Become a Coach 
If we only had a crystal ball to predict the dreaded winter downturn of business! It’s almost like you work for the summer season just to get through the cold months. Sound familiar?
If you could take on a large chunk of clients in the middle part of the year you really need to keep reading. You need to have a plan and today is all about what are or are not doing to break the status quo of the dreaded “quite patch”.
A good dose of reali-ty, and please don’t expect to read anything you haven’t already heard before. The truth we know what to do, but we are attracted by the bright and shiny’s and want a quick fix NOW. I am just as guilty as you.
Let’s break that cycle with 6 areas where you can make headway in your business today.
LOOK UPSTREAM
The facts about what is happening today in your business are just a little upstream. The truth is in the figures and the figures never lie! If you are experiencing quieter periods in business you can find the answers in your numbers. Here is where to look:
- Average client spend
- New client numbers
- Lapsed client numbers
- Retention rates
- Rebooking
The first thing I start to unpack when working with a coaching client is looking at the numbers. If you don’t know your numbers on the above KPI’s, how will you know that the needle is moving for growth or de-cline? You don’t! Prevention is better than cure and when you know your numbers you can fix a crack before it becomes a gaping great big hole!
MARKETING IS NOT THE ANSWER
GAHHH! My pet peeve, Seeing beauty salons scrape the barrel with heavily discounted promotions on social media just to make ends meet. Let’s get one thing explicitly clear, Marketing is not the long term solution.
Sure, it gives you a quick cash injection to help get you across the line and I do believe that marketing like this can serve a purpose, Howev- er I want you to slow down to speed up. What I mean by this is con-sider what you need to do to fix this problem once, the answer is al-most always NOT in discount marketing.
Your marketing plan needs to be consistent throughout the year, not just ramped up to fill quite patches.
HISTORY REPEATS
Don’t keep making the SAME mistakes over and over again. Face up to the mistake, learn the lesson and move on to the next thing. How’s stressful is it to even think about a business downturn over the cool months? The fact that you know this is a trend means that you can put a plan in place to reduce the risk!
Think about it, grab a pen and paper right now and write down three things that you could do to mitigate this risk. I bet you won’t be able to stop at three.
TRACK LOST/LAPSED CLIENTS
I’ve never met a salon owner who was on top of their lost clients the way we teach it at ZING. Strategic monitoring means you know ex-actly what is going on with the traffic coming in and out of your busi-ness. What’s the point of bringing new clients in the front door while you’re letting them slip out the back? Doesn’t make sense does it?!
Track your lost clients weekly for each team member. Truth be know, the reason your quite now is most like because of decreased client numbers. What are you doing to invite these clients back?
“THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, BUT EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS.” Albert Einstein
THE RAVING FAN
Engaging your clients one at a time is the secret. It’s so simple that we can blink and miss it. Your clients should and need to be raving fans, and you only achieve this when you are delivering A1 service every. Client. Every. Time. They want you to explain things in language they can understand. They want to feel your genuine excitement.
Question, How well does your salon really deliver the basics in service delivery? be honest! If you WOW the socks off your existing clients and watch that queue form out your salon door. It’s so simple we miss it.
Brain storm with your team what a ‘celebrity’ service level looks like in your salon.
SKIN FOCUS
Clients who have facial services are interested in ongoing, long-term care of their skin. They value having great skin and are more likely to enter into packages that give you and the client lasting results.
So why isn’t your salon or spa bursting at the seams with clients having facial treatments? Because not all therapists do their job of educating clients. Your role is to look for problems to solve, make suggestion and share what is possible for your clients.
Give advice, give options, give samples. You need to show how you really care about outcome for your client. The facial client not only keep coming back, but rave about your salon to their network of friends and family, Who doesn’t want that?
So many of you are recommending a ‘meh’ number of products, and a ‘meh’ amount of services. If you don’t have an appointment book bursting with clients then this is just business madness!
It’s very common that when I meet a beauty salon owner for the first time and I ask them what is it that you want to grow, they almost al-ways say ‘facials’. This is a big plan, one that takes time to implement, time to see results and time to master. if it was easy wouldn’t everyone be doing it?
Slow down and fix this stressful problem once. You deserve it!
For more salon wisdom email ZING Coach Jay Chapman at jay@zingcoach.com.au or visit www.thezingproject.com.au