Your client is looking like a new woman – exfoliated, waxed, glowing with good health – as she leaves your treatment room and makes her way to the reception area to pay her bill.
What happens next? Well, that depends a great deal on everything that’s gone before.
Has she been given the WOW Factor so far?
Did she smile with gratitude and relief when you or your staff came out from behind the reception desk to greet her warmly on arrival?
Did she appreciate the cup of tea or coffee and the warm, refreshing towel she was handed as she took her seat in the reception area?
In the treatment room, was she educated and informed by the therapist about the treatment she was receiving? Was she brought up to date about the marvelous products the therapist was using to cleanse her skin, soften wrinkles, exfoliate to remove dead skin cells etc?
Was the music appropriate? Were the staff dressed nicely? Was the wax pot clean and hygienic? Was the treatment room sparkling,? Were the towels arranged neatly? And so many other small, but important details.
Only you know the answers to these questions.
But if the answers to all these questions was YES…. Then I promise you the next stage in the sales process becomes a lot easier. So how do you capitalize?
Remember to listen for buying signals.
When a client is telling you “yes” in the treatment room, when you get to the counter don’t just take her money!
Get the products off the shelf, put them in front of the client and say something like:
“Remember we talked about your skincare needs? Well, these are the products I have chosen for you to take home with you today. I know you’ll get maximum benefits and results with these products.”
SMILE.
Have a sample of each product at the counter so your client can feel the product.
At this point it is really about reassuring your client. Reassure her that she is doing the right thing by purchasing these products to use at home. If you have given your client practical, no-nonsense, professional information about each product you’ve used during the facial, it stands to reason her purchasing fears will be far less.
An Important Tip.
Don’t stand behind the counter at this point.
Stand next to your client. Or if you have enough room in your reception area, have a little table and two chairs to sit at.
Sit down together and talk about the products.
There are TWO VERY GOOD REASONS why you should do this away from the counter:
When you stand behind the counter, your client will automatically take out her purse to pay for the treatment she has had. In her mind, the time with you and your Salon is already over, or is about to end. She wants to pay and leave. You want to keep her there a little longer. You need to keep her there…. focusing on the products she needs to purchase and on booking her next appointment. And perhaps why she needs to receive your emails, phone calls or newsletters alerting her to upcoming special offers and new products!
If there are other clients in the waiting area they will hear some of what you are discussing with your client. They will want some of what she is getting too!Third party selling. Works a treat!
Selling means listening!
Let’s face it, purchasing an entire range of skincare can be a little daunting for some people. If your client seems a little hesitant because of the cost, break it down into logical, affordable chunks. Get your client using at least one product first. Take the fear out of it. Tell her you will put the others aside for her and that she can purchase another one – if she chooses – at her next appointment.
Who made the rule up that you only need a facial every 4 weeks?
Every skin is different.
Every client has different needs.
Make sure you acknowledge the individual needs of your clients. Write down the skincare routine for each client. As Paul says “write down a skincare prescription” for each individual client to take home with her. Of course her next appointment means another opportunity to tell her about another great offer. Get her excited about it while she’s in the treatment room.
Clients will actually love you for this because you’re really showing them that you care. You’ve actually put some thought into their personal skincare. You want them to feel like a queen. You are a Miracle Worker. You are the expert.
Every client should book again before she leaves your salon.
Your marketing’s working. Your social media is sparking interest, your website and Google Business Listing are pulling new clients like crazy and your local promotions are working well.
Now comes the tricky bit…. drum roll please!…. converting all those phone inquiries into sales.
Sales. That word alone is scary for so many people. Yet, it’s the basics of business. If you have no sales, you have no business.
In today’s world, there are two main ways to close leads into sales: Messages (Texts, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message), or a phone call.
So let’s start with the phone. The humble telephone is THE most valuable sales tool ever invented. For more than 100 years, good sales people have benefitted from its almost limitless reach. Hardly a person on the planet isn’t reachable at some time or another via the telephone.
Yet it’s also the most under-used – and badly used – of all the tools at the sales person’s disposal. Now, I don’t care if someone calls you from a phone booth, using Facebook Audio, FaceTime Audio, Skype, Viber, or even WhatsApp. The point of this is it’s a call of some sort.
Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot! Considering we carry our phones with us almost non-stop, we usually see 95-97% of all notifications. So, when someone calls us, we know – you know – who’s called. The thing is, it’s one thing to get them on the phone. It’s the crucial part that matters: turning that phone call into an enjoyable interaction.
You must never sell to your clients.
You must make them feel loved.
Make them feel wanted.
After all, that’s what people care about. They care about themselves – their feelings, how they’ll look and feel. Not you (sorry for the harshness). So many phone calls, sales calls, any form of calls go to waste because people don’t know how to take advantage and use the art of selling over the phone.
So much excellent marketing is sabotaged by brute ignorance. By a lack of understanding of what happens when a prospective client sees an ad or reads a sales letter and picks up the phone to make an enquiry, there goes a sale.
With every lost phone call is revenue down the drain.
*********************
By the way, I’m talking about prospective clients here, which also includes clients that have been to your salon before. Your existing clients are still prospective clients. How many of your existing clients use all of your services offered?
When a client calls your salon here’s all too often how it sounds:
Client: “Hi, I’d like to make an appointment to have a facial.”
You answer: “No problems, when did you want to come in?”
Client: “Tomorrow afternoon.”
You: “Would 3.00pm suit you.”
Client: “Yes. that would be fine.”
You: “Great, see you then.”
(Sometimes you ask them if they have been to your salon before.)
You take their name and telephone number and hang up.
OR, like this:
Client:
“I am ringing about the special facial you’re advertising.”
Beauty Therapist:
“I don’t know anything about it. Hold on a minute and I will find out for you, or I’ll put someone on the phone who can help you.”
Have you ever asked yourself the question:
How does this make your new client feel?
Even your existing client for that matter!
When a prospective client calls your salon after seeing a Facebook post or an Instagram photo, she is often nervous, tentative, unsure of what to say, suspicious of being ‘sold’ to.
The very instant you answer the phone is the point at which you can make or break the sale.
“Ring your own salon up, listen to how your girls answer the phone. More importantly, ring other salons and listen to how they answer the phone. Visit other salons and steal great ideas.”
So why do most beauty salons around Australia answer the phone soooooooo badly? Because no one has ever told them how to answer the phone and worse still, Salon Owners and Managers often forget to tell their staff about their current marketing strategies.
There goes that foot bullet again!
If you’re running an online promotion on Wednesday offering a “super winter energy pack” you need to educate your staff on the Monday before. You need to give each staff member a copy of the promotion, tell them where it’s running, and what you want each staff member to achieve from the ad. Have a group meeting. It will only take 5 minutes. Work out a telephone script for them. Get them educated & excited about the opportunity.
So much excellent marketing is inadvertently sabotaged at the first point of contact. Why is it that when you place an ad in the paper, magazine or on the radio you don’t promote it on the phone? It’s just plain common sense. It’s just plain good business.
In my research for Selling with Energy, I was often appalled at the way I was treated when calling salons at random.
Here’s a scary, but true, example:
Ring ring.
Therapist: “ABC Beauty Salon.”
Client: “Oh hi, my name’s Jill, I was wondering if I could speak to somebody about a facial?”
Therapist: (sounding harassed) “Sure, what would you like to know?”
Client: “Oh, just what sort do you do, and what the costs are, that sort of thing…”
Therapist: “Sure, Jill. We’re really busy at the moment, if you’d like to make an appointment we can discuss it more in person.”
OR
Therapist: “Sure, Jill. We use Beauty Biz Skin Care, have you heard of that? The cost for a facial is $85.00. Would you like to make an appointment?”
“Your concerns are not the concern of your new prospect client. You should never, ever try to make them her concern, either by the tone of your voice, or the words you say.”
It wasn’t just the verbal response to the questions (the lack of selling techniques) but more the tone in their voice that was most disturbing.
You and your staff are in the business of Service. That’s it. Period. No exceptions. No excuses. And Service begins with the phone.
When your client calls…. she cannot see you.
You are relying on the sound of your voice (and of course what you actually say) to encourage the client to make an appointment.
I’m sure you have phoned a business and been greeted by an unfriendly voice on the other end. How did it make you feel? Let me guess. You hung up thinking: “Gee she was unfriendly, or she sounded grumpy, I’m not looking forward to meeting that person, or hmmm, I only wanted to give them my business and she certainly didn’t make me feel welcome, or I wonder if the boss knows how bad her staff are, or, no thanks, I won’t be making that appointment, or….” Of course you did. And you had every right to!
Remember! There are plenty of salons to choose from. Why would a client choose yours if your staff are rude, unhelpful or unfriendly on the phone? It doesn’t matter how good your product is, or that you have the latest technology to offer….
People respond to People!
We all want to be treated as if we’re someone special. We all expect and deserve the basic courtesies. If you or your staff are unhelpful or unfriendly at the first point of contact, you will not get the business. Or more accurately, because so many Beauty Salons aren’t good at answering the phone, you may get the business in the first instance…. but you won’t keep it!
Are you able to turn your client into a life-long client?
That’s the challenge.
That’s the enormous benefit.
Poor phone manners are a specialty of the
‘SALES PREVENTION DEPARTMENT’
Do you have such a department at your salon? Most owners would say: ‘No way.” Are you sure? How do you know? Do you listen to every phone call that comes in? Read the next few pages carefully and you will discover how the Sales Prevention Department can be killed off quickly, effectively and permanently.
Here are the absolutely essential techniques for maximising your chances of
FIRST getting that appointment
THEN closing the sale.
SMILE!
You hear the phone ringing. You race to answer it. STOP! In the instant before you pick up the receiver, catch yourself and….smile.
Now start talking.
Why? Because it makes a difference to the way your voice sounds.
Try this:
Say “Hello, this is (your salon name), (your name) speaking.”
Now, smile first, and say the same thing. Notice the difference? You should. Because it is literally impossible to sound the same! The muscles of the face simply will not allow it. And it shows in the tone and inflection of your voice at the other end…. the end the prospective client is on!
Your Greeting
You’re smiling…. Excellent.
Now, think about the existing ‘script’ that you and your staff use to answer the phone. Is it something like:
“ABC Beauty Salon, Angela speaking.”?
Time to think again! Put yourself in the client’s position. At the other end of the phone, they are waiting to be welcomed.
Soooooo, your prospective client:
Does not care a jot that you are busy (nor should they!)
Is not the slightest bit concerned that your kids are due to be picked up from school any minute, the baby-sitter’s just called to say she’s running late, and you can’t get hold of your husband at work.
Has not even a shred of sympathy for the fact that two of your staff have called in sick, the electrician’s mucking around in the background trying to get that stereo fixed, and your air conditioning has just packed up.
Definitely doesn’t want to do business with a staff member who’s unhappy because she feels you don’t pay her enough, or she just doesn’t like you.
Your concerns are not the concern of your prospective client.
Don’t try to make them so. Not by what you say or how you say it.
I make no apology, kids.
This is the grown-up world. We work for a living here. Every call is showtime. Every call.
When you have a new prospective client on the phone you need to make her feel as though she is the most important call of the day.
When a client calls your salon, the voice she hears at the other end is the first impression of your business. As they say: ‘You only get One Chance to make a Good First Impression’.
Welcome your client to your business and introduce yourself.
Have FUN — Remember that? FUN? — teaching your staff how to answer the phone. Make sure your staff understand why it is important to answer the phone correctly. Don’t just tell them how, tell them why. Practice! Let them know that being able to answer the phone correctly (or “giving good phone”) is just as important as being able to apply excellent body treatments.
You can’t be a great therapist if you don’t have any clients!
Run a ½hour workshop on answering the phone. Comment on each other’s phone answering skills. Keep the atmosphere light-hearted but focused and make sure you revisit your phone answering skills regularly. I mean monthly. Old habits are hard to break. And that first impression, that first contact with a client is vital!
And conduct your own Quality Control! Ring your own salon, listen to how your girls answer the phone. Really listen. More importantly, ring other salons and listen to how they answer the phone. Visit other salons and steal great ideas.
What are we Really Selling?
Keep this at the back of your mind. No, come to think of it, keep this at the front of your mind, whenever you are talking with a client.
YOU might think you are selling waxing, facials, body treatments, skin care products, even a good chin-wag.
You are NOT selling any of these things.
You are not in this business at all.
The business you are actually in is the business of selling
HOPE.
As Revlon founder Charles Revson famously said: “In the factory, we make lipstick. In the store, we sell hope.”
Revson knew that he was selling the hopes, the dreams, the longings, the desires of his customers…. and he dedicated his business to satisfying them.
And that is exactly what you are doing.
Just like the man who buys a drill bit.
He doesn’t want a drill bit. (Who does?)
He wants a hole in the wall!
Your clients don’t want skin treatments or waxes.
They want to feel more attractive.
Every word you and your staff utter, every second of your time with your clients, should be spent with that thought in mind.
In this recorded webinar, I dive into the the specifics on how you can use Instagram to find new clients, the difference between Facebook Ads and Facebook Boosted Posts, and how it all can tie together.
Do you ever wonder, how ‘that’ business has more than 100K Instagram followers?
A strong online following in today’s day and age, is classified essential. And, if you want to be seen as a successful business owner, you will need to stay tech savvy and continue to have a strong online presence.
So, here are some of the steps you’ll need to consider before getting there yourself.
Take Good Photos
Instagram is a mobile-photo sharing app – so, images are essential when creating an account.
Producing engaging image content, which is visually appealing, is essential to gaining more followers on Instagram. Seriously. What you posts matters more than how you post.
Try and use a variety of images to help engage with your online audiences. For example, if you are a hair salon owner – you might want to post images of products you stock and sell at the salon.
Example: go find that busy local cafe (every neighbourhood has one), and stalk their Instagram. Find anyone who’s working successfully on their Instagram, and see how they post, how often they post, and what they post.
The content you post – the photos, the videos – have to stand out. Make them bold. Bright. Sexy. Funny. Witty. Something that’ll make people tag their friends in it.
Using before and after photos can also be highly effective for business purposes. Before and after photos are a great way of engaging with followers, as it gives them a sense of what it is you do.
Before and after photos can include anything from a hair colour, hair cut, hair up-do or even a blow dry, heck, even with facials, waxing – everything! Okay, maybe not waxing….
#Hashtag Correctly
Unlike SEO, on Instagram, people don’t search for “hair salon Broome,” or “beauty salon Venice Beach.” No – they search things like “style,” “fashion,” “women hair style,” or simply, their city name: “Los Angeles,” “Seattle,” “Perth.”
The key with Instagram is to be human. What would you search? Ask your children what they search. Get to know Instagram.
To win at Insta, you’ve gotta be human.
Linking images with relevant words can have an extremely positive result on your business.
By using relevant hashtags in your captions, you allow your posts to be found more easily, by people that may not be following you, but are searching for photos related to your brand and/or industry.
The photos you will want to be posting on your Instagram account, are those of the services you provide to your clients. So, images of haircuts, hairstyles, hair colour and any other services you may be offering at your salon. Again, make them all stand out.
By pairing relevant words and photos together and correctly hashtaging them, it makes it easier for people to find your work and business online.
For example #blunt, #beachhair, #bob, #blondes, #curls. All of these hashtags relate and link to a type of hairstyle or haircut – making it easier for people looking to change their hairstyle, to find your post and business through this server.
Seriously. This stuff works.
Post Consistently
I’m going to use a naughty word: schedule. Yup. I know. Such a horrible word.
But it’s true: if you stick to posting on a schedule, when people are most likely going to see your content – then you’ll find more clients.
Seriously.
The more you post – the more people see you.
The more people who see you, well that’s easy. More people will buy from you.
Have an Instagram for Business Page
In a previous article, I expressed the need for an Instagram for Business account. By signing up for a Business account, you can set the rules on how people will contact you from your profile.
You can make people call you, email you, text you, heck, even give them directions to drive to you. All from your Insta profile.
So – the more you post, and the more human you are – the more people will connect with you.
And when people connect with you – only after you ask them to buy from you – will they message you, and will they book in.
TIP: make sure you check your Instagram messages by tapping the paper plane icon from the Instagram dashboard.
I stopped at a local Starbuck’s with a friend last week and had the most wonderful server at the counter. A welcoming smile greeted us and an uplifted voice asked us for our order. She then explained that they were introducing their new “coffee” blend and would we like to experience it.
After placing our order she told us to find a seat and she would bring our order to us. When she arrived with our coffees she also had a sample of the new blend for each of us to take home. Again, a lovely smile and a gracious attitude. I was struck by the overall feeling of well-being the experience left me with.
These are the aspects that intrigued me:
Her smile and welcoming attitude,
Her method of introducing the new blend to us and the use of the word “experience” in describing a new product,
She brought our coffee to us rather than make us wait at the counter where the barista makes it; you know as well as I do, they don’t do that!
She brought us a sample of the new product to try it out at home.
Each of these aspects seem small on their own, but put in a total package from the coffee shop perspective, this was exceptional customer service!
Now, if anyone knows me – they know I’m a fanatic about Starbucks. I love the green mermaid cafe. But this experience just topped it all.
It made me realize that exceptional customer service is in the small things we do for our clients. If customer service is in the small things we do for our customers then let’s look at those small things individually, then add them up to that exceptional customer service experience:
The Greeting; introductions are important, so introduce yourself. The Consultation; whether it is for the first time or repeat client, a consultation is an important aspect of the customer service experience within the salon:
The Service; make it about them, their hair, their fashion, their color, their world!
Presenting Retail; an extension of the service you offer in the salon.
Re-booking; take care of your client’s hair future.
Check-out; graciousness and courtesy throughout!
Problems; ditto!
And shall I say it? Smile, smile, smile, through the entire transaction; from greeting to check-out.
What else can we do to bring an exceptional guest experience to our salon clients?
I think we have a tendency to sometimes take our clients for granted. We have an established relationship with them so perhaps we stop seeing them as new and fresh when they come in to the salon on a regular basis.
Ask your client how you are doing! Again, this will gather valuable information for you will have to analyze and make adjustments. Make sure you document all of this valuable information on your client file within your salon software!
Finally, it is important to establish a written customer service policy for the salon. Every aspect of our clients’ experiences needs to be in writing within your policy manual. That way, your customer service policy is part of the systems you have developed for the salon. It will actually make your life simpler when the plan is laid out and in writing.
So let’s get out there, romance our clients and watch our retention and re-booking figures grow in an upwardly motion! Don’t believe me? Try it for 6 weeks, and watch the remarkable differences in your business….
It’s fashionable to mock the appearance – in September! – of tinsel ‘n glitter Christmas promotions in the major department stores.
But the smart business owners in the hair & beauty industry will be using such examples of ‘crass’ commercialism as a warning bell:
Are you ready for the biggest trading event of the year?
Are you, really?? And, more to the point, have you properly prepared for the post-Christmas slump? Any salon or spa owner can make money in the week leading up to Christmas. Pretty much all you have to do is…show up.
That’s the lazy way. If you really want to make the most of it…legally, ethically and morally attract as much money as possible from the wallets of your clients to your own…well, that takes
– Planning
– Execution, and
– Follow-up It’s now the middle of October. Planning should have been well underway by now. Less than 10 weeks to go. Much less, in fact, if you consider the following list of marketing activities you can/should be doing:
Christmas cards. Yes, old-fashioned Christmas cards, in the mail. Why? Because hardly anyone sends them any more. A Christmas card arriving in the mailbox stands out. It gets read, and appreciated. Says long-term Worldwide Salon Marketing member Nicole Panayiotou of Blush Professional Beauty Touch in Sale, Victoria: “We are sending cards to 4,200 clients this year. I’ve just made a card on Vista Print, we put a $15 voucher to use in Jan and one for Feb and a hard copy of the December newsletter with a heap of promos and updates on it! Yes it does cost but the return is worth it!!!
Jan and Feb are just as big as Nov and December!”
Gift Vouchers. Many, many of our Member salons have used the ‘Buy One, Get One Free’ gift voucher promotions – downloaded directly from the Members Only Million Dollar Resources Library – to bring in large lumps of extra cash in the lead-up to Christmas. BUT…this promotion requires care and thought to work properly. The Most Wanted Response isn’t really the cash…it’s to fill the salon with clients – preferably new ones – in the hiatus after the Christmas rush. So, you want to encourage your Gift Voucher buyers to give away the free one as a gift to friends and family who are not currently clients of the salon, and – as described by Nicole above – restrict them for use only in January/February.
(And of course, have a plan in place to upsell to those new clients when they redeem their voucher.)
The famous Christmas Tree promotion. Also downloaded from the Million Dollar Resources Library, this promotion has worked wonders for many of our Member salons over the years. It works like this:
1.Erect the biggest Christmas tree you can fit in a prominent position in your reception area.
2.Hang it with brightly coloured small gift boxes.
3.In each gift box is a gift voucher, varying in value from say $20 upwards. One of the gift boxes contains a ‘hero’ gift voucher of much greater value, say $200.
4.Here’s the promotion to your clients in month of December: “Book and pay for your January appointment, and choose a Gift Box from the tree for a chance to win a Gift Voucher valued at up to $300!
There are templates and a complete ‘how-to’ for these promotions in the Million Dollar Resources library, just download, edit and print.
(Not yet a Member? For just $US99, join up here and get access to literally hundreds of done-for-you promotions like this.)
Get your ‘Lost’ Clients Back. This is a gold-plated time to make an effort to bring your ‘missing in action’ clients back into the salon. Tim Tialdo from Glo Extensions in Denver used a carefully-worded series of letters he downloaded from the Million Dollar Resources Library (the famous ‘Rupert the Dog’ series) and sent them to 100 of his missing clients. Here’s how he describes what happened:
That’s just a small taste of the concrete, nuts and bolts ACTION you can take to maximise your Christmas trading…and post-Christmas trading.
See, most salon owners slack off during the Christmas season – they feed on the excess egg nog and chocolate. But you, no, you’re different. You ramp up your marketing when everything slacks off.
Hell, it was Warren Buffett who said “be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy.” Well, in this case.. Be proactive when others are lazy.
Santa might well be a really nice guy. But are you gonna just wait for Santa to deliver the goodies, or are you gonna go out there and grab ‘em for yourself?
“We are sending cards to 4,200 clients this year. I’ve just made a card on Vista Print, we put a $15 voucher to use in Jan and one for Feb and a hard copy of the December newsletter with a heap of promos and updates on it! Yes it does cost but the return is worth it!!!
