7 minute read
What Are Your Numbers Telling You By Kym Krey
As creative professionals, numbers, reports, and financials aren’t usually our jam. In fact, most hairdressers would rather do almost anything else than spend an hour with their computer reports, hoping that if they just don’t pay attention to the numbers, everything will just magically be OK. (P.S. that’s no way to run a business!)
But within these simple numbers lies a fascinating insight into your business.
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Your numbers tell the story of exactly what is being done well in your business, what is being ignored and what really needs your attention!
They literally point to specific issues and say “Hey! Look at this!”
The problem is that so many of us don’t take the time to learn what they’re trying to tell you and instead, end up running their business virtually blindfolded, making decisions by guesswork, repeating the same things over and over again, stabbing blindly in the dark.
Year after year of exhausting 12-hour days and missed lunch breaks, squeezing in every client we can and trying desperately to make ends meet.
Does that sound familiar?
It’s not the picture you had in mind of how business was going to be, right?
The great news is that numbers don’t have to be complicated, and they certainly don’t have to be boring. Think of them as the Scoreboard that measures how well you’re doing what you do every day.
Not how fabulous your foils are or how beautiful your blowdries…. your scoreboard measures the impact and effectiveness of how you’re delivering your service.
Let’s break it down:
The most common numbers or KPIs (key performance indicators… think important numbers!) you need to measure include:
- Average client $ spend
- Retail % of total income
- Rebooking %
- Client Retention %
- Productivity per hour
But what are each of these numbers really telling you about how well you do what you do?
Average Client $ Spend: Links directly to the quality of the consultation and measures how your clients are responding to each Stylist’s consultation. It measures their ability to expand the conversation beyond the basic maintenance services the client has booked and inspire each client with possibilities they never even knew existed for them.
Consultation is not just finding out what the client wants done. How on earth could we possibly expect them to know exactly what to ask for? We’re the highly trained professionals! That’s like going to the doctor and being expected to know exactly what tests and medications we need to be prescribed!
We don’t know. All we know is that we have a problem and don’t know how to solve it…. that’s why we’re going to an expert to guide us.
Consultation measures the Stylist’s ability to spot issues and problems that can be improved and explain ideal solutions to help that client get closer and closer to their ‘dream hair’.
It also measures their ability to inspire and encourage freshness and change, rather than getting stuck in the dreaded ‘Same again?’ rut.
Mindset: Do I see myself as a hairdresser does cuts and colours or a skilled professional entrusted with the responsibility of helping their clients look on the outside how they want to feel on the inside?
• I am a problem-solving professional and my mission is making dream hair possible!
Effort: If I really can’t be bothered, I’ll start each consultation with “What are you having done today?” and “Same again?” so I can get this client out as fast as possible and get to the next one… and the next one. My day will be a blur of regrowths (but leaving faded ends) and quick cuts with no blowdry, styling or education (which means bad hair days for clients at home!).
If I really want to help my clients look their absolute best, and have a lot of fun along the way, I’ll be full of ideas and clever suggestions, even taking 5 minutes each morning to look through client histories and plan a few ideas for each one before the busy day begins.
• To me, this may be one of many appointments today, but to my client, this is a big deal, booked weeks ahead and eagerly awaited. I’m not going to let her down.
Presence: Am I truly focused on the human sitting in my chair who is paying for my time and expertise, listening carefully to understand what it’s like for them to live with this hair every day? Or am I distracted, giving only half my attention while I listen in to the conversation behind me or try to catch that staff member’s eye to get them to rinse my colour?
Listen to understand. If you can get a good sense of what it’s like for that client every morning struggling to style their hair, with your experience, you’ll know exactly what to do to help, enhance or make the whole thing easier. If you’re distracted, you’re in
‘Get ‘em done and get ‘em out’ mode which is highly disrespectful to your guest and highly damaging to your business. • Example: You have one Stylist averaging $145 per client and another averaging $89 per client. The difference in the experience they are delivering for your clients is HUGE and your clients are voting with their wallets.
Address this ASAP!
Retail %: (The % of total income that comes from recommended retail). I call this ‘Care Factor’. It measures a Stylist’s ability and willingness to teach and share their knowledge. To spot problems and match them with clever solutions then help the client to understand and master them.
A true professional accepts that their responsibility to each client extends far beyond when they leave the salon and that no matter how gorgeous they look today, it’s how they look next week and next month that indicates how well I’ve done my job. It’s not about trying to upsell or make money. This is an act of giving. If your client never purchased a product from you for the rest of your life, your job is still to teach, help and educate, because that’s the level of professional you are!
Rebooking %: This indicates an ability to develop trust and build relationships- to turn a one-off transaction into a long-term trusted connection. It’s about thinking ‘bigger’ and planning for the future. “What will we do next time?” “What’s our plan for the next 2-3 visits?”
• Your knowledge is only useful to a client when you give it away!
This is also about demonstrating leadership and authority with your clients, moving from ‘Would you like to make another appointment?” (PLEASE tell me you’re not saying that!) to “Here’s what I think we need to do to move closer and closer to your ideal”.
Also….. your rebooking conversation begins in consultation, and is finalised in the chair, cape on, while they’re still in your ‘’professional bubble’ …..NEVER AT THE DESK IN FRONT OF YOUR EFTPOS MACHINE!
Client Retention %: There’s no point constantly marketing to fill your Stylist’s columns if the majority of those clients never come back! If she’s been with you for over a year, is still nowhere near her target and seems to have gaps on the regular, it’s time to find out why.
A 32% retention rate means that out of every 3 clients you place in her chair…. she loses 2! If each one is potentially worth $10,000 to you over the next 3 years…….. that’s a massive loss of business.
Time to find out why! Feedback calls to her clients, mystery clients in her column to give you an insight in to what’s really happening in that chair and why they’re not coming back!
Productivity per hour: Most of you will have set weekly and hopefully hourly targets for your team, but if they’re not meeting them consistently, how do you know what the problem is? This could indicate anything from:
• The Stylist takes far longer to perform the service than your pricing allows
• Appointments are ‘stretched’ in the appointment book, resulting in expensive wasted time
• Your pricing is too low to enable the Stylist to hit their target at reasonable productivity
• Undercharging. Services are being done but not charged for (e.g. the ‘dry-off’ that looks just like a blowdry… except the client didn’t pay! Or extensive back-to-back foils for double the time but your standard price)
• Gaps. Whether it’s last-minute cancellations, no-shows or just failing to build a consistent clientele, there’s a lot of time not being spent with paying clients.
The beauty of knowing what each number is telling you is that now you know exactly what to address if you have a problem in that area.
As a Manager, your role is to get the right people doing the right service actions to the right standard and your numbers will tell you when that goal has been achieved.
Until then, it’s all about closing the gaps between where they are and where you need them to be.
