The Revolving Front Desk

I am excited to bring to the SALON TODAY audience the first in a series of "Top Ten Challenges of Front Desk Extreme Sales:" 

CHALLENGE #1   HIGH TURNOVER AT THE FRONT DESK

The highest employment turnover in salons is at the front desk.  The average front desk professional lasts less than a year.  This leads to inconsistency in customer service, frustrated service providers, mistakes in appointment scheduling, and never-ending training costs. 

 The root of the problem is not having an effective plan for filling the front desk hourly schedule with qualified front desk professionals.  Many salons have more part-time people than full-time, and unfortunately many front desk professionals are young people who have limited (or no) previous experience in customer service or sales.  (This is the first impression of your salon, you don’t want to be someone’s practice run at customer service! )

The first step in preventing high turnover is to plan your front desk scheduling structure.  Here are a few tips to keep in mind when developing or improving this important part of your business plan:

• Make sure you are budgeting correctly for front desk salaries. The formula I use: Front Desk Salaries / Month = 4% of Gross 

Example: Salon Gross = $50,000 per month Kristi Valenzuela is the founder of Crystal Focus Salon Coaching; a salon coaching company specializing in teaching “people skills for profitability." Their latest product launched, The Front Desk Doctor Training System, promises to turn receptionists into extremely effective sales professionals by teaching real-life sales systems specifically designed for the salon industry. Go to crystalfocus.com or thefrontdeskdoctor.com or email Kristi at coachkristi@crystalfocus.com

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