Creative HEAD April 2017

One step
beyond
Go further than cut and colour to really boost your client
loyalty and your revenue – get to grips with innovative extras
IT’S NO SECRET that the happier a client is when they leave
your salon, the more likely they are to come back. It makes
sense to offer them as much as possible, from colour protection
to luxurious treatments and a perfectly tailored aftercare
plan. But clients can be wary of adding extra services to an
appointment as they worry about cost and time. How can you
make sure they know what they’re getting is worth it?
“We always make sure the guest is educated and salonlanguage
barriers are broken down,” explains Jimmy
Goodwin, customer communications manager at The Chapel.
“By understanding how our hair services work, a guest can
make their own choices, while also proving they can trust us.”
And the language you use with clients should be different
from how you talk to other hairdressers, says Madeline
Murphy, colour director at Ena Salon. “Technicians use the
term ‘re-bonding’ and ‘restructuring’, but you should talk
about it as a safer way for clients to have their hair coloured
and keep the condition,” she explains. “I find most clients
these days have already heard about Olaplex, so it makes it
easier to up-sell.”
We all know that hairdressers are great at being creative, so
it’s not surprising that some salons are adopting imaginative
ways to suggest their clients upgrade. Last year Headmasters
launched the Hair Paper, which arrives alongside their drink
as some reading material during their appointment – but it
also doubles up as a clever way to promote add-on services.
Once you have started that conversation, you can get into
the specifics of various services in a straightforward way.
Steve Turner of Salon 6 and director of MyHairDressers.com,
explains: “Smoothing treatments like The First Shampoo
reduce the curl and the frizz so when the client does their hair
at home, it’s far quicker and they get a better result. If you tell
a client they can save 15 to 20 minutes every day, the benefit
far outweighs the cost of the treatment.”
It’s worth getting potential clients in to the salon, to see
results for themselves. “The best way to start your smoothing
business is a client awareness night, where you invite your
most challenged clients and ask one of them to be the model,”
says Peter Tobolski, managing director for Fresh Approach,
distributor of Nanokeratin System. “Then make sure you
have images of all your before and after looks.”
Some canny salons are increasingly building bonding
services into the price of colour. “We have changed our pricing
so that all global pre-lighteners have Smartbond built into
the price so we can use it without the client having to give
permission for the extra charge,” explains Karen Dodds,
co-founder of Cutting Room Creative. “When launching
Smartbond, we made sure that all the team had a Smartbond
application on their own hair during the first week – we’ve
found this is the best way to get them enthused about a new
product. And in the first three months, we did more than 370
Smartbond treatments.”
And of course, social media is important for getting the
message out there. “All the social media channels can
be used as the results are so visual,” adds Peter. “Social
media competitions are a great tool – for example, offer six
treatments for free and give everyone else that takes part in
the competition gets a voucher for £50 off the service.”
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CREATIVE HEAD