. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beauty - Expert Panel “ If my salon is quiet during
January, how is the best way for me to use my time?
” Sue Maguire
Head of Sales for
Phorest.com
Angela Joseph
Sales Training Manager for Dermalogica
"Most salons used to have either a slump during January or February in the lead up to Valentine's Day. Hopefully in this day and age salon owners have thought this through and diverted this from happening by using seasonal gift vouchers to fill up space in this period."
"For example, let's say you sell a gift voucher for €50, you should give the buyer a voucher for say €5 / €10 which can only be redeemed in your presumed quiet period. Let your clients know this and it will encourage themto buy vouchers fromyou rather than give money to the department stores, especially when they can use their voucher against services when they maybe do not have a lot of disposable income after Christmas. By watching howmuch your free vouchers are worth they will still have to part with some money therefore helping with your cash flow.
"If you do find your salon quiet, you could use this time for training. Most companies do not charge for training or if they do it's minimal. Get your staff refreshed on product knowledge for the brands you carry.
"You should also use this time for you and your team to come up with a 12 month marketing calendar. If you get organised now it will cut down on off the cuff promotions where you give away more than you actually need to. Also, always remember add-ons rather than discounts are better and will keep you out of the downward discount spiral.
"Last but not least, remember you do have clients going away on holiday at this time of year, especially thosewho go on skiing
holidays.Get text promotions out to these clients. Also get your Early Bird promotions out. These should run between 10amto 2pmMonday to Wednesday as these can be quiet times in the salon.”
"Start off the New Year on a strategic foot! Don't wait for that phone to ring as itmay never happen. Instead think outside the box."
"Everyone in your vicinity from the postman to the girl in the local shop has skin. Take your skills out of the business and network. During conversations, let them know what you do. Comment on their skin and ask what they use in the form of skin care.
"Hand out a voucher to local traders and your neighbours inviting them for a lesson on how to treat their skin. Once you have them back in your space, teach them and inform them. Position yourself as the expert!
“A great place to start is the local slimming group because this is where 60% of us are hanging out wanting a new body, new start! Offer to come along and give advice at their next group, introduce yourself and what you do and invite them back into your business.
"The customer is changing so in order to survive this New Year we need to change the way we do things as well. Get out of the treatment room and prospect for new clients, clients that maybe have never set foot inside a skin centre.
“Get yourself back to class and be 'in the know'. Rebrand yourself this way and look forward to a comfortable ride in the coming year ahead!"
Robert Miles
Managing Director at Premier Software
"Quiet periods are inevitable in any business but there are a number of ways you can combat quiet months, improve sales and boost business."
"A major starting point should be to make sure you know as much as possible about your customers and store this information on your system (e.g. where they live, what treatments they've had, what time/day they visited, what products they've bought, etc). This enables you to target specific groups of your database with a special offer which is tailor made to them and linked to when you have space to fill.
"If time is of the essence, e.g. you have quiet time tomorrow, then there's no better way of reaching new customers than by using text messaging. Through your database system you could identify all customers within say a five mile radius and explain that you have some late availability between certain times.
"Another option is to search your gift voucher sales to see who has bought one but perhaps hasn't redeemed it yet. You can then devise a special promotion for them to encourage them to come in. Whilst you might not be worried if gift vouchers are not redeemed, you also have to remember that someone who hasn't experienced your service won't be able to recommend you to their friends and also you won't have chance to up-sell to them. This also works well with customers who perhaps haven't used their full course of treatments."
If you have any questions you would like to put to our panel, email us at:
melissa@aitireland.com
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