 2011 (2010’s move took up too much of my time!) and can’t wait to see what happens with my business.
By the way, this year I have had two overseas holidays, won another trip overseas (karma coming back to get me!), spent more quality time with my kids and have felt a lot happier about where I and the business is heading. However I never lose sight of the customer, our most important asset and whilst I know I can get new clients easily I still look after our current clients with quality, friendly service with value added services for them as well. They love it and complain to us if they are not getting enough deals or promotions like last month, which was our best ever and contained no promotions other than our monthly special as we were too busy all our rooms busy all the time. Now if only I could find some quality staff to expand!!”
Cheers, Heidi
by Greg Milner | Sep 7, 2010 | New Zealand, Salon Seminars
New Zealand salon owner Tania McGonacle, one of twelve new salons to join the WSM Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program and receive her own copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit, plus coaching, at this week’s Salon Profit Secrets seminar in Auckland
I’m going to keep my travel arrangements secret in the future. Back in April, Michelle and I arrived in the UK the day the Icelandic volcano erupted and shut down Europe’s airspace for weeks. On Saturday, we landed in New Zealand on the day the Shaky Isles experienced their worst earthquake in decades.
No doubt emergency services all over the world are now nervous about us visiting fire and pestilence on them too.
There was no nervousness among New Zealand’s salon owners however. Despite – or perhaps because of – the less than robust economy in the land of the Kiwi, we welcomed a dozen new members to the Inner Circle Premium marketing & mentoring program during yesterday’s Salon Profit Secrets seminar at the harbourside Hilton Hotel in Auckland.
New Zealanders are an almost universally optimistic people. Of more than 100 salon owners and staff in the room, there was none of the ‘woe-is-me’ attitude common among small business owners of say, the USA.
When I urged the Kiwis to ‘go out and sell something, your country needs the business’, it was met with nodding agreement and enthusiasm.
Our New Zealand distributors, Chris & Rachael D’Aguiar-Sanders did a great job of attracting salon owners to fly in to Auckland from all over the country for this event, including at least 15 of our existing members whom I’d never previously met.
Among them, IC member Paul Davis of Pureskin Clinic in Ponsonby could barely wipe the smile from his face as he told the audience his salon had just enjoyed its best July in five years.
Phil Newman and partner Nikki Smith only joined the program and got their Toolkit in July, just as they started their hair salon in distant Wanaka, in the southern alps near Queenstown.
“It’s amazing,” says Phil. “We just followed the program exactly, and our sales immediately tripled. I’m a numbers kind of guy, and I’ve worked out that for every $1 we spend on ‘Toolkit-style’ marketing, we get no less than $12 back.”
by Greg Milner | Aug 18, 2010 | New Zealand
NZ Salon Business Plan Template Superstars Nikki Smith & Phil Newman of NV Hair in Wanaka PROVE how even in a small town, there is big money to be made!
If I ever needed to provide evidence that the Inner Circle system works, regardless of the size of your town or the area your salon is in then Nikki Smith and Phil Newman of NV Hair in Wanaka, New Zealand are living and breathing proof!
Nikki Smith and Phil Newman of NV Hair, Wanaka, NZ
Nikki and Phil joined the program in July this year and have seen their takings sky rocket since then. For those of you unfamiliar with Wanaka, it’s in a fairly remote location in the South Island and has a population of around 7,000 (which grows a bit depending on the season).
Nikki and Phil actually took over an existing premises in Wanaka and it’s fair to say that prior to them taking over, the business was on a downward slide, with few customers and the clients that did come in, simply paid whatever they wanted to pay. It’s VERY hard to run a business like that!
But Nikki and Phil are a ‘no-nonsense’ team and knew what they had to do to turn things around…FAST. As soon as they joined the Inner Circle program and got their very own copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit® they took massive action.
“Hi Chris
We did the Hollywood promotion last month and here are our results…
We printed 2000 mailbox flyers at a cost of $110, and purchased 2000 envelopes at a cost of $230 (and we’ve now found them even cheaper).
We also ran 2 adverts in the local newspaper for $188 (we now do trade on service with advertiser so costs less, sometimes nothing depending on advert and time scale)
Our total number of bookings was 34 and out of the 34 only 3 paid the minimum $99. The average client spend was $130 (this was from up-grades and product sales).
The script for selling product and the method in the ‘Selling Like Crazy’ manual works a dream. I now have only 4 bottles of treatment on my shelf and my supplier loves me…..lol.
Thanks Chris this is definitely proof that the system works anywhere. The salon was on its knees when I took over and now, well I’m that busy I now need staff….lol.”
So let’s break these results down a bit more…
All up for the printing, envelopes and newspaper ads the cost was $528 (*You can get plain envelopes from the Warehouse Stationary for around $20 for 500…so this would have saved Nikki even more money).
3 packages were sold at $99 = $297
31 packages were sold with an average spend of $130 = $4030
So that’s a total income generated of $4327 for a cost of $528. A return of investment of $8 for every $1 spent…WOW!
If each of these clients were to spend on average $130 with Nikki and Phil every month for the next year, they would be worth over $1500 to the salon each. So potentially they have just increased the salons turnover over the next 12 months by $51,000….and that’s just from one promotion!
It’s pretty amazing considering that the salon was turning over a mere $2K a month before they took over.
Well done Nikki and Phil, keep up the good work!
Check out where Nikki and Phil’s salon is located…!
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by Greg Milner | May 13, 2010 | Ads that Have Worked, Marketing Superstars, New Zealand, The Right Mindset
Hair Salon Template: NZ Salon Marketing Superstar, Toni Cunningham’s Autumn Mailbox Drop Reaps Fantastic Rewards!
If there is a common theme amongst our successful My Social Salon members it’s that they ALL take massive action to get the results they want for their business. And Toni Cunningham of Decadence Salon in Palmerston North, New Zealand is one of those MASSIVE ACTION taking salon owners.
Toni Cunningham, Owner of Decadence Salon in Palmerston North, NZ
Toni joined the program back in December 2009 and has seen her salon’s weekly turnover increase by significant 20% in that time. And the great thing about Toni is that she doesn’t get deflated or defeated when she does a campaign and doesn’t quite get the results she wanted, because she has so many other successful salon marketing campaigns on the go that she is always getting great results from different areas.
When I get calls from ‘non inner circle members’ telling me that their marketing isn’t working, I normally ask them what marketing they have done, to which the response is something like,
“Well I delivered 37 flyers into mailboxes 8 weeks ago and I haven’t heard back from anyone yet…”
It is simply not enough, and the results will show that.
Many Salon owners have been slaves to their business and staff, not paying themselves a wage for 1, 2, 10 even 20 years and most of these people have the perception that marketing is a waste of time and has to be expensive, but it isn’t. There are so many low cost strategies if not FREE ways you can market your salon.
Read on below to see how a low cost mailbox drop brought in $4158 for Toni Cunningham in the month of April…
“Hi Chris
Just wanted to let you know that April was our best month (even bet Christmas) it’s fantastic to see the salon growing continuously every month. I have to say couldn’t have done it without WSM.
I have to say it’s really rewarding after my husband and I have dropped 500 flyers to go into the salon and see 10 messages on the phone and then the calendar just fills up, its great.
The team gets such a kick out of seeing the calendar fill quite rapidly.
I have only been in the program since December and have seen some great results, have made a part timer full time ,and we are in the process of hiring another stylist.
If this is what we have achieved in the last 6 months I say bring on the next 6 months.
Last month we took massive action, we did our monthly newsletter, Kids Free Hair Cuts Flyer (in school holidays), Autumn Flyer, along with all the New client letters, birthday letters, Raise the dead letters.
By far the Autumn package was the most successful, we are dropping 500 every week and getting amazing results. It cost $45 for flyers and envelopes and we booked 42 packages at $99 and what is even better, is 34 were new clients.”
And from chatting with Toni recently she dropped another 500 flyers around the neighbourhood in the first week of May and got another 9 bookings (49 in total so far). And of course these results do not include all the new and existing clients she got from her other marketing campaigns.
So Let’s break things down.
500 Flyers plus envelopes cost Toni $45.
She delivered 2000 flyers over 4 weeks in April, so the total cost for the flyers and envelopes was $180.
Each of those 42 clients spent $99, so an immediate income of $4158 (this does not include any retail sold).
Let’s say on average each new client is worth $1000 per year to Toni and that half of the 34 new clients became regular clients. That would be an increase in annual turnover of $17,000.
Not a bad return for a $180 investment.
Well done Toni and keep up the excellent work!
by Greg Milner | Mar 25, 2010 | Marketing Superstars, New Zealand
Free Hair Salon Business Plan Template: NZ Salon Superstar, Terra Evans – The Membership Campaign that created a Storm!
If I said to you that every dollar you spent on marketing would give you $2 back, you would probably be very happy. Well Inner Circle member Terra Evans of Skin Deep Face and Body in the little seaside town of Browns Bay on Auckland’s North Shore recently launched her Mini Memberships program and made an astounding return for every $1 she spent on marketing these memberships….WOW!
But before I let Terra explain to you how she did it, I want to tell you some of the benefits of having memberships in your salon….
Memberships are a great way to get a huge chunk of cash up front from your clients or regular cash flow depending on the membership type. If cash flow is a bit tight and you have a GST bill coming up then memberships give you that much need boost. Or perhaps you want to go on a holiday or buy a new car then memberships give you more financial freedom so you don’t have to go grovelling to the bank for a loan!
Memberships are also a great way to guarantee your clients stay loyal to your salon for a long time and if a staff member leaves and starts working at a salon down the road it also stops clients going with that person.
You will often find that people on memberships will try out other services that they have never had before which opens up more opportunities to sell lots of product. Remember these people have paid their money upfront, so they are going to feel like they have got money to burn when they come in for their treatments….so SELL, SELL, SELL like crazy!
But enough from me, here is what Terra has to say about memberships and being a part of the Inner Circle Program…..
Terra Evans, Owner of Skin Deep Face & Body, Auckland
“I have been a member of the Inner Circle program for 2 months now. I decided to join because even though my salon is already doing well I knew it wasn’t working it to its full potential. So when I saw the ad for a free DVD on how to make more $ and do fab marketing it intrigued me and I phoned Chris to find out more. The first thing I felt when I spoke to Chris was that I wasn’t being sold to, I was just being told the facts and I could also see how genuine and enthusiastic Chris was about the whole thing. I asked Chris to give me some people to ring who are already members which he did and everyone gave rave reviews so I asked him if he could ring me in 2 months, when I felt I would be ready and I would give it a go, I really didn’t have anything to lose as there is the free trial period and I told Chris that if it didn’t work for me within that time I wouldn’t continue, but he was very confident that that would not be the case and that I would love it, and he was right!
I have implemented lots of new ideas but also things like new client letters which I knew I needed to do before I joined but didn’t know where to start. Well not anymore, with all the templates and ideas that are in the manuals I finally feel like I am taking control of my business! So far I have done New client letters 1,2 and 3, birthday letters, raise the dead letters, Queen of referrals, Valentines day specials, newsletters (mail and email), changed my messages, implemented the Happy form and testimonial form, cross over promotions, top client rewards, about to send out a school holiday special, ordered a new A frame for the sidewalk, increased my prices and am now using the Staff finder service to look for a new therapist so we have more spaces to fill so I can do some more marketing.
The Best success I have had so far is with the Mini Memberships. I did like the Manual said (why try and fight it) and offered $350 worth of treatments for $200 I had 20 up for grabs and they had a 6 month expiry. .I sent out 672 texts @ 22 cents each = $147.84 and 252 emails @ 5 cents = $12.60 total cost $160.44 all to my existing clients. The response from the texts was amazing within 24 hours of sending the message we had sold all 20 and had many more on a waiting list for next time. So all up it cost me $160.44 to market and I had a Membershiop campaign that created a STORM! Oh what a feeling!
What was interesting about the whole thing is that it actually has encouraged the mini members to try different treatments that they have been thinking about trying, already I have 2 clients starting a course of IPL (which of course will end up costing them more than $350) another client is going to use hers towards microdermabrasion course (again more than $350) and 3 of the members have only visited us a few times so after they have used up there credit I am sure they will be addicted! The rest of the members I am going to test and measure at the end of the 6 months and see how many different treatments they have tried and how much extra retail they have purchased.
So if you are nervous about trying mini memberships don’t be they work!! You can always try selling 10 and then when you see how well it works give it another go. Oh and by the way the clients love it and love you for it. It creates such a buzz and good energy which I feel is so important for true success.
Thanks so much Chris, I look forward to our next meeting and getting started on more great ideas!”
As you can see from what Terra has written she is a HUGELY motivated person that takes massive action. The memberships are just one of many strategies, systems and promotions that she has implemented since joining the Inner Circle program in January. Great results Terra, well done and I am so happy for you!
