An expert panel share post-lockdown advice at business network live

An expert panel shared their post-lockdown advice for salons reopening post-lockdown 2.0 at Wella Professionals' virtual Business Network Live event. The panel included Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England), Sophie Laidlaw & Liam Wickham (Wonderland, Scotland), Lara Johnson and Dom Capel (Lara Johnson Lifestyle, Wales) and Patrick Gildea (Patrick Gildea , Ireland).

Expert panel share post-lockdown advice at Business Network Live

The advice from the Business Network Live panel included the issues facing salon owners at the moment with many salons in parts of the UK reopening this week following ongoing closures due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Business Network Live post-lockdown advice on: Keeping team members motivated during December

Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England) said: "We have our team, customers and the commercial aspect of our business – if any one aspect falls down you don’t have a business. It’s more important for teams to understand their safety and future is more important than ever! We’ve got to make sure teams realise we’re in this together. We need the right PPE in place and social distancing measures in place for team members and client safety because 30% of our database still haven’t come back due to their concerns around the Coronavirus. We need clients to know it is safe to come to a salon. It’s also about connecting with the team and making the most of it. It’s about talking to our hairdressers and making sure our goals are aligned – what motivates you and what motivates your team? One-to-ones and breakfast meetings are crucial. It’s about creating a vision for your clients and your team." Lara Johnson and Dom Capel (Lara Johnson Lifestyle, Wales) added: "Communicating with the team is imperative. We need to make sure the team feel supported and safe. We’ve had a 25% drop in clients so for lots of people their visit to the salon is their only outing so clients need to feel like they’re getting a beautiful experience and service. Our clients and team were educated to have a 5-7 week gap between each appointment. Rebooking needs to be about making sure they’re excited to come in again. We’ve got a new role now as hairdressers so we need to be there to give clients that point of contact during these difficult times. It’s about pushing the want and need for us and our teams to be better."

Business Network Live post-lockdown advice on: Ensuring you keep stylists wanting to work in your business

Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England) said: "We need to create an environment that allows team members to be flexible in their work life. We found 26% of our business was done on Fridays and Saturdays pre-pandemic and since the pandemic we now have a much bigger spread of business throughout the week. It’s about offering the flexibility to your team members." Lara Johnson and Dom Capel (Lara Johnson Lifestyle, Wales) added: "We're very lucky as 95% of our team have been with us since they left school so their whole working life has been in our salon. We have so many babies born from our teams in the salon and we’ve had that flexibility for a long time which encourages our team to stay with us. A work/life balance is incredibly important for us and our team members. We find loyal clients are happy to come in on a Monday for instance instead of a Saturday. Mondays and Tuesdays are really strong for us and we’ve always opened on Mondays which is unusual in our area and gives us a point of difference."

Business Network Live post-lockdown advice on: Helping your clients feel the value in your service

Sophie Laidlaw & Liam Wickham (Wonderland, Scotland) said:  "We’ve looked at our business plan multiple times and we’ve changed our retailing focus from educating the stylist to educating the client using social media. We try to create a restaurant atmosphere but in a comfortable way and our menus are shaped that way. We have bespoke additions or 'specials' that we want to promote and then the client leads the conversation when they've seen it on the menu – there’s no sell in that at all. Every client sees the new service we’re doing and we shout about the complimentary services we offer anyway! Our menu holds every stylist accountable as well. We also add theatre to it as well with steamers in the salon so clients will ask what others are having because they want to try it too!" Patrick Gildea , Ireland added:  "The consultation card is essential because hairdressers can lose what they’re supposed to deliver in a busy salon. It makes sure you’ve ticked off everything a client wants from the cut to the colour and aftercare. It’s about making sure you support the stylist as then the client is automatically supported. We have to step outside of the box which is all about the experience. Everything we do has got to be special. Is this the way I open the door, clean the chair, greet the client – how can I make it better? And it’s about constantly asking those questions to ourselves and each other."

Expert panel post-lockdown advice on: Being successful with retail

Patrick Gildea, Ireland said:  "In terms of retail – we find the consultation needs to be a system that has to be followed. It means all stylists need to suggest aftercare and retail products. We place the products in front of our guests in a box and we take that box around the salon with them – we take the box to the front of the house at the end and ask if they’d like any of the products that have been used? We don’t sell – we recommend products and as a result our average is 20% for retail. Click and Collect was something we started in the first lockdown and we created the ‘refresh’pack' which really took off. Clients loved the idea and it helped us engage with them too. It was a learning curve – we developed our website so you can purchase products from us. The power of keeping connection and offering a service to those who need it has helped us to build on our relationships with our clients." Sophie Laidlaw & Liam Wickham (Wonderland, Scotland) said:  We wanted to keep contact with our clients and we personally delivered products to clients – we did a milkman drop but everyone ended up wanting to chat with us when we did drop the products to them. It became more about the connection for us as opposed to the profitability of selling retail products

Expert panel post-lockdown advice on: Getting clients back into the salon?

Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England) said: "More express and quick colour services is how we’re attracting clients into the salon. For us it’s about interim services and face framing fun services that will bring clients into the salon even if they have long hair and don’t get their hair cut regularly." Patrick Gildea, Ireland added:  "We started a campaign about 2 years ago called the 6-step journey. The idea is to turn clients' babies, children and teenagers into future loyal clients. We give clients' children up to 2 years of age a free haircut and we build them up from there so we give our younger stylists the chance to do the complementary, discounted services and it’s about developing them as their future clients and giving back to your current loyal clients. Our clients love the idea of it being a family day out and they all come together for haircuts." Lara Johnson and Dom Capel (Lara Johnson Lifestyle, Wales) added:  "Our daughter is our social media person and she did a course with Wella Professionals and we’ve seen a massive change in the new clientele coming through our doors and our younger team members are attracting this younger clientele. We find clients are seeing our work on social media and coming in with pictures we’ve done and they’ve seen on social media. If our team take a 'before' and 'after' image and it receives a like from Wella Professionals Instagram account, for instance they get a big high five! Social media is such a big part of brand marketing and with with the right know-how anyone can do it which is great!" Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England) said: "Having a call to action on all social media posts really makes a difference. You need to have a call to action as a way to track your content to make sure you’re getting results from your time and effort." Sophie Laidlaw & Liam Wickham (Wonderland, Scotland) said:  "A younger person won’t go to a website to shop but they will go onto Instagram so selling yourself and your specialism on Instagram is key. We find our younger clientele is on Instagram and our older ones are on Facebook." Patrick Gildea, Ireland said:  "We have a few people in the team looking after our social media on different days. We have a clear message on social media and we try not to be too professional with it. We want our team and clients to embrace it so we involve fashion, art and hair – it’s a whole mixture and we set targets for everyone to develop their own Instagram pages.

Expert panel post-lockdown advice on: The focus for 2021 

Jackie Lang (Regis & Supercuts, England) said: "Plan out how you’re going to get your clients coming through your doors all year round." Lara Johnson and Dom Capel (Lara Johnson Lifestyle, Wales) added: "Enjoy it! If we enjoy it then hopefully our teams and clients will too. Look after our clients and make them feel special with beautiful hair in a beautiful environment!" Patrick Gildea, Ireland said:  "We’ve got to be happy – we’ve got to get through this together. It’s about the next three rebookings – not the first one. And this is especially important for those who have stretched out their six-week regular appointment to far. Let the start be positive – I want 2021 to grow, develop with everyone!" Sophie Laidlaw & Liam Wickham (Wonderland, Scotland) said:  "We want to focus on our art team next year, get seen more in the industry and do platform work as we’ve missed it so we’re looking forward to being let loose again!"