Peace, relaxation and great hair styles are what we promote. That is for the guest. What we know on the inside is that it is a fierce salon world out there! There is a new salon on every corner with the latest and greatest concept, idea or treatment. With this competition on the rise everyday, salons cannot afford to drop the ball. The guest expectations have also continued to rise as the guests become more and more educated. In truth consumers have so many choices today when it comes to choosing a salon and stylist that they expect, and rightly so, to be treated like gold from the time they make contact, to the time they walk in the door to the time they leave. Your salon reception: the forgotten ones.
Salons focus a tremendous amount of energy on training their service providers, improving the treatment quality, and staying innovative to keep ahead of the game. However there is a big piece to this puzzle that is most often forgotten, the salon reception team. In reality they are the back bone to running any successful salon, but are the expectations of the salon reception team equal to the time and resources we invest in them?
We call them the forgotten ones because more often than not they are thrown into their job and it is sink or swim, essentially forgotten. That is, unless, there is a problem. A mistake in a treatment booking, or perhaps an inquiry that was not responded to on time, or a disappointed guest who was not handled appropriately? They usually don’t even give them a life line to save themselves. Even if salons are great at training their employees, they often forget to include the reception team in the mix.
Let’s tale a look at the Expectations of the Salon Reception Team:
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Deliver the Salon Vision to guests
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Provide an example to the rest of the staff
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Answering and managing multiple phone lines
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Making efficient bookings
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Respond to email inquiries
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Up selling products and services on the phone
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Being experts in the salon services offered, the guests want to know!
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Handling guest check in
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Handling check out and payment
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Selling products in the reception area
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Dealing with customer and staff complaints
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Handle numerous administrative duties and monetary transactions
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Manage the staff flow throughout the day
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Etc, Etc, Etc…….
Typical Investment into the Salon Reception Team:
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The lowest paid members of the team
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Least trained members of the team
Operational Impact on Salon Reception
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Have the highest pressure
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Have the highest turnover
What is wrong with this Picture?
Clearly our expectations far outweigh our investment we put into setting them up for success. We expect reception to be these highly functional team members yet we do not supply them with the information nor the skills required to deliver a superior result. In order to see outstanding results in customer service, customer retention, increased sales, and overall efficiency in running the salon significant more investment in our reception team is required.
Positive Changes you can make:
There are some easy tactics and policies you can implement in order to assure the maximum potential and output from your reception team starting with the hiring process through orientation and training. If you need help in this area please contact us here.
I will cover off in more detail on these changes in the next post.