THE HAIRCARE INDUSTRY’S “NEW NORMAL”: KEY SKILLS YOU NEED TO SUCCEED IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD.
Color Wow’s Global Director of Training and Education, Giles Robinson talks through the changes that salons have faced over the past year. Below, he gives some tips on how you can increase your retail revenue in salon.
Last year was an extremely challenging one for all of us, especially for everyone working in the haircare industry. It’s been said that major disruption is what reshapes the world, it exposes our vulnerabilities and forces us to reimagine a new way forward… a fresh, workable “new normal”.
At Color Wow that’s where our focus has been. We’ve been in our “war room”, working on a plan to help resuscitate and rejuvenate our professional salon community who have so generously supported our family-run business. The Haircare Group has been very much the same, and the way the salon industry has pivoted across varied lockdowns, restrictions and enforced rules has been admirable.
David Steinberg who is John Scully’s (of Apple fame) business partner once said “never waste a good crisis”. We’ve seen many salons heed that advice whether they realised it or not during this pandemic. We’ve been closely watching the tactics employed by many pro-active, innovative salon owners and have identified that it is essential to master this digital age and reinvent the way you retail in order to future-proof the haircare industry, period.
Understanding the tools that are available and how to make them work for you is a steep learning curve for some, but it’s critical. I want to focus on two key areas of that class that can help your business rocket ahead!
MASTERING RETAIL for salons
It’s important you go the extra mile when retailing in-salon products to your clients. You have to create a retail experience and make a small investment for a big reward.
- Source nice premium-looking and feeling bags.
- Find local businesses that you can team up with and use their products as extra giveaways in the bags when a client purchases. Look for items like, hair accessories, travel haircare, makeup brushes, wax melts, eye masks and bath salts etc.
- Have stickers made with your salon branding to seal bags, they are easy and cheap to find online.
- Look for nice packing paper, you can even get this branded.
OWNING DIGITAL: Mastering online for hair stylists and salons
You must participate in today's media environment in order to succeed in the haircare industry’s “new normal”.
- Build an online profile using Facebook and Instagram. Make sure you’ve downloaded your copy of the Social Media Guide available from the Haircare Group website, this gives you great tips and tricks on how to successfully launch your brand online.
- Collect emails! Ask your clients to provide their email address when they book their salon or hair styling appointment with you, especially if they book online.
- You can encourage clients to follow you online and share their emails by doing a monthly product giveaway or small hamper they can win. Put it in a prominent position in the salon and to enter every client writes down their email, follows you on Instagram and checks in on Facebook.
- Once you have gained the followers and emails, you can use this to influence your clients.
- Share new hair products, styling services, treatment deals and competitions that you may be offering in your salon.
- If you feel confident, create your own video content. Clients love to see how you style your own hair and achieve certain looks, make sure it’s clear which hair, colour or styling products you are using. Post the video to your social platforms and use it to direct clients to your website shop and your salon to make retail sales.
