MAKING THE MOST OF QUIET PERIODS IN SALON

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Posted January 27, 2020

Everyday can’t be Melbourne Cup Day in salon, meaning not every day can be packed to the rafters and all of your team have their appointment book filled. It just doesn’t work like that – there are always going to be down periods in your business. As the owner of the salon, you can either let it take over your team and really drag them down, or you can maximise these periods and make them just as valuable – if not quite as profitable – for your team and for your business.

 

Training

There is always training to be done in salon, whether you’ve got a strong team of seniors or a couple of apprentices on the books. Utilise your quieter periods to train your team yourself or utilise your seniors experience and specialties to motivate your other staff members.

 

Do you have one staff member who has a reputation in salon for giving the best massage? Draw names out of a hat for who gets to receive the massage (or be the guinea pig yourself) and the others can learn the technique. Maybe one of your seniors is really passionate about up styling or men’s cuts – get them to give a workshop on technique and design.

 

Think about ways that you can organise a couple of training sessions that your team can dip in and out of around their client commitments or shuffle appointments so that you have a Session A and a Session B of any training – this way everyone gets better at their craft and gets a chance to participate and learn.

 

 

Social marketing

Content content content – it’s all we hear about at the moment, but we know that in a busy salon, remembering to take nice photos of your work is a real struggle as you move onto the next emergency. Encourage your team at this time of the year to take their time and focus on getting great client photos or going the extra mile with client looks or styling on their own hair to produce great content for your social media platforms. Maybe it’s beautiful shots of your salon interior or photos of the team with their favourite products. Maybe its detail shots and videos created by one staff member without an appointment of another creating a great colour. All content can be used eventually, so anything you produce can come in handy throughout the year to keep your social media looking fresh.

 

You can also utilise quiet periods to get influencers into your salon – whether its local bloggers or people with a good following on social media. Don’t use prime, full-paying spots on Saturdays for this quid-pro-quo or heavily discounted clients, make sure that they come into the salon during quieter periods when you can take your time to treat them right and get your team to produce plenty of content about the experience.

 

 

Planning

Now is the time to sit down and work on your marketing plan, your training plan, your events calendar for the year and even work rosters around holidays. Get your team to contribute to these conversations and get them involved in your year’s plan for the salon – the more buy-in they have in the future of the salon, the more loyal they will be and the less likely to move. Make it fun for the team by buying coffee and muffins and ask their opinion on as many things as you can think of – after all, they are at the coalface with your clients and they might have fantastic ideas for promotions or training sessions.

 

 

Refresh

Take the time to do a proper clean out of the salon (not just a quick sweep at the end of a long day!) refresh your visual displays and stocktake your on-hand retail products. Reorganise the salon and the backroom so that it operates more effectively and clear out any old line or expired product. This is a great chance to get your salon all put together so that when the appointments start filing in (and they will) you’re ready to go and looking better than ever.

 

Quiet periods in salon make salon owners nervous, and we get it – when things feel quiet, we often forget how busy things they were previously, and how quickly they can change. With a few key activities for yourself and your salon staff, you can make a serious difference to the way your business runs when things pick up again and it can help you maximise your busy periods throughout the year. So, take full advantage of your quiet periods – it might be a whole year until your next one.