I’ve been in the salon/spa industry for 50 years. I know, because I counted the decades since cosmetology school on my fingers just to be sure.

To me, the salon/spa business has always been about customer service. You’ve heard all the buzz phrases:

• The customer always comes first.


• The customer is always right.


• Meet and exceed expectations.


• Create extraordinary customer service experiences.


• What would a $500 haircut experience be like?


• Hell, what would a $10,000 haircut experience be like?

• Leadership: If the leadership isn’t there, customer service systems will fail. It’s like expecting a Maserati engine to do its thing without gasoline. A business culture, standards of performance and excellent customer service cannot survive without leadership.


• Systems: Systems are step-by-step procedures that, when followed, deliver predictable outcomes. No systems. No consistency. Customer service is compromised.


• Training, coaching and oversight: Extraordinary customer service experiences are designed, systematized and built into a required training program. This is followed by ongoing coaching and leadership oversight. If any piece is missing, the outcome will be anything but extraordinary.


• Culture: Culture is the collective thinking and behavior of the salon/spa. As we teach at Strategies, culture reflects leadership. Extraordinary customer service experiences cannot occur in a culture where “I/me/mine” thinking and behavior exists. Teamwork will never achieve its full potential when team members put their “I/me/mine” mentality first and teamwork second.

• What you measure gets repeated: Consider how the majority of owners prepare for performance reviews. They run piles of reports on individual employee numbers from service and retail revenue to client retention, prebook, productivity rate and more. During the actual performance review, the employee’s numbers are discussed with emphasis on which numbers need to improve and how. KEY: When the focus of employee performance reviews is essentially a review of “that employee’s numbers,” it’s disconnected from the employee’s contribution, or lack thereof, to company culture, teamwork and company goals. The message given to the employee is that their “I/me/mine” numbers are all that matters.


• Individual revenue goals: On the surface, setting revenue goals for each employee makes sense. But where’s the connection and emphasis on the revenue goals that the company needs to achieve? KEY: I’m not suggesting that individual revenue goals are bad. What I’m saying is that without a solid connection to the revenue goals of the company, the message to the employee is that hitting his/her individual goal is all that matters. Why up-sell a service today that another service provider has the skill and time to perform? Individual goals, with no connection or accountability to support team/company goals, feeds the “I/me/mine” mentality.


• Individual pay based on individual sales: Commission is pay based on individual sales with no connection to the company hitting its revenue goals and requirements. Period. End of story. Hey, Team-Based Pay owners, you’re still stuck in “commission” thinking if you’re using a percent of individual revenue to determine pay and pay increases. And you’re sending the same message that individual sales are more important than hitting the company’s monthly revenue goal. KEY: Individual pay rates should be based on factors that go much deeper than what that one individual brings in. Skill development, culture, teamwork and individual strengths are more than an individual’s revenue. In fact, skill, culture, teamwork and individual strengths are the true revenue drivers.