Gear Up for the Holidays

As the fall weather moves in, people’s attention turns to gifts, wrap, and holiday parties. Lucky for us, we can help clients meet their needs in all three areas.

Now is the time to start thinking about your holiday nail art line-up. You should be assembling a display board of easy to complete, quick designs that can turn a plain manicure or enhancement into a fashion accessory in no time. Imagine adding $5 to every service ticket over the holiday season. That’s conservative. While you are at it, don’t forget about those party toes. With all of that holiday shopping and prepping comes fatigue. Add a quick foot massage to the menu to quickly recharge weary clients. Charge by the minute with increments as low as 5 minutes. This is a great way for our clients to sneak in some pampering. The first year I offered mini foot massages, I didn’t have enough time to accommodate everyone. Now the clients ask as soon as they walk in the door. Everyone loves a foot rub!

Okay, your client is seated in the chair enjoying their service and a cup of tea. What do they see as they look around? Create mini retail areas in their direct line of sight. Baskets of products, paired with gift certificates, testers, and literature will keep them interested. Impulse buying is at its height during the holidays. Start placing orders now and have plenty of lotions, oils, and bath and body products around.

Encourage clients to purchase a gift certificate for themselves. Offer a buy one, get one at a discount and you can busy up those post holiday downtimes. Imagine for every gift certificate that your client buys for one of her friends, she can purchase one for herself at 10% off! Tuck free gift certificates for paraffin dips into gift baskets to encourage the recipients to come in and partake of salon services.

When it’s time to tally up the purchases, don’t forget the wrap. Offer gift wrap or bag services and it will be one less thing your client has to think about. Gift bags are inexpensive and have a fairly high markup. It just makes the whole experience more polished.

Offer to deliver the purchases to the client’s car when the sale is final. If you plan to take care of them, the client will take care of you long after the holiday season has passed.

When Time Is Money

Time can be an uncomfortable subject. It can get more uncomfortable when we or our clients are running late.It is bound to happen. We find ourselves working more slowly or having to do more work than we expected. When it does, it leaves our client waiting on us. No wonder when they run late they expect us to be forgiving also.

This creates a sticky situation for us all. The best policy is to be up front about time issues. Letting clients know that you will do everything possible to stay on time creates an environment where they feel you have their best interests at heart. I have cards printed for the salon. They are an apology of sorts. The card reads, “I am sorry for the inconvenience of running behind. Please accept this $5 discount towards your next service and my apology.” Whenever I run behind, which is rare, I will hand the client one of these cards. They really appreciate it.

On the other hand, clients also run into snags in their day. We need to handle these issues with grace so as not to offend or upset a client or risk having them go to another salon. One way to handle the conversation is to simply say, “I’m sorry your day is not going well. I’ll do whatever I can to help you catch up and we can reschedule any part of the appointment that we don’t have time for.” You may shorten the duration of the service to fit if needed. The important thing is to charge for the entire appointment. This is a time that you have set aside for them. It is time that you cannot get back. It is gone. Most clients understand that if you are not working you are not being paid.

You may be feeling flustered or irritated. The more you use your interpersonal skills to ease the tension, the better the situation will turn out. Part of our jobs is to smooth out the rough spots in our client’s lives. We just need to make it better for a while. It takes very little effort to offer a kind word or take a deep breath. So the next time you feel irritated that a client is late, look at it from a different point of view. Make it easy on your client, let them get away with just a little bit more, but collect the full fee. You will be smiling later—so will your clients.

Trendsetter - By Erin Snyder Dixon

You may or may not have given much thought to your impact on the choices of others. As a salon professional, you are a trendsetter.

Take the lead in the salon by offering nail trends that are not just fashionable but can be completed quickly. Time is money. There are only so many hours in the day. The laws of physics prevent us from creating more. Lucky for us we can choose what to do with the time we have.Influence your time and income in a positive way by choosing which nail designs and services you promote. Instead of confounding your clients with endless nail designs choose a few to feature this month. Practice these designs so you can bang them out in the salon—over and over again.

Wear these designs on your own nails.Sure, you want to be flexible enough to do something different when you get a request. Of course, you will charge accordingly for special requests and deliver them with a smile.Do the math. A simple nail art design can be done without scheduling more appointment time. If you do only ONE design a day at $5, five days a week, fifty weeks a year (you can afford a vacation now), you will have added $1,250 to your service tickets! Complete 5 simple designs a day and you increase your income by $6,250. And think, you have done all of this without staying late, coming in early or working an extra day.

Your clients will become accustomed to checking out the nail board when they arrive to see featured designs. Get the word out by sharing photos of fingers and toes adorned with the designs in your salon newsletter, at each workstation (in and out of the nail area), in the waiting area, and on your website. As you exercise your trendsetting muscle, take inspiration from fashion, fabric, or season. Inspiration is only as far as your environment. So, go ahead, rock your salon with new designs you can pop out in an instant.

Bio: Erin Snyder Dixon is one of the leading professionals in the Beauty industry. She has a degree in business management and the lessons of more than 20 years of experience in business. She has consulted for a number of professional manufacturing companies, spas and salons, and is currently an educator for NSI. She is an award winning nail artist and educator. She is the best-selling author of Attractive Profits in Nail Art, coauthor of Seizing Your Success, Giving Gratitude, and Salon Success, Tweaks & Tips, http://tinyurl.com/4aseaj and has been regularly published in NAILS magazine, featured in several international trade magazines and continues to share her experience with others through conferences and speaking engagements as aprofessional member of the National Speakers Association and the South Eastern Assoc of training and Development.

For nail inspiration and to view trends, visit the following nail art galleries:
NSI Nail Art Gallery
Nails Nail Art Gallery
Nail Art Studio Email This Post