Targets for receptionist

[Jon1]

Hi,

I want to bring in targets for my receptionist next year to encourage her to steer the business. Does anyone here do the likes and what do you look at?

I'm thinking rebooking, no shows and possibly the performance of the whole salon. But I'm really open to others too. Any suggestions?

 

[Mac3y83]

HI Jon,

I'd personally look at the behaviour over the results. By this I mean I'd attach targets to offering the opportunity to re-book over the fact that a client has/hasn't.

I suggest this as when I have tried to reward staff based on customer behaviour I always feel I'm hindering their progress. I firmly believe that if requesting a re-book becomes second nature then the salon immediately see's a huge increase in this area. The best example of this is product sales. When we incentivise the sales itself a lot of people don't like to try in case they fail. When we reward the behaviour of providing the option to purchase products we find that people are willing as they are in full control and we are able to use the extra revenue generated through these sales top provide the rewards.

In short my advice would be to look at the cultures you want to change and reward the behaviour that you think would bring this change around. This way the ability to reach targets/ goals is entirely in the hands of the receptionist and not dependant on an outside factor.

In my place we look at simple things such as was the client offered an additional service if the stylist has time (usually phrased along the lines of ( I see you're in for a regrowth colour today, X has had a cancellation and could squeeze you in for a treatment as well if you'd like).

By targeting these area's and rewarding the offer we are better able to incentivise our receptionist and as a result they are more likely to offer this.

I hope that helps a little.

 

[Jon1]

Sounds very good, I just find it very hard to measure the bits you have mentioned. I don't work on site so it can be harder to see these things happen

 

[Mac3y83]

Ahh that would make it a challenge, I'll have a think and if anything springs to mind on how to implement these offsite I'll pop it here

 

[Jon1]

Thanks. Good point though about making sure not to use targets to push top hard

 

[riva]

We did that for a little while and faced more problems than I anticipated. I've decided its not worth the hassle at present but who knows, may consider it in future. So some things for you to look out for...
- we offer commission on new course of treatments and on products
- my cheeky receptionist used to 'hijack' the therapist's clients and put the commissions on her own record
- occasionally when the therapist was back to back and had informed the client of a product to buy but didn't have the time to personally hand the product over, the receptionist would again put it on her own records
- same would happen for course of treatments as well
- this was unfortunately noticed only too late and caused issues of trust at work
- if someone called in or walked in because they knew we stocked a certain brand and wanted to buy it (hence no upsell required); she would again claim the commission as her own

I suppose if managed well, this can work. But to me, it wasn't worth the hassle and when this particular girl left, we took away this benefit.
I'm interested to see what others have to say though because if things work, it could fly.