Why Retail Is Important to Your Salon
Life as a busy salon owner is never simple.
Every day you’re juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities: managing and motivating your team, exceeding client expectations, keeping on top of bills… it can become an endless list of tasks!
One element of your business that you can keep stress-free is retail. Retail will never call in sick, desert you for another salon or cancel an appointment. Retail can be the constant that takes your salon business from breaking even to making a profit.
The great news is clients want to buy retail from you. Research shows that clients love personal recommendations for a product. Talking products with your clients keeps the focus on them and keeps you in the spotlight as their beauty expert.
Deep down, they want the best results for their pain points. They don’t really care about you asking them about their last holiday or how their dog is or how their date went last night. Quality clients are after results. If you drop the beauty expert ball, they will look for results elsewhere. Small talk is fine, but it isn’t what our clients need us for. When your clients are in your salon, they want expert beauty advice from you, the expert!
Believe me, I learned this lesson the hard way. I was a 21-year-old salon owner and as we sometimes do, I was running behind. My client walked in and I had to tell her the bad news. Thankfully she didn’t mind.
She mentioned that she didn’t have any money to buy products today, then she went for a walk. Myer, an Australian department store, was just around the corner. 15 minutes later, she comes back to the salon with a bag filled with skincare from a counter.
The lesson?
Money is rarely the issue; it’s all about leadership and solving a client’s problem. Women will pay almost anything for this. Our clients want to lean on someone they believe can make them look and feel beautiful.
So always remember that regardless of the client’s story, always stick to what you know they need. Keep their best interests at the forefront of your intentions. Always make client homecare part of your agenda.
FYI: Did you know the average high-performing salon retails to around 10-15% of their clients. The reason the number is so low is because most stylists don’t talk about products. Keep in mind that when you’re applying a product to your client, they don’t have a clue what you’re doing unless you show and tell them.
Not recommending retail to your client is creating a poor customer experience. If you – the brow expert – can’t get the desired finish without a product, how can an untrained client create the look? Clients don’t want brows that look fabulous for one day, they want fabulous brows every day until their next visit.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to grow your beauty salon business with retail, we’re ready to chat.
