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Are You Willing to Go for Excellence in Your Salon/Spa?

Are You Willing to Go for

When it comes to customer service and technical excellence, how great do you want your salon/spa to be? You probably answered something like, "Pretty darn great." Now, describe in detail what that "pretty darn great" looks like.

Now ... how does your current level of customer service and technical excellence of your salon/spa compare to your vision of "pretty darn great"?

Most likely, there's going to be a gap between where you are now and that pretty darn great.

So ... what is it truly going to take to consistently deliver great customer service and technical excellence to your clients?

Practice + Accountability = Culture of Excellence

At salons and spas, extraordinary customer service and technical excellence is typically a mixed bag. Some employees are great at it, some are pretty okay and some are pretty darn fair. The reason for these inconsistencies is leadership, training, practice and accountability to create a culture of excellence.

Vidal Sassoon was unrelenting in his quest for professional mastery of precision haircutting. He was known to make stylists train on weeknights after a long day at the salon. His theory was simple, “Practice at night to do great work during the day.” Today, that level of unrelenting practice is hard to find. There are no shortcuts to excellence.

Are you ready to lead your team into the world of customer service and technical excellence?

If the answer is yes, here are the SIX non-negotiable steps to begin your salon/spa’s excellence journey:

  1. Set the Excellence bar ... really high: Excellence is about your company’s unrelenting commitment to training, practice and holding everyone accountable to the highest standards. As leader, you’re the only one that can set the excellence bar at a level that truly represents what your company stands for.
    FACT: No matter how good you believe your company is, the excellence bar can always be raised higher.

  2. Share what excellence is REALLY going to take: Going for excellence is going to rock everyone’s boat and blow up comfort zones. It’s the only pathway to being the best your salon/spa can be. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable. It’s supposed to challenge existing systems and procedures. It’s supposed to take a ton of effort and persistence to get better and get it right.
    FACT: Leaders must not only share their vision of excellence ... they must communicate the hard work that achieving excellence will require.

  3. Everyone must buy into Excellence: Delivering consistent customer service and technical excellence means every team member brings his/her best game every day. That’s a pretty bold requirement, but it cannot be stated any other way. Just as you hire people to fit your culture, each and every team member ... from leadership to guest services to technical to support ... must be committed to delivering all aspects of excellence. Phone excellence. Greeting excellence. Consultation excellence. Technical excellence. Guidance excellence. Communication excellence. Recommendation excellence. Assistance excellence. Retail excellence. Housekeeping excellence. Check out excellence.
    FACT: Excellence touches everything and everyone.

  4. Build on a solid foundation: There is truth to the statement, “Systems set you free.” In manufacturing, systems can be automated and highly predictable. In a high-touch service business like salons and spas, implementing systems is significantly more challenging. Why? Because of the people factor. People create the experience and deliver the service. Once a client interacts with a team member, it’s your systems that create predictability and consistency.
    FACT #1: The more defined your systems ... the higher the probability of achieving excellence.
    FACT #2: Locking your team’s thinking and behavior into new systems requires leadership oversight and accountability.
    FACT #3: There is no “flip the switch” to turn on excellence.

  5. The beauty of “do it again”: Systems in a service business demand training and practice. Being a great hairstylist, colorist, esthetician, massage therapist, nail tech, guest services employee, etc., is all about training and relentless practice. The concept of “do it again ... and again” is what makes anyone excellent at anything he or she sets out to do. I practice to be a better speaker and coach. I practice intervals to be a better cyclist.
    FACT: The training, practice, “do it again ... and again” process must become a non-negotiable for your company ... and each and every employee.

  6. Getting excellence to stick: This is where your ability to lead your team to excellence is the make or break factor in getting excellence to stick. If you’re the leader and spend most of your time working on clients ... excellence will elude you. If you’re the leader and spend most of your time disconnected from your staff ... excellence will elude you. Excellence is a quest to achieve consistent execution of extraordinary customer service and technical work.
    FACT: You cannot demand excellence ... you must lead it.


Here’s my challenge to you: Be brutally honest about the level of excellence your salon/spa delivers to its clients. Reset the excellence bar so that everyone, including yourself, must stretch to achieve the new level. Communicate, train, coach, inspire, oversee and correct at a level of engagement that can only be described as unrelenting. When it comes to excellence ... anything less is a compromise.

[thrive_2step id='4449']Team-Based Pay White Paper[/thrive_2step]

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