Imagine transforming your salon into a winter wonderland that enchants your clients this holiday season. Picture the joy they'd feel when welcomed with the rich aroma of fall scents and the warmth of a deep conditioning treatment. That's what today's episode is all about! We'll walk you through how to create a stunning environment that resonates with the holiday spirit, offer unique services that make your clients feel special, and simultaneously boost your business profitability.
Have you ever wondered how to make your salon promotions stand out during the festive season? We've got a sleigh full of innovative ideas just for you. From serving seasonal drinks to rewarding your top clients, we'll help you explore a variety of strategies to make your customers' holiday salon experience truly magical. Moreover, we'll discuss efficient ways to manage your seasonal stock to ensure your salon is ready to spread the festive cheer. Let's embrace this holiday season with care, creativity and a touch of sparkle, empowering you to be the smart, successful stylist you aspire to be. Tune in and let the holiday magic begin!
Imagine transforming your salon into a winter wonderland that enchants your clients this holiday season. Picture the joy they'd feel when welcomed with the rich aroma of fall scents and the warmth of a deep conditioning treatment. That's what today's episode is all about! We'll walk you through how to create a stunning environment that resonates with the holiday spirit, offer unique services that make your clients feel special, and simultaneously boost your business profitability.
Have you ever wondered how to make your salon promotions stand out during the festive season? We've got a sleigh full of innovative ideas just for you. From serving seasonal drinks to rewarding your top clients, we'll help you explore a variety of strategies to make your customers' holiday salon experience truly magical. Moreover, we'll discuss efficient ways to manage your seasonal stock to ensure your salon is ready to spread the festive cheer. Let's embrace this holiday season with care, creativity and a touch of sparkle, empowering you to be the smart, successful stylist you aspire to be. Tune in and let the holiday magic begin!
Welcome to the smart, wealthy stylist podcast. I'm your host, emily Cardin. Over here. We're dedicated to helping hairstylists manage their finances, stay organized, healthy and manage their time and mental well-being. We focus on staying healthy in all areas of life and maximizing productivity. If you're a hairstylist looking for these things, then this is the podcast for you. Together, we'll avoid burnout and step into being the smartest, wealthiest stylist that we can be.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to the smart, wealthy stylist podcast. Today's episode we're going to go over perceived value and how to add value this holiday season. I know that it is only September, but this is when you start preparing for your holiday season. This is such a fun thing to do for your clients, and not only is it fun but it's absolutely necessary. So in today's day and age in the salon industry, it is absolutely vital to give an amazing perceived value to your business.
Speaker 2:
There's been a major shift in consumer behavior. Clients want an experience. They want to feel special, now more than ever. I know that clients choose you and come to your chair because they want great hair. Maybe you guys really enjoy each other and you totally vibe. You guys get along really well, but offering those super special, unique things will keep them coming back. That's where you build up your loyalty level with these clients. Last year, I took a fall workshop and it was absolutely eye-opening and mind-blowing to see my clients' reactions from the things that I started implementing from that. So I am doing that again this year and I want to walk you through how to do the same and how to increase your perceived value and make your clients feel extra special. The best thing about this is that these things really are not going to cost you your life savings, but it will still make a huge impact on how your clients view you, on how they feel about you and how they will want to keep coming back because they feel so special, building up a perceived value. And when I say perceived value, I'm meaning what are you offering your clients? Is it great hair, clean environment. Did it like the luxury experience? Whatever it is, is the perceived value, what they perceive you as, what they perceive your services as and how you make them feel while they're there.
Speaker 2:
So let's just jump right in and start with fall. So right now is September and with fall and Christmas, you want it to look like a little fall elf came in there and threw up all over your salon. I'm talking pillows, candles, garland on your station. You're like whatever you can think of, whatever your vibe is for your salon, your aesthetics. You want it to feel like fall exploded everywhere. You want people to think oh my gosh, it's fallen here. It gets people thinking and gets them into buying mode. It makes them start thinking about holiday stuff. If you're the first place that people start thinking about that at. A lot of times they'll buy product for friends and family or whatever if you have retail available. But not only that, they love it. They like the changing of the seasons, they like to see you partaking and making your salon really philosophically pleasing.
Speaker 2:
So the very first fun little thing that you can do is offer a fall aromatherapy add-on. So I actually have an oil diffuser by my back bar and you can get a pumpkin spice essential oil and you put that in there and you only turn it on if they purchase the fall aromatherapy add-on. During that add-on they get a pumpkin deconditioning mask with a hot towel and the aromatherapy oil going while they're sitting there. So they're getting the smell, the feel you're nourishing their hair. It's a really nice experience. It's a really great little treat and people like that. So typically I run this at a $30 price tag. The mask only sits on their hair for about five minutes, so it doesn't really cut into your scheduled appointment time much, but it still adds a big impact on the perceived value and when you look at the cost of your product versus what you're charging, it's really, really it's like a 52% profit margin on that. So I mean you're making decent profit off of that bonus service and it doesn't add much time onto your service time. So that's a really great little add-on that you can offer during the fall and then after that, fall specials over.
Speaker 2:
Typically at the end of October I start running my second special and this was a huge hit last year. I absolutely loved doing it and my clients loved it. So I had two different packages of deep conditioning treatment and what they would get is they would get a deep conditioning treatment at the bowl and then I sent them home with a full-size deep conditioning mask for them to use at home, because during the winter months people's hair usually gets dry, it's staticky, and so, starting at the end of October, this is when I start doing this, because typically it's getting cooler, the humidity's down, statics, up dryness starts, and I run this all the way through February. And the way I do it is I charge $25. If they do the basic treatment, it's on for about five minutes at the shampoo bowl with a hot towel. If they want essential oils, they can have it. I keep those hot towels at my back bar. If they choose to have essential oil, I just add it on before I put it on their hair.
Speaker 2:
Not everyone likes essential oil, but anyway. So you do the deep conditioning treatment at the back bar and I use the Biolodge hydrating mask, and then you send them home with a full-size hydrating mask. The profit margin on this is I want to say it was 86%. So that is a fantastic amount of money to take home off of a very minimum service. And they leave feeling extra special because you're only using a little bit out of your back bar stock and then essentially, you're selling the deep conditioning mask for more than what you should, but they're also getting a service with it, but the service does not take you very much time.
Speaker 2:
The second one is the premium, which is $65. They get a Goldilocks take home mask. So the profit margin on this is 75% and the really cool thing is it only takes 15 minutes. They get a hot towel with essential oils on it also, and so, once again, you know this five and 15 minutes. Typically I have enough time in my schedule to make sure that I can make that happen, and if you are double booked, back to back and you don't have time for a five to 15 minute service, you need to message me and we should talk, so that shouldn't be happening. You can absolutely adjust your pricing and your time management behind the chair so that you can offer that. You know that beautiful time to add on a service. If you choose to, or if you don't add on the service, you have 30 minutes after a client to eat your lunch. So anyway, those are really really great add on services that have great profit margins that can help supplement your income, add extra income to your day and then also make them feel super special and fall and get them into the buying mood and get them kind of centered around. You know where the seasons are heading.
Speaker 2:
So the next thing that is super important is handwritten notes. I want you to think about the last time that you got a letter from someone, if anyone has ever wrote you a handwritten card and sent it in the mail, and how that makes you feel. I know when I get handwritten mail in letters cards, it makes me feel really special that someone took the time out of their day to just even it's just a really quick, short little card. It still makes me feel super special. So during this time September and October you need to make sure that you have all of your clients' physical addresses. I use Vagaro for my booking app and it's been great because my clients can go in there and update all of their information.
Speaker 2:
Typically when I check out my clients I'm like hey, do you mind looking over your client card real quick and making sure everything is good to go? I'm going to be sending out Christmas cards this year and I just want to make sure your address on file is correct, and nine times out of 10, they just absolutely fill it out. They have no problems. I have a few people that are like I just don't want to give out my physical address and that's totally okay, I don't mind that. But I always tell them okay, well, you're not going to get a Christmas card, so just be aware. And they're like that's fine, you know. So it's okay if they don't want to give out their address. But when you word it in that manner, people aren't going to turn you down most of the time. And then whenever you go to start filling out these Christmas cards, I like to fill out like five a day, because if you just try to sit down and fill out all like, I think I have 186 clients right now. So if I go to sit down and fill out all of those Christmas cards. That is extremely time consuming but if you just do five to 10 a day it gets done quickly and just in time for you to mail them out for Christmas. But once you have these physical addresses you can take your perceived value step one step further. You can make sure that you have their anniversary and birthday and then at the beginning of every month just go through your clients and see whose birthdays and anniversaries are that month and you can write them a handwritten birthday card and send it in the mail. And write them out a handwritten anniversary card and send it in the mail. That makes them feel so extremely special and really seen and appreciated. And this is the stuff. It's a simple thing but it really creates a sense of loyalty and builds that bond between you and your clients to where they really don't want to go anywhere else.
Speaker 2:
Another option is offer fall drinks. So I have a coffee bar and on that coffee bar typically I'll get like pumpkin spice coffees, you know, toasted caramel coffees, hazelnut. I get fall type creamers and put it on the counter as well. And every once in a while, depending on what my schedule is like, I'll offer a cold drink too, like a cranberry mocktail. A really simple one is just to get unsweetened cranberry juice and freezes and ice cubes trays and then put those ice cubes in a glass, pour ginger ale over it and throw cinnamon stick in it and it is delicious and it looks very fallish and my clients love it. So it's simple, it's easy, it's something that you can just grab out of the fridge and dump it in there for your client, because a lot of times, you know, when you're trying to make apple cider or something, you're making big batches and then a lot of people don't want it. So, having something like that, you could do this in any variation, but it's just a fun little mocktail and if your client does want alcohol, if you're into that, you can add some sort of something to that. So, anyways, that's, you know, fall drinks, people like that too. It's a great little add-on and it doesn't cost you much money.
Speaker 2:
So all of this fall stuff typically runs through November and then after Thanksgiving I turn this on to Christmas Town. So that's the same thing. You know, whenever you decorate for Christmas, you're going to want to change out your pillows, your decor, everything, just totally swap it over into Christmas City. I do a Christmas tree that my salon kind of has a little bit of like a peacock theme. So I have a white Christmas tree with a bunch of peacock decorations on it, so that way it still keeps the vibe of the salon, but it's very Christmasy.
Speaker 2:
Now when it comes to Christmas gifts for your salon guests, this is where it can get difficult. Last year was the first year that I had done this, and it was a whole lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I made it that way. So what I did, what I ended up doing, was my top 10 clients get a special gift. In the way that I figured out who my top 10 clients were, I went into my booking app and you can actually see the people who have spent the most money with you, and so I figured out who the top 10 people were and then for each of those people, I went to Hobby Lobby and I got these really cute tortoise shell style key chains that had the first letter of their name on them, and I did a satin pillowcase. I bought like a bulk case of 10 pillowcases on Amazon. I had the key chain, a chapstick, travel size, goldilocks shampoo conditioner, an oil and a hairbrush. And then I packaged those in a really pretty rose gold gift box that had that crinkly glittery paper filling stuff in there in the box and then I mail them their Christmas card.
Speaker 2:
But when they came to their appointment, if I wasn't going to see them until January because they had a November appointment, I'd give them their gift in November and then in December the people that I was going to see in December I would give it to them in December. But they were absolutely blown away by their gifts. They were so happy and so really felt special, and so I love that you're rewarding those people who have spent the most money with you. But for everyone else, I still did something for them too. So what I did for everyone else because you can't I mean, I guess you could do gifts for everyone, but I could not afford it at the time. There was absolutely no way that I could buy that many gifts for that many people. So what I ended up doing was in the Christmas card that I mailed out, I made these little gift cards on Zazzle and their hard little plastic gift cards.
Speaker 2:
So they look very professional and nice. They're not just paper. You know, you want it to look nice. You don't want to be chintzy with everything. So I made little gift cards and it said you know you get a free entry level service or $10 off of your service. And so people either got to do a $10 or not a $10, a travel size conditioning mask that they could take home it was like a sample size or they could choose to get $10 off their service. I do have a few guy clients so obviously they all pick $10 off their service. But a lot of the ladies wanted that Goldilocks take home mask sample pack. So that's also something to show everyone appreciation.
Speaker 2:
It doesn't cost you a lot of money and you know the goal is to maybe encourage them to get a higher priced item. So a lot of times you can say you know the card you could make if you wanted to be selling conditioning treatments. Conditioning treatments have a fantastic profit margin. They don't add a lot of time and people love them. So you could always offer like a deep conditioning upgrade and just say you know $10 off your basic deep conditioning package but offer them the premium one too. And so you could still upsell that even further and still give them $10 off but create even more of a profit mark.
Speaker 2:
So the next thing is just getting your timelines right to where you know when to order stuff, when to start writing those cards. Like that's always very important to me to kind of have guidance on when to start doing things, because I will procrastinate and I will wait till it's too late and then I will scramble at the end. So the first week of October is when you are going to order your Christmas cards. As soon as you get those, start writing those cards. Like I said, I shoot for five to 10 a day until my client list is finished. If you're feeling ambitious, go for it.
Speaker 2:
In October I also order custom coffee cups for my coffee bar. So this is also something really neat. When you think about Starbucks and their fall cups and Christmas cups, it's kind of like a thing right. So you can make your own custom cups and make it a thing so you could have your clients take a picture of your custom coffee cup and be like you know hair with Emily Day or hair with whoever day and make it kind of this fun little like viral trend, you know, with your coffee cups. That's really great marketing and if you're, you know you could ask your clients to take a selfie with their coffee cup after their hair's done. Like there's lots of fun little things that you can do with that.
Speaker 2:
So those custom coffee cups I love those and I bought a box of a thousand. I think it cost me 300 bucks and they literally lasted me. I just now bought cups from last year. Like I've used them all year long until just this month and it's September. This is the first time I've had to actually buy take-home mugs from the store. So they lasted me almost an entire year because I purchased those in September, the cups in September last year. So they last a really long time and my clients all really liked them and they were always just like oh my gosh, these cups are so cute and I just went on Canva and created my little cup design and uploaded onto the website, ordered them and then they sent me my cups. So I will link all of the websites that I use to create all the things below in the description of this podcast. That way you guys have the links for those.
Speaker 2:
But it's now more important than ever to make your clients feel super special and give them a perceived value that no one else is going to give them. Make them feel special, make them feel well, taken care of, make them feel like they are in the best salon for them because they are getting treated so well. I wanna encourage you to do the extra work and to do those extra things to make you extra special. Your clients will notice, they will feel appreciated. It will build a sense of loyalty to you because you're the only one that's ever treated them this way.
Speaker 2:
So don't sleep on this whole holiday thing. The seasons are hard for some people and for some people it's an exciting time. Some people absolutely love the holidays and other people dread it. Either way, if you treat someone with a sense of care and attention to detail, that will make them feel special, whether this is a good time or a bad time for them. So I just wanna encourage you to try to do this and see what you think. Let me know how you have enjoyed doing this or what the problems are. So, anyways, I will talk to you guys next week and I can't wait to see the creations that you do in your salons.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening in today. If you have a burning question or a topic you want me to cover, leave a review and ask the question in the review. This is the best way to get your questions answered. Just remember you are a smart, wealthy stylist and you are capable of anything you set your mind to. I'll catch you later, don't be a stranger.