5 ways your salon can improve business this summer

Summer is the time that everyone wants to look good, whether that's pre-holiday beautifying, wedding season prep or experimenting with a new look. And for salons, it's a perfect time to take advantage of holding onto returning customers, securing new clients and generally improve business this summer. Here, Nergish Wadia-Austin, Founder of PHAB Standard Ltd, a British company that recognises and rewards performance standards in hair, beauty and nails talks about the five ways salons can improve business in summer. 1. For hair only salons the manager’s job immediately after Easter, is to get out of their salon and visit other neighbourhood business managers. Connected local businesses are ones you can co-operate with in any way to entice their customers to your business as they leave theirs. A simple example would be local hair accessories shops or ones that have hair accessory lines. Simply ask the manager if between X date and Y date they would drop your price list with a special immediate visit discount voucher into the bags of customers that bought anything from their hair accessories department. 2. For hair and beauty salons working with shoe shops or swimwear shops visit the department heads with the same request of dropping off your materials as an added gift into the bags of customers that bought sandals or swim wear from them. 3. Keep your staff informed. This will only work if all staff are informed about the offers, have complete product knowledge and are well versed with performing instant consultations (including receptionists in this case). 4. The other area highly neglected is the colour opportunities that summer presents. The summer trends of pastels and neons is a perfect way to liven up one’s look and encourage a little rebellion. A great lead/ hook into future colour customers as well. 5. Last but not least stocking up on holiday size products and making sure all customers are asked if they need a FREE check on their summer toiletries bag to make sure they have all their summer hair sun protection and nourishing hair products, as well as their hair styling gadgets to achieve their looks on holidays! Every customer heads to their local drug store/pharmacy/chemist to buy these items I have mentioned. They do it through guesswork not via good, strong knowledge. We are the trained industry professionals! We must be more pro-active and ready for summer or we are just handing this trade to other retailers when we have the best advice and products to offer the customer. Take back our summer business is what I would say to salon managers everywhere! For further information on how to improve your business in summer, Nergish Wadia-Austin can be contacted via email: [email protected] or by calling +44 (0)208 840 9070. The PHAB Business Helpline is designed for hairdressing and barbershop managers to have a private discussion about any business or professional concerns they may want a solution for. Available in 15 minute units, they can be held over the phone, via Skype or FaceTime. Time units available between GMT 09:00 and 17:00, Monday to Friday. Lead image via Matalan/prshots.com