The Aspiring Stylist with Tracey Franklin

Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.

So I want to talk about how a new stylist can get booked and stay booked, and how client retention impacts your career and your financial success. Getting a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.

So I felt like you should know that upfront. So knowing what impacts client retention is super important, because we know that if clients don't continue to return, then our financial success will suffer. So what does client retention really mean? And how can it be measured? Well my salon we measure retention on an every 90 day basis. So that means if a client comes in this month, I should see her again by December in order to consider her retained. Most salon software's can keep up with this for you but manually will work to if necessary. Not being able to rely on repeat guests has a huge impact on your paycheck and honestly your mental health.

There's a comfort in having clients on your book that you know and enjoy and seeing new guests all the time might seem fun for some, but a more shy and quiet stylist might feel anxious about seeing new people on their book all the time. So retention is important for all kinds of reasons and most importantly diagnosing the reasons for clients not coming back. So what's missing? What didn't they get that they should have? Or what did we overdo it on?

discovering why people don't come back should be top priority. As a salon owner I like to go in and observe it takes time. But it's very telling. Were they smiling when they greeted the guests. Were they engaged with the client or were they quiet and standoffish?

Did the client get all the added value services like the hand massage and essential oils? Were they even offered any products to take home? I mean, client retention doesn't just affect the stylists it affects the salon as a whole. A lot of times an unhappy client doesn't just talk about a particular stylist you know they talk about the salon as a whole and it affects everyone. So it has to be figured out. If you're a stylist struggling with retention and you need to reach out to your leaders or your mentors and you need to ask for help. Could you earn a decent living just flying by the seat of your pants? I mean maybe, but don't you want to be the best? Don't you want to show up strong and create lasting relationships with your clients? Of course you do. But you can't hit a target you can't see so if you're not currently keeping a client inventory please start today. So let's talk about the client experience and its impact on retention. So it goes without saying that any client receiving consistently good service is more likely to come back right. But what if a client could receive consistently great service Okay, here are two scenarios. Que comes into salon a no one is up front to greet her after waiting for a few minutes her stylist comes up and says Kate follow me. Kate has asked very little about her expectations and shows the stylist picture just hoping for the best cake gets her hair colored and cut for three hours with a little conversation and even less amenities not even being offered water. She's pleased enough with her hair color. I mean the cuts a little short but it's not a big deal.

She pays she leaves with no knowledge of how to care for her new style. Kate never goes back the end. Okay. Your scenario to Kate comes into salon b She's greeted with a warm smile from the salon coordinator is shown where the restrooms are in offered a water or hot tea. Kate stylist confidently walks up to Kate and introduces themselves.

The stylus guides Kate to her station and begins the consultation. She is sitting across from Kate and asking Kay questions about her hair history and her hair goals. They talk about Kate's concerns with how dry her hair has been feeling.

They look at swatches and a few pictures and Kate stylist goes over her recommendations.

Together they come up with a service plan that includes a treatment for Kate's dry hair or color turns out gray and your cut does to the stylist recommends coming back in eight weeks and gets Kate on the book for a day and time that works best for her. Lastly the stylus walks Kate up to the retail area and reviews with Kate what she used and how she used it. Kate selects two products and leaves happily she has found her salon home. Now how different are these two experiences and which one of these salons is absolutely killing the retention game? You have systems in place that are repeatable, but how do you ensure every experience is as good as the last you have to have a service we'll that looks the same for all the services you offer. Our haircuts come with a scalp massage, using Aveda as essential oils that has to be part of our service we'll and every stylist in our salon has to commit to offering that to every client every time.

truth telling we had a guest called back one time because of this very thing. Her friend recommended her to my salon. She went on and on about this lavender oil and the scalp massage that she got with her haircut. So she scheduled her appointment with the same stylist. Well guess what that stylist was having an off day, she skipped a lavender scalp massage. The client was super nice about it when she called but she just thought we should know that she didn't receive the same level of care that her friend did. And she was really disappointed by it. So we thanked her obviously for her honesty and offered her a substantial discount to just come back and give us another try. Luckily, we were able to save that relationship. But that just goes to show how important consistency is guys and why it affects your retention. So what do you think customers care about the most? I mean, when it comes to their experience in the salon, what do they care about the most? And I think a lot of things matter to a client when it comes to their beauty destination. We've talked about first impressions, we've talked about consistency and how important the guest experience is. And I think all of these point to the same things. People want to feel valued. Our guests want to know they matter and then they're appreciated. So why is the initial client experience so crucial for getting clients rebooked and how important is rebooking to our retention?

Well, rebooking is very important, it's a very important metric. So you need to keep your eye on it. Your goal should be for a good service day to be repeated and the next six or eight or 12 weeks or whatever schedule that guest is on. It takes the guesswork out of filling up those last minute spots and creates a reliable income that you can live on.

What if it's a service you don't really enjoy doing? Well, depending on where you are in your career, being picky may not be a luxury you can afford yet.

Keep branding yourself and keep working toward your ideal clientele for sure. But in the meantime, make sure you can pay your bills. Okay. So what are the best practices I mean, we have to continually communicate with our clients thoroughly before their appointment during their appointment and after their appointments. So we should definitely have a consistent way to do that. If you're in a commission salon, they probably have a front desk person that does your booking and confirming or you if you're an independent stylists that may fall on you Well, there are plenty of booking apps out there that can make this a lot easier.

Communicating during the appointment looks like getting their next appointment booked while they're processing, checking in on what products they may be out of. This is my protocol for my repeat guests.

Okay, but for a first time guest, I like to finish first I like to make sure they love their hair and that we're good fit for each other. So I do wait till I'm done for those first time appointments. And I make sure I do it before I remove the cape. Okay, once we take that cape off, guys, their mind is out the door, they're done. So it's incredibly hard to talk to them about what products they need to take home and when you need to see them back. So as a professional do this before you remove the cape, okay, if everything's going well, I let them know what I recommend. And when I think they should come back and I leave the ball in their court. Pre booking matters, right and it matters a lot. And once you have had some success building your clientele, you will want to make sure that your ideal clients stay on your books so that you don't fill up with those less desirable services and you're not able to get them in. Pre booking is essential for building your clientele. I mean, that's what makes your work behind the chair as fulfilling as it can be. So if you leave your schedule up to chance, you may find yourself doing kits guts instead of the color services you really want to be doing. There are all kinds of tools out there, salon management tool salon software, and honestly any salon software will help you book your appointments. But it's definitely to your advantage to either work for a salon that helps you set your goals and has the proper software to help you monitor them or to find one that works well for the independent stylist model. Again, you cannot afford to be in the dark about your numbers. So no matter what kind of business model you go with, you have to keep track of these metrics. So what percentage of pre booking is good? What does it look like for a successful stylist? Will the industry average for pre booking for growth starts out around 75%. So that means three out of every four clients you see each week should be on the books. Of course, this continues to increase as you continue to build a more loyal clientele. A very successful stylists can look at over 90% pre book, there are some things that we can add that can help a lot. I don't care how bougie of a clientele you think you have, everyone still loves a deal, a discount.

People love points programs, they love incentives to buy more and save more. So having these kinds of programs and promotions in rotation are a great way to build brand loyalty and create those lasting relationships with your guests. And clients love to feel special. And a great way to do that is by remembering little details of their lives. Now, if you're great at that, then awesome, yay. But if you're more like me, and you have a hard time keeping up or keeping track of that kind of stuff, then you can use your app or your software. And it allows you to add these special little notes in your clients profile. You can just pull these up before their appointment and have a really great time catching up, since you've seen them last talking about these things and making them feel heard and cared for in the process. So what kind of information do I normally keep track of for a client, I mean, a typical note and a client's profile can be anything from their formulation and tonal preferences to the two years they spent in the Peace Corps or how many cats they have.

Whatever will trigger your memory and spark some great conversation is what you should go with. I think adding yours clients on social media is a fantastic idea, at least on your business page. I post tutorials, new services, product sales and that kind of stuff on my professional page. So I definitely want my clients seeing that. And I also have little snippets of my personal life on there as well. I mean, I've been doing most of my clients for 10 years or more, so they'd be sad if I didn't. I mean, we become parts of each other's lives at this point. My one piece of advice for posting personal content on your business page would be save the drama for your mama, stay at Academy conversations and controversial stuff. Just don't do it. I promise it's not worth it. I don't know if I would have made it as far as I have as a stylist without putting the importance I have on my client retention. I mean, the client retention is a huge part of every stylist success and mine is no different. My ability to still be serving some clients 20 years later is a testimony I believe, to my ability to commit to great guest excellence and my dedication to never stop learning and always be bringing something new to the chair. And of course my winning personality. My advice to someone working in a salon without a front desk person, because let's be honest, without a salon coordinator, things get harder for the stylist right.

You need to stay organized. And you need to have a system for communicating with your clients in between their appointments.

If you're busy and can't answer the phone, then you need to make sure you're setting aside time every day to return calls and respond to messages. There are plenty of apps as well out there that will send out all of your confirmations automatically and that is just so helpful. Look, your client wants what everyone wants to feel valued to feel special. And that's not hard to do when you show up strong for them consistently, and you give them the experience that they deserve.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of anytime soon. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts.

The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post-production by Mike Franklin. Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com