Salon Tracker
Active Member
Hasn’t the year flown by! Tomorrow we’re officially in December and the countdown to Christmas is real. So, 24 days to go until the big day, we bet you guys are gonna’ be jam-packed at the salon. But just remember, in the hustle and bustle of the busy period, it is so important to keep your customers satisfied and to also get them in the Christmassy mood. As after all, the happier the customer the healthier your tills!
We’ve thought of a few ways that you can have a bit of fun throughout the month of Advent and also how to manage clients during peak season.
Daily Advent Social Media Tips
Many of you will have a salon page on Facebook and at Christmas, there is no better time to use it as everybody is online bagging cyber deals, keeping up to date with friends and sharing their Christmas pictures. Why not for every day of December in the lead up to Xmas post a little beauty tip? If you feel like you might be stuck for time, you can always use a social media management site, such as Hootsuite or Spredfast? Spend an afternoon planning your posts, schedule them using one of the mentioned sites and away you go. And make sure to #hashtag! The benefit of posting a beauty tip everyday means that you can hashtag key words and brands to ensure that as many people see your post as possible, which also equals an increase in brand awareness for your salon, cost-free!
Salon Advent Calendar for staff & clients
As well as keeping your clients satisfied, it’s important to ensure that your staff are also just as upbeat, as happy staff is the key to appreciative clients. Personalities and moods rub off on others so to ensure an ‘atmosphere of Christmas cheer’ all round, why not introduce some little Xmas freebies for staff and customers. Theme it to Advent and for staff, maybe it is that you create a large Advent calendar and keep it in the tea room? Then every morning when your technicians come to work they get to pick a sweet out from whichever day of Advent it is. It doesn’t need to cost much, the calendar could literally be a make-shift collection of 24 little jars or bowls with the letter 1-24 stuck on them and you could just fill them with sweets or Christmas choccies? Similarly, this could also work for clients, but instead of having the whole Advent calendar on display (as it may be a bit too big for the front desk of your salon), you could have a jar of goodies in reception and have a ‘__days till Christmas’ sign displayed alongside it. Again, this doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, you can pick up small Christmas themed black boards for under £5.00 online, so you can chalk the message and alter it each day of Advent.
Secret Santa
If you haven’t already organised Christmas goodies or awards to give out at the Xmas doo, then Secret Santa is always good for a bit of fun between employees. Create a theme with a set spend amount so that it isn’t unaffordable for anybody and then get your staff members to pick names from a hat. Some ideas for themes could be ‘everyone spends £5.00 and has to get something funny, something Christmassy and something edible’. Another idea would be to set a minimum number of presents to be bought for a certain price range, so this could be ‘5 presents for £5.00’. Have a little brainstorm with your staff but this is sure to contribute to the festive feeling!
Managing waiting lists wisely
As well as the surge in booked appointments, the demand for walk-in gaps also increases during the holiday season. Excellent for business profits and brand reputation, but equally salon staff are left with the job of managing the waiting clients so that they still have a pleasant experience from the offset of walking through the salon door. So, having said this, the best way to win clients over is to offer them a couple of complimentary freebies and ensure you have plenty of up-to-date magazines. You will always offer tea and coffee on an ordinary day but jazz this up a little throughout Advent and perhaps offer a glass of bucks fizz instead, complimented with a mince pie or mini yule log cake. These can all be bought for a small price at big-chain supermarkets and at this time of year many have bulk offers on so you can do it on a bit of a budget!
We hope some of our ideas come in handy for you in the lead up to the big day and that you have a fun-filled salon of success this Christmas…Happy Advent!
Salon Tracker x
