Should Each Stylist Handle Their Own Transactions?

Here's the simple math from the point of view of the shop owner, AND from the point of view of a stylist in a booth rental:

Shop Owner:
Picking up where we left off last week, if you spend only 7 minutes per client doing the paperwork (this is conservative), and you have 5 stylists, the time adds up fast! The truism, "Time is Money" is really important here!

Your stylists will make more money providing services, instead of handling reception duties! If a stylist/service provider would make $1000. /month more without paperwork chores, and you multiply that by 5 stylists, you are losing out on approximately $5, ooo. /month in services.

Consider hiring a receptionist/front desk person to handle the paperwork. Normally, the salary is modest, and she can perform other duties as well! If you pay $2000-$3000 including benefits and taxes for your receptionist, you will have a profit of $2,000-$3,000 a month. If you offer booth rental, you can ask each renter to contribute to the receptionist with the same reasoning!


Booth Rental:
A Salon that offers Front Desk services will save you precious time to offer your talents. If you multiply the number of clients you see by the day/week/month by the modest figure of 7 minutes, you can computer the dollars lost in your particular situation. Then you can decide if the extra cost is worth it to you!

A busy salon or spa, with friendly receptionists providing positive customer service improves your clients’ experience, true, but even more this idea makes dollars and sense!

Computerization with Salon Software Makes You Money!

If you are still using a paper book instead of salon software, you lose precious time with paperwork all day long. Time is money, lots of money. Here are the numbers!

Here is an example of how much time you lose: Your client calls for an appointment and you make the appointment in your book. When your client arrives, you spend time pulling their card to see previous notes and formulations and discussing what they need today. After performing the service, you compute the bill, adding services, products, taxes and tips. And don't forget updating that card and re-filing it!

Total time spent processing your client's paperwork is estimated as approximately 7 minutes per client and that does not include calls to change appointments! When you multiply 7 minutes times the number of clients per day, say 8, you lose 56 minutes per day per stylist! If you or your stylist normally makes $50.00/hour, you lost approximately $45. per stylist per day. That means you are losing approximately $1000/month/stylist! Computerization pays for itself AND continues to make you money!

You are paying for salon software every day whether you have a computer or not! Multiply $1000/month times the number of stylists you have in your salon!

Next article: Is a Front Desk Staffer Cost Effective or Should Each Stylist Make Their Own Appointments?

Gift Cards Increase Spa and Salon Holiday Business!

Next time you are in the grocery store, take a look around the checkout counter. You will see displays of gift cards. Recently we visited a Rite-Aid pharmacy in our area to obtain a gift card for a sick friend who lived out of town. They not only had gift cards available, but phone cards and even credit cards. Why do retail store take up valuable display space for these cards? Profit!

1. 20% of gift card value is never redeemed. *

2. 80% of those that use gift cards purchase services and merchandise for more than the value of the gift card.

3. Gift cards are a fool proof way to insure that the recipient spends the gift on what you wanted not on something soon forgotten.

In an average salon of 5 providers, working with 10 clients per day, you can easily sells 25 gift cards or more per week when properly merchandised and you have an incentive program for your employees to promote gift cards. That is about 1,200 cards per year. With an average card value is $20 or more, you make $24,000 per year in gift card sales. If 20% are never redeemed, that is $4,800 additional revenue.

Merchandizing gift cards in your shop:
Counter top and wall signs proclaiming the availability of "Gift Cards, the Perfect Holiday gift" suggest to clients a easy way to show you care. The small signs can also be displayed at each station for the silent salesman effect. Some of our clients have their front windows painted "Gift Cards available here", others have banners. Clients soon love them too. Gift cards can also insure that children spend the value on the card receiving intended services, and gift cards are rechargeable too !

* Not all states and local governments allow you to keep all of your gift card un-redeemed values. Check with your accountant or state for the exact regulations.