Salon owners must use their free time wisely, planning, training their teams, and focusing on this year’s goals.” Don’t start making low-cost offers to attract customers because it always attracts the wrong kind of people. Put your staff through training for a new treatment or to advance on a specific technique. Schedule team meetings and one-on-one time with your team members.

Devote time to put structures in place across the whole business. It is important to consistently keep up-to-date with all of the correct systems in order to maximise efficiency. Running a successful business can require a lot of processes and procedures, but having these in place will make things run more smoothly throughout the year.”

We understand how stressful it is to have an appointment book that is empty. To help you get past the January slump, here are some ideas to get creative for both your clients and your team.

Reconnect With Old Clients: Go through client history records to determine who has visited recently and who has not booked in for a while. Look at the services that these clients have previously enjoyed and let them know about any offers or incentives or last-minute appointments slots that are available to entice them back to your salon or spa. Drop them a text or send an email with an enticing personalised offer to turn them back into a regular.

Organise Customer Workshops: Take advantage of downtime in the salon or spa. Invite clients to attend a free educational session. Hosting a BYOH “bring your own hair-dryer” event to educate customers on how to properly style their hair, how to properly use styling tools, and offer take-home care products. You will not only create movement and excitement in the salon/spa, but you will also have the opportunity to retail take-home care products and recommend additional services to meet the needs and desires of your clients. They’ll appreciate your advice and trust your product recommendations.

Always Upsell: Not enough of this is done in salons. I work as a business consultant/mentor for many salons, and a large percentage of them do not do this, despite the fact that it is the simplest way to make more money, far easier than constantly trying to gain new clients. Encourage clients who come in for cut & blow-dry to have a treatment or if your client is scheduling a facial, inform her of the benefits of the next facial and how it compares to the one she currently has, and so on. 

Incentivise your staff to upsell, rebook and ensure their columns are full, with targets, maybe some extra little bonuses, perhaps they could choose a product or a treatment, if they upsell. Make sure the goals you set are multi-faceted, with an overall financial goal and smaller goals for new clients, re-bookings, and upsells. Consider this: what would motivate you? It will not incentivise them if it does not incentives you.

Promotions/Marketing: Increase your online presence to stay in touch with clients during the downtime. Rewards and incentives always appear to be effective. Create a promotional service or new treatments to pique their interest during the quieter months. Take time at the start of the week to see which stylists columns are not full and what spaces can be filled. Put together special offers and last minute deals with these stylists that will attract new clients, then promote these via your Locate Your Look profile. Using your social media to do this only attract your existing clients that would have paid full price later in the month.