Thanksgiving officially begins the busiest time of year in the salon industry. As former salon owners, we understand the importance of a successful holiday season. The holiday season can make or break your entire year, and if your salon can pull it all together, it can set the pace for next year too!
Here are some tips to help supercharge your salon to maximize the holiday season...
Tip #1: Extend Your Hours Extending your hours are key, especially the Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People are busy, and we found there is a big increase in guest activity after 5:00 pm and on Saturday. Make sure your staff is prepared. It's game time!
Tip #2: Push for Records Push to break your all-time record for the week of Thanksgiving. When you have an extra busy Thanksgiving week, records are easier to break again during the Christmas peak!
Tip #3: Know Your Traffic Trends The Thanksgiving peak starts the Friday before Thanksgiving, and the Christmas peak starts 7-9 days before Christmas.
Tip #4: Contests Motivate Your Staff Have contests with your staff with holiday promos or combo packs. ZeeZor makes it super easy to manage those contests – and don’t be afraid to do several one-day contests that focus on selling a specific service or product.
Tip #5: Bows, Bows, Bows Have your support staff put pretty bows on product so they are “gift giving ready.”
Tip #6: Open Up Your Availability If you’re an appointment-based salon, make sure your staff opens their book up to allow for availability. This is one time where you need “all hands-on deck”. If you’re a walk-in salon, have black-out dates when your staff can’t take off during the crucial holiday rush. It takes planning, coordination and communication.
Tip #7: Don’t Forget Gift Cards Gift cards are key, but connect them with something impactful such as a deal where every $100 a customer spends, they get a $20 credit on their current day service or $20 to use in the future. Another option is to attach a value-add service they can use the same day they purchase the gift card. However, don’t make it your most popular service! Guests purchase that service already, but still make sure it is special.
These tips have helped countless salons go on to have record holiday seasons, and we hope you can say the same about your salon in 2018!
Author Chris Nedza is the founder of ZeeZor, the real-time data analytics and employee engagement app for the salon and spa industry.
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