Spring Renewal

 

      Contrary to the current weather conditions across the country Spring is coming, don't be fooled. The spring season is a great time for renewal. Clients are ready for a change, something new to brush off the winter doldrums. Look around at all the new products and treatments and consider what you can add to your retail area and your spring service menu. Add new colors, new treatments, maybe even new hours, new staff, new decor. Freshen up your surroundings to encourage renewal. Each spring I recommend partnering with a spring renewal buddy, another area business that is also in some sort of renewal. Look at partnering with personal trainers, nutritionists, local gyms for renewing the commitment to better health. Think about partnering with local dentists for teeth whitening and dermatologists for a little spring lift. Scour the neighborhood for businesses that offer spring specials as well like tanning salons or if you have a partner hair salon you work with why not team up for a spring make-over. Massage therapists and chiropractors are also good renewal partners. Clients that go to these businesses on a regular basis are concerned with taking care of themselves. 

     Think outside the beauty box too. Look at local decorators to spruce up your dwellings, cleaning services for the dreaded spring cleaning, and organization companies. I mean who couldn't use a little more organization this time of year? Partner with churches or Synagogue and put together a spring renewal program to present to their groups. Community Recreation Centers are always looking for programs for their members as well. I presented at Spa day several years in a row at the local community center that brought in everything from Mary Kay reps to Yoga teachers to present spring renewal ideas. Anywhere women gather, is a potential opportunity. Life coaches are a terrific resource for renewal and don't we all have a few clients that are life coaches? Just think renewal and let your imagination free. You may even consider putting together a spring renewal card with several area businesses special offers printed on it, like a business card. Each area business can promote the card.

       Think about a contest that each card holder can be entered into a drawing to win gift cards or year round discounts. The thing about partnering with other area businesses is it gives you access to another companies data base, and I love to get my hands on another data base to market my business to. Having owned a salon on a main drag in a busy plaza believe me when I tell you not everyone knows you're there. We did a local special with GroupOn, which is a whole other story, but a new client told me she actually got into an argument with her boyfriend that told her there was NOT a salon in that plaza. He went there a couple times a week for lunch, straight into the pizza shop right next door, and straight home. Pizza blinders. No matter what you think your visibility is people have tunnel vision. Partner with other area businesses and broaden the view. Last but not least, promote promote, promote. For those of you that signed up for Style Seat premium make sure you create your Spring Renewal newsletter and email it to all your clients. Post it on all your social media sites and get your business renewed for Spring.

Marketing the Experience

 

      What do your potential clients know about you and your salon? Who's telling them about you? Are they getting the right message? Many people will hear about you way before they discover you on their own. How do you protect yourself from the wrong message getting broadcast about you before you ever get the chance to make a first impression.? Your salon and service experience must speak volumes above all other chatter. It is said people may not remember what you said or did but they will always remember how they felt. Are you creating an experience worth remembering? Experience marketing is not new. The most valued feature of the salon experience is not always the service itself. The entire visit from start to finish must be memorable. Clients look forward to the salon visit all day, sometimes all week, so make sure you give them a welcoming relaxing visit. Keep negative banter to a minimum. Remember, if your visit has a negative vibe clients soon forget how fabulous your service was if they leave in a worse mood then when they came in. Don't join in the whining session, find the silver lining in each opportunity. Many years back I worked on a salon that had a notoriously difficult clientele. I made it a game to repel the negative and find the positive. The owner could not quite figure out the loyalty these clients felt toward me. I did tell him it was all in my attitude, something missing in many of the other staff members. People naturally gravitate to someone that makes them feel good. It's a no brainer really, but easier said than done. We have an obligation to create the best experience we can including as many senses as possible. Great scents, soothing music and a calming atmosphere certainly add to the clients comfort. What else can we do?

V.Woods Facebook

     According to V Woods salon experience survey the most valued features of a salon experience are
1. Minimum wait-time before and during appointments. Being respectful of your clients time is good business and provides a great experience.
2. Chair/Table side manners of your technician. Your interpersonal communication skills are very important. Clients expect you to communicate as an expert in a professional caring manner.
3 Politeness of the entire staff. It's not just about you, clients may interact with a number of team members during their salon experience and everyone matters.
4 Ease of making an appointment. Clients expect this process to be easy and seamless. Even accommodating last minute appointments count.
5 Consultation Clients want to have a dialog where listening is just as important as the ability to share your knowledge. They appreciate an honest assessment but would like to have input in the process and final results.

     Other valued features include Special hours and availability of special treatments. Features not as valued included greeted at the door, refreshments and internet access. When asked about room for improvement these suggestions were offered. Offer special hours to accommodate busy schedules, have consistency in the atmosphere with your brand and your target guests including music, provide high quality products including more natural choices, provide educational opportunities for clients, texts and email communication and reward long time clients with special benefits. Good customer service and a stellar client experience will have your clients raving about you and your salon. Giving them something great to talk about, is smart marketing

Americas Beauty Show Part 7

 

I met up with Joseph Pham at the Entity Booth and he shared some beautiful new trends and techniques. 

 Here he is, the master at work demoing an edge nail on one of the attendees.

 Another Entity educator was demoing some awesome nail art with their Entity One gel.

Joseph explained all their new collections will come with all new nail art designs.

I actually tried one of their new designs on my first client and loved the results.

It was so great learning all that's new from Entity!

Americas Beauty Show Update Part 6

 Cuccio Colour Nail Lacquer and Colour Veneer LED/UV soak off nail color debuted at ABS Chicago. Elaine Watson and Tony Cuccio welcomed the crowds of curious nail techs to this fabulous new colour system. Elaine is so excited about her new "baby" and shared the story of it's development. Many of the trends that hit the runways and retail stores are driven by professional polish lines. Since OPI was sold to Coty and is no longer professional only the nail polish manufacturers needed a new professional only line to launch trends. One of the top polish manufacturers approached Tony to launch a new polish line and offered the best of the best in formulation and ingredients, So Cuccio Colour was born. The polishes are triple pigmented and long wearing. The packaging and every last detail down to the brushes were carefully planned out by Elaine herself, a real nail tech! One of us! What a difference that makes. I have to say I got a few of the Lacquers and Veneers and they are a professionals dream come true. Silky smooth application and such rich coverage!

Her new LED light makes application lightening fast.

 Elaine shared the latest trends with show goers.

 Love their marketing materials!

 The package concept and design makes it easy as 1,2,3 for application. It would take a nail tech to put this together!

 Here she demos a beautiful buff pink on an attendee.

 It was so great catching up with Elaine and this awesome new line!

Americas Beauty Show Part 5

 I spent a few minutes at the CND booth chatting with Holly Schippers about the new Brisa Lite. They have two new gels, a smoothing gel and a sculpting gel.The smoothing gel is an amazing power partner for your Shellac clients. Smoothing gel smooths nail imperfections while adding strength. It gives Shellac a perfect finish, every time. The sculpting gel is applied the same way as a traditional gel where you can add length, strength and shape.

Both systems are applied without buffing the natural nail and are both easily removed. While both are soak off, the Sculpting gel can be rebalanced. The gels are perfect for the client that doesn't get a full two weeks out of Shellac application. She still encourages proper home care with plenty of Solar oil.
I also got the opportunity to speak with founder Jan Arnold about the direction of the company in the coming year that I blogged about in an earlier blog. These are Jan's nails with a combination of acrylic base and gel tips encrusted with jewels.

I'm looking forward to all the new products CND will be releasing this year including a "game changer" May 1 that may render nail polish obsolete. Stay tuned!

Americas Beauty Show Update Part 4

 I always have a great time catching up with Jim McConnell and the gang at Light Elegance. Jim was showing off his new Acrylic line and sharing a few of it's benefits. It is Low odor, with less allergens and great adhesion. It can also be mixed with the Pretties. They have started the line with 4 colors, 2 pinks, 1 white and a clear. You can also mix pigments and glitters with their all new line of acrylic.

 I also caught up with LE Educator Darcy Olin showing off her latest accomplishment. The COVER of NAILS magazine! Way to go Darcy!

 The latest spring glitters were selling fast and furious! So beautiful!

 They also launched their new booth design with a glitter "play station". Looking good!

 Of course there was a toe bling station too!

 Not only is Jim the chemist....

He does a mean demo too. Here he is showing off their latest glitter Moon glitter!

They were showing off all their newest techniques and colors LE style!

Americas Beauty Show part 3

I stopped by the Young Nails Booth which was rocking, as usual. The master himself Greg Salo was demoing on Saturday sharing tons of great information on their products.

I got a sneak peek at their new spring ManiQ colors

I also met up with Princess Gard, a Cleveland girl, that I somehow only manage to see when we are out of town at shows. She is a fabulous up and coming nail artist with a style all her own. She shared the new "jawbreaker" technique with us.She prepped the nails and tipped the free edge with Protein bond, added base coat. Then she layered a bunch of ManiQ colors on the nail in random order and finished with top coat.

Then the really cool part. She took a safety bit and drilled through the colors in random fashion to reveal the colors underneath.

Adding protein bond and another topcoat, the result is  a very cool, see through, 3 D design. She also showed us some of her signature art style.

Here she pressed into a black gel polish for a fun, blingy effect. She also did a free hand gel art nail for us.

I also ran into another nail tech friend from Detroit Janiece Newton that showed me the art Princess did on her nails.

We learned so many new fun things hanging out at the Young Nails booth!

Thanks Princess!