Hannah McEnteggart of Oasis Health & Beauty Spa in Great Missenden, UK
When Hannah McEnteggart of Oasis Health & Beauty Spa in Great Missenden sat down to address envelopes to 50 of her ‘lost’ clients, she had no idea the contents of those letters would have such a dramatic effect.
A day later, her phone started ringing…and kept ringing, over and over again, in the coming weeks. No fewer than 48 of those 50 ‘missing in action’ clients called and booked appointments – a response rate of 94% – and of those, 92% re-booked!
If you haven’t already figured it out, good old-fashioned direct mail still works – if you do it the right way, as Hannah discovered when she joined WSM’s Lite marketing system, and began to download a series of proven hard-copy marketing letters instantly to her computer.
In this short video, Hannah told me how she was staggered at the response, not just to the ‘lost client’ letters she downloaded from the program – another promotion brought her 6,000 pounds, a massive increase on the year before.
[cf]Hannah McEnteggart[/cf]
Want the same kind of results?You can join the Lite program here for two weeks free, and test it for yourself! Get a video tutorial each week along with tested, proven marketing and advertising templates, instantly downloadable and editable to suit your own salon or spa.
New Survey Reveals the Shocking Cost of ‘No-Shows’
Hair & Beauty salons are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year because of no-shows, and the lack of deposit-taking policies for fear of upsetting clients.
In a new survey conducted by Worldwide Salon Marketing, the vast majority of 130 salon owners questioned revealed they had no policy of taking deposits to secure appointments, and even it they did have a cancellation policy in place, it lacked ‘teeth’.
Telling figures that show most salons are letting clients get away with murder
According to WSM founder & CEO Greg Milner, the results are a wake-up call to the industry. “If salons want to be taken seriously by their clients and stop hemorrhaging money, they have to take the lead from industries like travel, hospitality and entertainment, which simply refuse to take bookings without payment,” he says. “Customers accept those policies completely. Try booking a concert ticket and telling them you’ll pay when you get there. It just doesn’t happen.”
The survey of 125 salons reveals
88% do not take deposits.
The average annual loss through no-shows is a whopping $10,000 per salon, with one salon reporting a staggering $52,000 – even though fully 80% of salons claimed they sent appointment reminders by text message.
Extrapolated across Australia’s approx. 25,000 hair & beauty businesses, the losses represent $250 million annually.
Of the 12% of salons who insist on deposits for appointments, the average annual losses dropped to less than $2,000
Asked ‘How many times must a client ‘no-show’ before you no longer take bookings from them?’, 31.5% said three times, while another 32% said “I always let them book another appointment because I’m too scared to lose the potential business.”
It appears the industry is beset by fear. According to one respondent,
“We do have a cancellation policy, but rarely enforce payment, as so few other beauty clinics do so. Clients will not come back.”
And this from a salon in Melbourne:
“I would like to put a cancellation thing in place but I don’t have credit card facility nor any way of safely storing peoples numbers. And yip I am scared of scaring people away.”
But that fear appears largely unfounded. Said another salon owner,
“We started taking credit cards or a cash deposit on February 1st this year, for the first time. It works a charm, no more no shows, the clients now know we’re serious.”
The survey shows that among those salons which insist on deposits or pre-payments, the rate of no-shows drops dramatically across the board. “It also positions the salon as a business to be respected,” says Mr Milner. “It’s just plain rude to book a one or two-hour appointment and simply not turn up. You wouldn’t dare do that to your doctor or dentist because you respect them too much. It’s about time hair & beauty professionals swallowed a small teaspoon of cement, and hardened up,” he said.
Those who have ‘hardened up’ and imposed a strict cancellation policy backed up with deposits report dramatically-improved results.
“We’ve had a 100% Cancellation Policy in place for almost 6 years. It has virtually eliminated no-shows and forces clients to respect our business. EVERYONE in this industry should do the same – it will educate clients that they are visiting professionals whose time is valuable,”
says a Sydney salon owner. And a West Australian salon owner agrees, with impeccable logic:
“It should become common practice in all salons to take deposits, like the hotel and holiday industry, people will just accept it as common practice. Nothing is gained from those who are scared, and just end up hurting the industry with their fear. Even Spreets and other common daily deal sites do it, so why not the salon itself?”
Here’s how veteran WSM member Marnie Kallmeyer describes her deposit-taking and cancellation policy:
[cf]Marnie[/cf]
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This is the first page of a 2-page, proven client letter that stops no-shows dead. Carefully setting out what your client can expect of you, and importantly, what you expect of your client, this letter has been used successfully by hundreds of WSM member salons around the world – and you can easily edit it to suit your own salon.
Join the Lite program FREE for the first 14 days – and you’ll get to download this letter as a Bonus Gift worth $297 – but priceless when you consider how much no-shows are already costing your business every year!
Ashleigh Mills of Ashleigh Renea Hair & Beauty in Katanning, WA; massive action brought $6,000 in sales in a single afternoon
With a multicultural population of just 3,000 in the deep south-west of Western Australia, the little town of Katanning is hardly the centre of the hair & beauty universe.But for salon owner Ashleigh Mills, its a gold mine. Ashleigh has been a Worldwide Salon Marketing member since February 2010, actively and enthusiastically embracing – and implementing – everything we teach salons about direct response marketing, about salesmanship, about product packaging, down to the tiniest detail.
And she’s reaping the rewards.
In December 2012, her sales surpassedthe previous December by a substantial $13,700. (In itself, more than many a country salon brings in in an entire month.)
Here’s how Ashleigh tells the story of her brilliant ‘massive action’ pre-Christmas campaign.
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Katanning, WA. Wheat, sheep and cattle country. Hardly hair & beauty heaven. But Ashleigh Mills has turned her salon into a solid business with the right attitude, and marketing tools that work.
There is a lesson here: with the right attitude, combined with the right tools (eg the marketing resources available to WSM member salons via the Million Dollar Members Website) you can defy the surrounding economy. In fact, ‘create your own economy’.
There’s an old saying: the teacher will appear when the student is ready.
Unfortunately for most business owners, they leave it till they’re on their last legs, the bailiff hammering at the door, the kids starving, the bills piling up like autumn leaves before they seek help, and join.
Long-term Members will be familiar with some of the names – Tegan Messineo, who was just 21 and pregnant with twins when she sought out WSM, and built her one-person business to a two-salon enterprise with ten staff, while she looked after her babies at home. Tracey Orr, who has been with us for more than 7 years, started her two-person salon in sleepy Tasmania, which is now a million dollar salon.
WSM member Nicole Lopez – enjoying the two-wheeled and four-wheeled fruits of both hard work and smart-thinking
Nicole Lopez is another one. When Nicole joined WSM in July 2011, her Perth salon was already growing rapidly (notably, not in a recognized affluent area, but one of the city’s poorest). But as Nicole reveals in this recent letter to me, success isn’t neat, clean and stress-free – something I’m sure she reflects on as she cruises the streets in the new Mercedes convertible or astride the shiny black motorcycle that a combination of hard work and smart thinking has brought her. This is a lesson in honesty, ambition and achievement.
I’ve bolded some of Nicole’s words for my own comments at the bottom of her story.
“When you said I was the WSM Salon of the Week I was not sure if I was worthy of such a privilege.
My life leading up to this moment has been full of challenges and thinking that I hadn’t yet reached my goal made me ponder my success up to this point, AND the fact I am almost always overwhelmed and stressed with anxiety surely couldn’t make me a success either?!
Owning a salon, much less all three types together, in my case Hair, Beauty & Day Spa, has proven to be the biggest challenge I have ever lived. I am passionate about business and succeeding, and doing all this without knowing there is something to fall back on! I believe that to succeed in life you need to take the plunge and do what you need to do to succeed, even if it means sacrificing everything to make that one thing work.
I believe that life hands you opportunities and it is up to you to grab them with both hands. That’s why, when I bought my salon and it was quiet and lonely, I took to the front door andwelcomed each person as they walked past to admire my A-Frames.
If there was ever a person who walked up to the front window to look at my signage I would take advantage and leaped to the challenge of making them my salon client. We are surrounded by salons, 5 in just our complex. And to any person looking from the outside in, everyone is quick to judge whether I made a good choice in buying the salon I did, in the area I did with so much competition around me. But in my eyes there is no competition because I have made people/clients aware (and advertised) why they should be coming to us and not to the salon next door.
Some of my secrets to fast tracking success has been to be the first point of contact to every client, phone, walk-ins and client bookings. I don’t work on the floor (and never have as I knew this would hold me back in the present and of course in the future when trying to pass the clients away) even though I am a qualified Hairstylist. As the business owner, no one ever sells the business as well as you do. I pushed through the financial strain this caused (by me not working on the floor) and made it my job (that if I wasn’t going to be doing clients) I would be trying anything and everything to get people to walk through our door. My weekends are non-existent – through my own choice – I spend every waking moment on the internet searching and Googling anything and everything that may involve free advertising, promotions or YouTube videos on ways to advertise for free. Or ways to bring in more money that wouldn’t involve me spending money.
Every day I am presented with new challenges that sometimes make me want to run and hide under a log or fly away to another country, I mean I am a normal person. I suffer from stress and anxiety and am naturally quite shy. BUT when I think about my business and how much I want to succeed it all disappears and I just do what I need to do to service our clients and become the most reputable salon in Perth – and become wealthy in the meantime.
To date, my motivation to dowhat it takes has benefited me in so many ways. I would never wish my anxiety away as this is what drives me to do what I need to do! It gives me my enthusiasm and it gives me my driving force for life! So unless I hadn’t pushed through all my life struggles and fought to take my business to new heights, today I wouldn’t be riding my very own 800cc shiny black motorcycle and driving a beautiful Mercedes SLK 350 silver Convertible!”
Key points that I’ve highlighted with bold text:
“without having something to fall back on”; during World War One, British officers would often stand behind the Tommies as they lined up to go ‘over the top’ into the teeth of the German machine guns. The officers carried pistols. The Tommies knew if they refused to attack, they’d be shot by their own officers.
I’m not suggesting instant death as alternative to commitment in business. But it’s all too easy to say “I’ll have a crack at it, and if it doesn’t work I can always go back to sweeping floors…”
“I took to the front door andwelcomed each person as they walked past…”
A few weeks ago I visited one of my favorite restaurants, for the first time in several months. Much had changed. Once thriving, the place was pretty much empty. The owner, whom I knew, was slumped at the bar, drinking a coffee and looking disconsolate. “It’s lousy,” he told me. “Business has just fallen through the floor. Nobody’s coming in any more. I don’t know what to do.”
Well just for starters, he could have gotten off his lazy backside and did what Nicole does – rush out and sell to people walking past the front door. Show some enthusiasm, passion, excitement. Money won’t get excited about you until you get excited about you. Instead of standing inside your empty salon, staring open-mouthed at prospective customers as they walked by, when was the last time you went outside your comfort zone, actually opened the door and attempted to talk to them?
“…why they should be coming to us and not to the salon next door…”
Most businesses don’t bother giving valid, well thought-out reasons why their prospects should buy from them rather than the competition. ‘Reason why’ marketing is so little used, yet so powerful. What written, verbal and visual reasons do you actively give your prospects? Anything? At all?
“…be the first point of contact to every client, phone, walk-ins and client bookings…”
The business owner’s job is not cutting hair. It’s doing what Nicole does – being the PPRO: the Prime Public Relations Officer. There’s nothing fluffy and wasteful about meeting and greeting. These customers are and will remain customers of the salon, not customers of an individual stylist or therapist.
Think about that the next time you worry about a staff member leaving and taking clients with them.
“I suffer from stress and anxiety…”
There isn’t a champion athlete who doesn’t suffer nerves as he steps up to the starting blocks. Sir Lawrence Olivier was always anxious on the first night of a new play.
It can’t be any other way. A certain amount of anxiety is necessary. Every day, you’re going into battle. Nerves are what give you an edge. I’ve never met a successful person who sails through life without a care in the world. And let’s face it, everybody has anxieties. I used to be a highly paid TV producer, often going to work – for somebody else – with a knot in my stomach. If I’m going have a knot in my stomach, I’d rather have it generating anxiety, and productivity for my own business than someone else’s.
WSM member Bec Woodage started with nothing two years ago – and built her business by over 1000% with the tools and education she obtained as a Member
Investing in your salon business isn’t just about buying equipment, stocking with products and paying staff. If that’s all it took, any fool could make serious money in a salon or spa, instead of only 5% that do.
One of those 5% is Rebecca Woodage, the young owner of Perfection in Beauty in Sydney. When Bec joined Worldwide Salon Marketing, she’d just returned from an overseas holiday and purchased the salon she’d worked in for several years as a beauty therapist. All went well – until the salon burned down 6 weeks later.
Bec attended one of our seminars, but as she describes in this video below, was too afraid to sign up for the company’s marketing & mentoring program (and the Simple Salon Marketing manual) because “I just couldn’t afford it.”
But she bit the bullet a month later…within two years, her business had grown a massive 1000%. Her story is a classic case of investing in her business education, combined with persistence and dedicated implementation of her new-found knowledge.
Every stylist or therapist dreams of starting or buying a salon and one day selling out for a fat payday. Few achieve the goal. For most, owning a salon is run as an income model. If and when it gets sold, it’s usually for little more than small change, with not much more to sell than fixtures and fittings, and what’s left of a lease, the owner only too happy to get out from under a pile of debt, the on-going bills and the stress of being the main income-earner.
Only a tiny percentage build their business with an equity model – a deliberate strategy to turn the business into an asset worth selling.
But there IS a formula, a process that can turn the dream into reality. It’s called
starting with the end in mind.
Nicki Nolan sold her Garaldton (WA) hair salon after 3 years in business – “Very happy with the price – the buyers didn’t even quibble”
The young lady you’re about to meet followed that formula to a ‘T’ – and reaped the rewards.
Nicki Nolan built her business in the remote West Australian country town of Geraldton.
Notably, Nicki sought out an appropriate mentor – joining up with Worldwide Salon Marketing very early in her business life – and actively, aggressively used the marketing and other business tools that came with her membership. She followed a plan, took massive action, and persisted, rather than giving up and throwing her hands in the air at the slightest hurdle.
So how did she ‘live the dream’ when so many never even get close, after 20 or even 30 years in the business? For 95% of people who own and run a business in the beauty and hair industry, it will never be much more than a poorly-paid job. Few take the trouble to educate themselves on business and marketing. Instead, they plunge into business ownership on little more than a wing and a prayer, assuming that because they are merely good at cutting hair or applying skin treatments, little else is required.
To build equity – something you can sell – you need systems. Written and implemented systems for raising leads, converting them to sales, re-booking them over and over again, up-selling products.
You need written systems that manage staff, systems for stocking products, systems for managing accounts.
Having documented, rigidly-enforced systems gave Nicki the confidence and the know-how to create that ‘Holy Grail’ of salon owners the world over; equity, something she could sell to an interested buyer.
Just this week, Nicki walked away from her salon in the mid-west town of Geraldton with a pile of cash.
Any salon owner can follow this formula. It is NOT rocket science. Nicki had no special opportunities, no advanced education, no lucky breaks; She just did what worked
