There is no question how prebooking can dramatically improve your productivity rate, first and existing client retention rates, frequency of client visit, and overall service and retail revenues.

However, there is a question as to why so many salons and spas struggle to achieve the prebook rates they are capable of.

The reasons are simple and rather basic:

• Prebook systems are poorly defined leaving prebook to chance.
• Service providers and front desk staff are insufficiently trained, coached and monitored.
• Service providers and front desk staff are not working seamlessly to ensure that every client receives prebook guidance and executes the prebook at checkout. FACT: Prebooking is a team sport.
• Many service providers regard prebooking with the same indifference as retail. To them, prebooking is “selling” and they want nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately, the majority of salons and spas regard prebooking as something that’s done at the end of the client service.... Read More

Driving your salon/spa’s prebook rate has a dramatic impact on productivity rate by filling future appointment time slots.

The merging of your prebook consistency and first-visit and existing client retention rates, literally supercharges your salon/spa’s productivity rate. It’s the orchestrated outcome of pre-selling time on the appointment book and fulfilling and exceeding client expectations.

FACT 1: Prebooking is the process of professional guidance to schedule future service appointments.

FACT 2: First-time and existing client retention rates are direct and indisputable measurements of the quality of your salon/spa’s technical ability’s and customer service systems.

FACT3: Your salon/spa can have impressive prebook and client retention rates … and still be missing the dynamic impact even minor increases in Frequency of Visit can have on total revenues.

Frequency of Visit (FOV) defined: Frequency of visit is the average number of service purchases clients make per year at your salon/spa.... Read More

You have to be living under a rock to not recognize that the salon/spa industry is in a state of dramatic change.

The most significant change is the rise of the “independent” working in booth rental and suites. Social media, especially Instagram, is their marketing vehicle.

To put it mildly, owners of employee-based salons/spas are concerned, perhaps even baffled, about how to insulate their companies, their employees and their customer base from the lure of booth rental and suites.

It’s always been my opinion that the traditional salon/spa business model, built on commission and individual clientele building, is the root cause of the industry’s woes.

And that’s exactly the reason that Strategies has been relentlessly teaching and coaching our Team-Based Business Model for over 25 years. It builds viable, sustainable, systematized, profitable, culture-based salons and spas.... Read More

Sometimes salon and spa owners just can’t stop themselves.

They react to the performance numbers they don’t like seeing, morph into “task master” mode, and proceed to tell everyone, “You need to get these numbers up.”

The importance of getting “the numbers” up is a no brainer. But “the numbers” are an outcome. And achieving the right outcomes means getting the behaviors right.

1. Leading through Behaviors vs Managing the Outcomes/Results.

On the extreme …

Rent and payroll taxes are due, productivity and pre-book rates are in the danger zone. Making goal looks more and more like a pipe dream. The company is telling you, “Hey fearless leader, our cash reserve is depleted, and you need to fix this now.”

The leader misinterprets how the salon/spa got into this condition and becomes reactive instead of proactive.

The leader begins speaking in numbers and not about the behaviors. Employees react by thinking that the company has become all “corporate” and all the leader cares about are the “numbers.”... Read More

When it’s performance review time, it’s a sure bet that you’re not beaming with excitement.

In fact, conducting scheduled performance reviews is probably the one leadership responsibility that owners procrastinate on the most. That’s why just about every owner chuckles when I ask, “Do you do quarterly performance reviews at least once a year?”

So why is it that something as essential as one-on-one performance reviews can be regarded as painful?

Too often, performance reviews are regarded as confrontational and outright uncomfortable, especially when performance and behavior issues exist.

• Issuing praise and accolades is the joyous reward of leadership.
• Dispensing the not-so-fun corrective and disciplinary stuff is where vital information gets stuck in the leadership blockage muck of emotions and fear of confrontation.

Performance reviews are formal opportunities to guide and coach employees to reach their full potential.... Read More