The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Books

After an unprecedented year, most beauty professionals are settling back into the salon with a new look and a new outlook. Many experienced closures and a flurry of changes upon reopening and as we begin to navigate the new normal, hairstylists across the globe are figuring out how to rebuild their books and grow their businesses during this next phase. A successful beauty business is comprised of maintaining current clients, growing with new clients, and maximizing all clients, to ensure you’re thriving this season keep reading to learn how to build your books this season.

Maintain

Maintaining current clients is all about finding the perfect fit and fostering the relationship. Under normal circumstances, this can be fairly straightforward. However, as many clients have moved, changed careers, lost their jobs or are still wary about heading to the salon, it can become a challenge. Creativity and communication are the key elements to maintaining your clients post-pandemic.

To begin, communicate with your clients via social media or email blast with the steps you and your salon are taking to keep everyone safe. From new procedures and rules to the latest services and skills you’re offering, show them how you took lemons and made lemonade. You can’t stop someone from moving or expect them to expand their budget, but you can approach those clients with grace. If clients are relocating, try to help them find a new hairstylist. For those whose budget has changed, suggest services that fit their new lifestyle better. In both cases, clients are so appreciative that they will continue to refer friends and coworkers your way, which helps with our next building block.

Grow

While it may feel as though growing your clientele during a pandemic is impossible, it is actually the best time to boost your books. Use this time to set yourself and your salon apart. Clients have had a long pause from their regular stylists and may have decided to make a change. Why not let that change be you? Beyond the obvious reasons of relocation and being dissatisfied, clients typically leave salons due to the lack of variety in services, specialization, agreeability, or cleanliness. To stand out from the crowd, use social media to showcase what you’re doing daily.

A few great examples are:

• Offer a referral program. Give an incentive for every referred client who books an appointment. This can be a percentage off of future services or if discounts aren’t in the cards, offer ‘thank you’ products with travel sizes of your favorite retail items.
• Promote specialty services. Run a special for low overhead services (ie. a blow-dry) as a complimentary add-on for booking a specialty service. These services could be perms, keratin treatments or extensions. Even if the special isn’t a hit, it will let the community know what services you offer.

Maximize

One of the hardest aspects of the current restrictions placed on many salons is the inability to double book. Therefore, maximizing each client’s time in the chair is key. While respecting a client’s budget and desired end result, get creative by offering small add-ons during processing or drying time. Refresh a client’s ends with the addition of balayage during a full foil, add a gloss during a grey touch-up, or a sun-kissed face-frame. If your salon offers services outside of just hair, makeup or nails, this might be a good time to add these on. Additionally, newer stylists or assistants can make use of their extra time by training in services like basic mani/pedi’s or even brows! A head or hand massage can go along way to enhance the experience and add to your tip.

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