When managing a salon or spa, there are two types of engagement and retention you must focus on – client and employee. The first we hear about all the time: how to get more clients, how to retain clients and how to get clients to spend more money. Yet equally expensive and much more devastating to lose are employees.
In general, your employees want to make money, but they also want to feel appreciated and empowered. They want to be enabled to do the best job they can and be rewarded for it. This is your role: helping them be as professional as possible as they do their job of ensuring clients feel as beautiful as possible when they leave your salon.
Many of your employees (if not all) will be used to being their own operators; managing their own station, column and perhaps pricing in some scenarios. This means you have to enable them to operate on an individual basis without compromising your business tracking. Offering them things like remote access to their column so they can capitalize on conversations at the gym or grocery store lines, converting them into bookings on the spot can be life-changing. They will also help increase your overall bottom line.
Allowing them to keep an eye on their schedule is great, but helping them stay on top of their earning potential is also crucial. Few of us work for free, so helping them take control of their earnings (without paying greater commission) can help them become happier, healthier and much more satisfied with your salon or spa. And helping them stay on track in today’s technological age is easier than you think, even if the softer side of leadership may be getting trickier.
Your business reports, just a click of a button from your point of sale system, can show employees their own performance and earning ability. Spend some time exploring the potential of these reports and metrics and how they can help your employees evaluate and grow. Get them to consider:
•Percentage of available appointment times they are booked on average
•Rebooking percentages
•Their personal client retention
•Percentage of new clients who request them
•Percentage of clients who come for a service and also buy retail
There are many, many ways to slice and dice employee performance. The key is to find and use what works for you and your team to motivate them so they understand expectations and perform better over time. Salon technology is there for you to make it easier. -Paul Tate
Paul Tate is CEO of Shortcuts Smarter Business Technology, which provides intuitive online and offline support to salons and spas across the world, offering solutions in nine languages to more than 12,000 clients in 46 countries.
[Image courtesy of Linkup Marketing]
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