Proper Care and Feeding of Clients

     Today’s tip is the proper care and feeding of a clientele. If you are just building or almost fully booked proper care and maintenance of your clientele is essential for your long-term success. The average technician loses an average of 5 percent of their clientele per year through no fault of their own. Clients move, they unfortunately move on to the big spa in the heavens, their economic condition changes dramatically. Whatever the circumstance we need to be constantly monitoring our current clientele.
     Thanks you’s are essential. I know I’ve talked about his before, a nice handwritten note especially after the first service but how about just because. Maybe you know they got a promotion at work, maybe they had a few difficult weeks or months or year for that matter. If you haven’t seen a client in a few months, chances are something’s up. Don’t ignore the warning signs and take the passive route. Take action with a phone call or a quick email, or yes that hand written note. Something like I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen your smiling face lately and just wanted to check in to make sure everything is alright with you. You may want to offer an incentive to return, It’s up to you to decide how you manage your offers. If you haven’t seen clients in more than a few months try a “Miss you” promotion.

 

     Same theme, maybe offering new items or services since they have come in. I sent out an email to my entire list when I started offering Shellac and it brought clients out of the woodwork. If you are consistent with your efforts chances are eventually something is going to strike their interest.
Do you send your guests home with an instruction sheet to ensure they successfully maintain at home the professional service you gave them at the salon? I am including a link in my blog this week from Beauty Tech that has many useful ideas to use in composing your own client letter. http://www.beautytech.com/articles/consumr.pdf
     Things like, treat your nails as jewels not tools, check your grip when lifting heavy objects to make sure you don’t break a nail, wear gloves when you do housework and gardening. You know all the things you think they know but don’t. I know a tech that makes her clients sign off that they have read her “10 commandments of nails” before she will guarantee her work.
Do you recommend the right retail for them to be successful? Are you educating them about their nails or just providing a one time service stand? Are you building relationships or counting cattle? Do you follow up a new client service with a phone call to see how they liked their visit? Find out if they have any questions or challenges with their new full set or treatment products. If they are not happy, catching problems early and fixing them will score you big points toward the future of the relationship. I worked with a girl that had one of the first mobile nail salon service businesses in the country. While she was building she was truly a one woman band. She would work all day and at night, in her best British accent, call her clients back to see how they liked their visit. Needless to say she built her business with a strong foundation of loyal clients. So in these challenging times it is more important than ever to keep in touch so you don’t loose touch with your clients.

London Olympia Beauty Show Day 2

After the whirlwind that was day one of the Olympia Beauty Show we attended the Scratch 100 issue Stars 2012 cocktail party with Alex Fox and all the UK nail stars. It was such an amazing evening and I had the opportunity to meet so many talented nail artists. My hats off to Alex for putting together such a fun night. Nailing the news has its drawbacks, so we headed back to the hotel early to upload the images from the day. Before we knew it, it was time to hit the show floor for day 2. I went right to the Sweet Squared booth to catch up with Fee Wallace and the Naja. Fee was demoing Shellac "Hollywood" and Naja gave us a demo of her new Minx line over gel polish.












OPI has their own nail decal, or applique called Nail Apps. Full coverage nail decals were everywhere! They were definitely in competition for attention with gel polishes. While at the booth Robert Nyugen did a demo of a French tip fade with inlaid flowers.









I stopped in at the Nubar booth to see what was new and Kirsty Lund showed me a fabulous nail art technique with white builder gel over the gel polish Grenadine. This simple technique had beautiful results! Kirsty was also a judge at the Nailympics competition.





Here's a little video from the Dashing Diva UK team. Luda Mantone adds Ring around the roses to the natural nail for a stunning effect. Wraps were all the rage, there were so many companies with so many designs.
Wraps by Chantal was another wrap entry this year. Here is the Gold wrap applied by Patrycia Gawlik from Poland.



The rest of the day I spent running around getting photos of the Nailympics. The entries were so amazing and inspirational.















The awards ceremony was emceed by none other than the NTR team of Naja and Athena. All said a very busy two days!! We were so fortunate to have such lovely hosts, Samantha and Sam Sweet who wined and dined us all weekend. Thanks bunches for the opportunity to work with such an amazing team!

Beauty Ambassador

A friend and colleague asked me to put together a few minute speech for students entering the beauty biz. Here is the result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj3yvgD0XRw

London Rules

Well, this has to be one of the best adventures yet! Coming to the London Olympia beauty show has been "wicked" as they say. To have this opportunity to experience this international beauty event has been so amazing. Met so many wonderful people from all over the UK. What a great business to be in! The UK is very fashion forward with loads of cool people with incredible artists. The Nail-Philia show was very interesting. Stretching nails into works of art that bend my brain to looking at the nail canvas in all new ways.





Walking through the Olympia Beauty Show for me was like a kid in a candy store. All my favorite things in one place. I spent most of Sunday trying to grab as much of the show as I could into my camera, notebook and brain. I started the day with Sam Biddle and a gel nail art sponge technique. This couldn't have been simpler. She put down two coats of Rosey Future and then with a gel wipe sponge, she sponged a color fade with Red Velvet at the free edge and Rich Raisin at the very tip. She added a hand painted butterfly, Stunning!

I headed over to the Artistic Colour gloss booth to see what Tom Bachiks "Artistic Angels" had going on. Amy Bartick did a gel polish demo of "Hottness" and added some simple animal print with "Swag" black and a marbeling tool. So cute.



Heading over to the Hand and Nail Harmony booth I caught up with Christina showing a hard gel sculpt with a Gelish french. Her technique was flawless and I discovered the trick to using the c curve sticks on gels. She places a lint free wipe first. Brilliant!




Nazilla had some really cool nails going on at their booth. This company specializes in full coverage 3D all out fashion nails as an accessory. Their nails are adorned with gems and lace and bows and so many fashion forward trends. I snapped a few photos of their designs. These awesome fashion accessories can be soaked off and used again and again.

Next I stopped at Konad Nails UK. Tracey Brown showed how simple it is to create nail art with the Konad stamper. She even had the model try it herself, and she did great!
I couldn't resist getting a henna tattoo myself, I just love the beautiful designs and could watch them for hours. I did purchase a book to take some of these designs and scale them for nail art.
Sonia from East London at Unique Beauty did a beautiful piece for me and this design on the girl before me.
Next I was off to the ASP booth to see their gel demo. Steven Rhyswells did a beautiful gel mani on an attendee with Burnt Copper. A beautiful fall color.

The last demo of the day was at the Mistero Milano booth. Carolina from Poland demoed their french polish. For the fine french tip she used a striper brush.


It was a jam packed couple of days for sure. Stay tuned for day 2 of the Olympia Beauty Show...

9/11/11 in NYC

It is a feeling of dichotomy that I find myself in this morning on Long Island. When it finally dawned on me last week that I would be here, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 I have to say I was a bit nervous. All the excitement of travelling and participating in my first Mercedes Benz Fashion Week occupied most of my thoughts until this morning, when there is finally a break, no shows today for me. The trip started out much like any other but the closer I got to the city, the more apparent the anniversary became. I kind of feel like a cousin visiting another that I only visit on occasion and there is that ever present awkwardness of being in someone else’s “space”. Not really understanding the everyday rhythm they live with. Thursday coming in on the Long Island Railroad for our first shows was pretty uneventful. I sat next to a young girl that put on her entire face quite meticulously from her Louis Vuitton bag. Then our primping began. Hours of prep on the models for a ten minute walk. Ironic I know. There was very little buzz about 9/11 until heading back home. The Long Island RR was shut down past Babylon for “police activity”. I overheard most likely a native complaining “One little bomb threat and they shut down the whole train, really?” It was an inconvenience more than anything. How soon was forgotten the threats of the past. How many times we heard if they had only been more careful, how could they let this happen to our country. These complaints out of the mouths of the same people who now complain about the extra security measures. Friday was crazier. On the train in we sat across from three officers heading to the memorial at St. Patricks cathedral, all of whom looked like they may not have even been in high school when the attack happened. I wonder if it had an effect on their choice to serve. Officials asked people to not take the subways so getting a cab was next to impossible. It ran us very late for a celebrity client, who by the time we got there was immersed in hair and makeup, not one mention of the tension of the day, at least not while we were there. The cabs could hardly cut through the already thick traffic with now the added snarl of the NYPD stopping all trucks on the street for inspections. Again a lot of complaints about the inconvenience of the added security. Saturday traffic was not as much of an issue and we went about the hectic schedule of prepping models for shows. Many might say beauty and fashion are trivial in the scheme of things but what I witnessed behind the scenes for these past few days is that New York IS fashion. This business of fashion employs so many people from the fingernail painters to the stage managers, stylists, dressers, pressers, security, construction, catering, audio visual people and the list goes on and on. So we had a few extra minutes to add to our commutes and maybe ran a bit late. It is a small price to pay for enjoying the freedoms we have to express our visions of beauty and fashion. To participate in a bigger picture, bringing beauty and art and hope. With no shows today I will go to church this morning and share in worship with fellow Americans and thank God for this amazing nation full of the diversity of those that protect and those that create and embracing each one for the gifts they bring to this United States of America.

NYFW Day 2

So I am on the train home from New York Fashion week day two. It was another whirlwind. Up and on the train to the city by 7AM for a 9:00 Mani Pedi for Kourtney Kardashian. My friend Patty Yankee Williams let me tag along and asked me "do you want to do nails or toes?" Whaaaaaa? Toes. So we caught a cab to the hotel uptown where they were staying. One of her entourage met us in the lobby and took us upstairs.
We were ushered into a room that was just for hair, makeup and wardrobe. The whole room. Kourtney was getting her hair done when we got there. Patty and I set up camp, I was just lil nervous to say the least. she couldn't have been nicer, truly. Kim was there too, getting makeup and figuring out wardrobe. We polished her nails and toes with one of her new polishes from the upcoming collection. It's very cute, she and her sisters have a few colors and they also have family colors they all helped create. We finished up Kourtney and had to head over to Lincoln Center for the Mara Hoffman show. Kim called over "Nice meeting you". Can't mistake good training. The Hoffman show was buzzing.

When we got there and before we even finished Patty split the team so a few girls could head over to the St Johns show.

It is a tangles mess of flat irons, hairspray, powder, mascara and nail polish behind the scenes.
From St Johns we went to the Academy of Art University show for the last event. Another tangled web of hairdressers,makeup artists and nail techs all converging on these models trying to get them ready for "first look", Since it is spring fashions we had to do feet too and let me tell you, models do not have the prettiest feet. I know because I have seen. The shoes these girls have to wear on those runways are insane. Most already have blisters and show season has just begun. Chatted with a few, mostly nice, a few primas. Spoke with a really nice, absolutely stunning girl the last show, Kelsey. she moved to New York from Vancouver when she was 16. Her mom and dad took turns coming to see her. Crazy right? She is 19 now and living on her own in Manhattan. I asked her if she always wanted to model and she said it was all she ever though about since she was like 5. "My mom was a model. I wanted to be like her when I grew up." How sweet is that? I am so totally exhausted, each night I have averaged 3-4 hours sleep, but the adrenalin of rushing through models doesn't leave much time to think about it. Two shows tomorrow and a day of rest before I head back to the Mundane Midwest. Blessed!

New Adventures

    

     So with the complications of life, and Facebook, this poor little blog got pushed aside, kicked to the curb, ignored like the red headed step child. And for that I apologize. I guess I never really found the true value in it until recently. I have the blessed opportunity to do what I love, every day. I know that is not true for everyone. I also just recenly lost a very close client, at a very young age which has made me stop and take stock. Recently, at a fourth of July party, I was catching up with a cousins sister in law, one I don't see very often and I shared I would be coming to fashion week. She got so excited for me. She offered me to stay at her house in New Jersey, "But you'll probably want to stay in the city." On and on she gushed over my good fortune at the opportunity to check a huge goal off my list. I think at the time, she was more excited than I was. It got me thinking, I so take for granted my position in the beauty world. I have traveled to amazing locations, met most all of my beauty heroes, network with an amazing group of professionals yet I still hunger. For what? I don't really know myself. I have worked as an educator, industry speaker, consultant, owned a salon, developed a product, written for trade magazines, the list goes on and on. I share this not to boast, please understand. I guess I just share this so others can know that even at the top, (or somewhere close) there is still growing, learning, searching for what is next. This weekend I accomplish another goal, to work behind the scenes at fashion week. Check. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. Whatever comes of this weekend I know it will be another wonderful experience to add to my beauty-full life. I will try and update often but most of all I will try and take the experience deep into my soul and appreciate my blessings. I can't promise to stop searching, but maybe I'll slow down and enjoy the journey just a little more.