by Greg Milner | May 23, 2013 | Blog, New Zealand, Salon Events
The ‘You Beauty Salon Tour’ is underway and the first date at Gloss Beauty Boutique in Matamata was a HUGE success!
The VIP night saw customers of Gloss Beauty be entertained with live music (from me), makeup demos from Rachael D’Aguiar and they had the opportunity to purchase one-night only special offers.
Click here to check out a video of the night
Gloss Beauty took in over $3500 sales for the night, and we raised around $500 for Look Good Feel Better women’s cancer charity. A great result all round!
And to add to that the event got some great FREE media coverage for Gloss Beauty in the regional paper the Waikato Times and also a more local paper called the Matamata Chronicle….Priceless!
Click this link to the Waikato Times article
And if that wasn’t enough, at least half a dozen customers of Gloss Beauty gave a glowing video testimonial, all raving about how amazing the salon is!!! Check out some of them below…
Gloss Beauty Testimonial 1
Gloss Beauty Testimonial 2
Gloss Beauty Testimonial 3
The You Beauty Salon Tour is about to get rolling again with dates this week in Auckland and Tauranga so be sure to check back later in the week for an update.
Or follow the Tour on Facebook or Twitter (links below)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/chrissandersmusic/
https://twitter.com/@salonapps
And if you want to be involved and help raise some money for Look Good Feel Better then simply download my debut EP from iTunes with all proceeds going to Look Good Feel Better throughout May.
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/home-away-from-home-ep/id274794920
Auckland and Tauranga here we come!
by Greg Milner | Apr 29, 2013 | Australia, Blog, New Zealand
If you are part of the statistic that shows Australia and New Zealand salons lose an estimated $423 million per annum (ouch!) in customer no-shows then you will want to read this report.
Stop banging your head against a wall because there are solutions to the problem. In this 15-page in depth report you will find:
- The ‘You and Us – A Beautiful Partnership’ letter, laying down the ground rules and expectations between the salon and customer from the word ‘GO!’
- The actual words you and your staff can use to communicate your salons cancellation policy effectively and confidently to a customer.
- And some great advice on the best ways to remind your customers about their appointments so they don’t forget.
Plus the report also shares our complete findings from the survey.
And the report is already proving to be a HIT with salons who have read it so far, like Trish House from Esthetica in Dargaville, NZ…
“Hi Chris
I just want to say how much I appreciate the help with reducing No-Shows in our clinic. This is something I’ve been “meaning to get to” for ages but just haven’t sat down and nutted out a strategy for it. I finally got the facility for accepting credit card payment over the phone last month, and now with the report I have the impetous and direction to implement this policy properly once and for all!”
The No-show report is available now on the Salon Finder App website. To claim your FREE copy of the report it’s quite simple.
First, click here or visit www.salonfinderapp.com
Second, either register if it’s your first time here, or log back in if you are a returning user.
Third, once registered and logged in you will see the report on the left hand side of screen, you can click on it to download.
I hope this report goes someway to helping you reduce costly no-shows!
Chris D’Aguiar-Sanders
+64 9 476 1592
0800 029 668 (Within NZ)
P.s Industry groups Worldwide Salon Marketing, The Salon Staff Coach and Salon Finder App collaborated to bring you this ‘money-saving’ report.
P.p.s Click here to find out how you can join hundreds of other salon owners as Members of Worldwide Salon Marketing
by Greg Milner | Apr 15, 2013 | Blog, Featured, New Zealand
There are some really crucial elements to any successful salon marketing ad or flyer, an attention grabbing headline, a strong offer, guarantee, use of scarcity and of course a call to action.
So when Lynette Adams of Glory Salon in Thames, Coromandel recently put together a Mothers Day campaign using a Worldwide Salon Marketing template, to run in her local paper using all the above marketing elements, she was excited about what results she would achieve.
But her excitement soon turned to anguish when the paper arrived in her letterbox only for her salon PHONE NUMBER to be missing of her ad. She checked the original and the phone number was there, but the paper had accidentally deleted it when converting the file to a PDF. The call to action was completely gone.
Now you’d expect the salon phone to be quiet as a mouse. Instead, what happened completely amazed and amused Lynette. Here’s what she emailed to me…
“I have sold 19 of the ‘out of order’ Mothers Day packages already!!! + when I saw the ad they had left off my contact details (somehow they had got deleted from bottom when converted to pdf) so they are going to run it again this week for free! Kinda cool that still got response from people without the number as they would have had to look it up.”
You see, what happened here was that the other parts of Lynette’s ad where so strong and enticing that people actually took the time to find her salon’s number in the phone book or on the net and call her to book. Her customers simply didn’t want to miss out on what was on offer. That’s pretty amazing and goes to show how incredibly effective and powerful the Worldwide Salon Marketing templates are, even when they are not used 100% right!!!
And there was one other thing that really made her ad stand out. She got the paper to print the ad upside down. Yes that’s right, upside down…except that bit was done on purpose.
WSM members can view the ad used by Lynette in the members website by clicking here now
Now I am not saying you should all leave your phone number off your ads from now on, but just imagine what would have happened if the phone number was on the ad!!! It will certainly be interesting to see how Lynette’s follow up ad goes with the phone number on it.
And Lynette went on to tell us how she had done in the last 12 months since joining Worldwide Salon Marketing…
“So happy just looked at figures up $4000 on last March!!! + I started WWSM end March last year so from 1 April to 31 March this year increased my turnover by 50% AMAZING!!! Sold $5000 more in vouchers as well =) Thanks so much for all your help really appreciate it! Lynette x”
Keep up the great work Lynette! And make sure the paper send you a proof next time!
If you want to achieve results like Lynette then call me now on ** *** **** (haha, just kiddin 09 476 1592) or email me chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com – or if you prefer you can click here to fill out a contact form and we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.
Happy Marketing
Chris D’Aguiar-Sanders
09 476 1592
0800 029 668
by Greg Milner | Mar 20, 2013 | Featured, The Smell of Success
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]
BONUS GIFT for salon owners who want to eliminate ‘no-shows’ forever!
Want to stop no-shows? Join the Lite marketing program and get this proven client letter FREE – a Bonus Gift valued at $297 – but PRICELESS!
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!
by Greg Milner | Mar 11, 2013 | Blog, New Zealand
Would you like to hold a hugely successful VIP night in your Salon?
Would you like to be part of one of the most unique Salon Events ever?
How would you like free media and publicity that you simply couldn’t pay for, let alone afford?
How would you like a salon FULL of happy customers and a till bursting with sales?
And how would you like ALL the marketing of this event designed and done-for-you?
It seems some salons are struggling to excite and attract new customers. In a world where most of your clients spend time on social media how do you ‘sell’ to them if all they want to do is be social? After long thought and brainstorming we realized that the trick is to get other people talking about you. LOTS of them! In this day and age PR (Public Relations) has just as much place in a small business as does traditional marketing.
So I came up with an idea…
The month of May just happens to be ‘NZ Music Month’ the time when we celebrate everything kiwi about music. So here’s my idea to get some good publicity for your salon.
You may or may not know that in my ‘other life’ outside of being director of Worldwide Salon Marketing I am a professional musician. I have played in excess of 1600 performances throughout NZ and have supported some NZ greats like Tim Finn (Crowded House), Dave Dobbyn, Anika Moa, Evermore and even had a single released on a NZ on Air Hit Disc with the likes of Neil Finn and the Top Twins!
But you don’t have to take my word for it, here’s what long time WSM member Lisa Van Dyk of Gloss Beauty Boutique in Matamata had to say… “What a great and fun idea to help salons get some positive publicity. Chris is a truly great performer, has an amazing voice and very talented on the guitar – in fact I got him to play at one of my events in the past, the crowd just loved him. When he told me about the salon tour I immediately said, book me in!!!”
So, in May I will embark on what some may call the MOST unique music tour ever!
And I’d like your salon to be part of that. A venue, no less!
The uniqueness of such an event – a ‘Salon Tour’ with a musician turned mentor and actress turned staff coach (yes, Rachael has another life too…) would in itself draw media attention. And the local/national media are screaming out for stories like this!
The event will be run as a VIP night (or day) in your salon and here’s what you will get:
- 45 min – 1hr acoustic set from Chris Sanders. The music will be a mixture or NZ classic songs and some of my own originals (non invasive easy listening music).
- Your choice of 45 minute makeup demo, 30 minute hair-up demo or 30 minute ‘Advances in Anti-aging’ presentation from re-knowned industry guru Rachael D’Aguiar (If you stock a makeup range then Rachael can use this range and help you make sales).
- We will also assist to MC the night.
To book or find out more details simply call us NOW on 0800 029 668 or email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com
You’ll get designed and written for you VIP night invites, tickets, mailer campaigns, posters, email campaigns, PR and media releases to local and national media and potentially (we hope) radio/TV interviews. What’s more we will create a video diary/documentary to be released after the tour and give your salon even more coverage!
And we will help you develop packages that you can sell on the night to make lots of money too!!!
If you are interested in being involved with the most unique tour ever then there are 2 package options available:
Package 1:
Includes performance from Chris Sanders, your choice of demo from Rachael D’Aguiar and assistance with MC at the event.
Investment: Base fee of $450 + gst
Ticket Fee: $30 per person ($15 to Us, $15 to your salon).
Package 2:
Includes performance from Chris Sanders and assistance with MC at the event.
Investment: Base fee of $300 + gst
Ticket Fee: $30 per person ($15 to Us, $15 to your salon).
To book or find out more details simply call us NOW on 0800 029 668 or email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to not only get some publicity for your salon, but also to make some money through sales of packages and products at the VIP event, get some help from industry experts AND let your hair down a bit too!
AND AS A SPECIAL BONUS you will get a 1 hour one-on-one training session the next day from either myself or Rachael (marketing or staff coaching, your choice) to help you maximise the success from your event.
If you are interested then get back to us quickly to discuss dates. We have already booked in some dates with salons so would hate for you to miss out – we are only offering maximum 15 dates throughout May.
Here is a Calendar of when we will be in your area and what is still available.
May 1: Auckland (Opening Night Venue TBC)
May 2: Gloss Beauty Boutique, Matamata (BOOKED)
May 3-4: Tauranga & Bay of Plenty (Still available)
May 8-11: Central North Island, Hawkes Bay & Taranaki (Still available)
May 15-18: Wellington & Nelson (Still available)
May 22-25: Christchurch, Dunedin and Otago (Still available)
May 28-29: Auckland (Still available)
May 30: Xpertise Hairdressers, Kaikohe (BOOKED)
May 31: Body Divine, Kerikeri (Closing Night BOOKED!)
To book or find out more details simply call us NOW on 0800 029 668 or email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com
Looking forward to holding a a hugely successful VIP night in your salon soon!
Regards
Chris Sanders
09 476 1592
0800 029 668
