Prestige products and services cater to your upscale clientele, but what is "prestige" in one salon may be moderate in another. We compare prestige concepts across the country. 

Brad Schlaeger
Accolades Salon Spa
St. Paul, Minnesota

Darlyne McGee
Silhouette Hair Design Melbourne, Florida

Laura Ortmann
Ginger Bay Salon and Spa
St. Louis, Missouri

Kendall Ong
Man Attraction Salon Phoenix, Arizona

Sandra Mount
Carmona's Salon and Day Spa Las Cruces, New Mexico

What is your highest price point on hair care retail (wet line) and what is the product?

• Schlaeger: Aveda's Damage Remedy Liter is an $84 purchase. In this economy, we encourage guests to purchase sizes like this because it passes on savings to them, earns long-time commitment to the product and creates a big-ticket purchase for the stylist.

• McGee: L'Oréal Professional Series Expert deep conditioners at $44 for a 16 oz. tub.

• Ortmann: Aveda's Damage Remedy Conditioner, priced at $84 for a liter size.

• Ong: Bumble and bumble's Damage Therapy Complex (6.7 oz.) retails for $40.

• Mount: Our highest price point on hair care retail would be our Damage Remedy Conditioner at $84 for the liter.  Damage Remedy is a protein conditioner which helps to restore strength in chemically treated hair.

What is your highest price point for a hair care service?

• Schlaeger: $159 for a full-head Micro Foil. We used to have extensions, but we see a higher value with color clients.

• McGee: Our highest price point hair care service would be our color/foil/hair cut, priced between $150-$200.

• Ortmann: Our highest price point service is our thermal straightener, which starts at $500 and can go as high as $900+, depending on hair type, length and density.

• Ong: Thermal Straightening starts at $250 per hour and depending upon the length and density can take from three to four hours.

• Mount: Our highest price point on hair care service is $105 and up for highlights.

How often do you train your employees on retail?

• Schlaeger: We meet as a group every Saturday for 45 minutes. We make it mandatory as part of the job description-client retention is a direct reflection of retail sales.

• McGee: We have continual training on retail, chemical services, add-ons, prebooking and referrals. Retail is the most difficult area for us and we aren't nearly as successful as I'd like to be.

• Ortmann: Retail training is provided year-round. All new employees are trained directly by our retail manufacturers in their first 60-120 days of employment. Our retail product manufacturers and distributors train our team on new and existing retail products at least 1-5 times per year, depending on our needs and the number of new product launches. 

• Ong: Education is one of our cultural values and retail training is an ongoing process. As a salon we collectively script the benefits of each product. This sharing of ideas amongst the staff becomes part of our training program

• Mount: Our retail training is on-going. The Aveda website provides salons with a link called Professional Connections with tools for every facet of our business including product stories about where our products are resourced, what their main ingredients are and how to use them for best results. The site even has quizzes that we can take to keep us on our toes.

How many hair care lines do you carry?

• Schlaeger: Two

• McGee: Twelve. We're constantly trying new lines and dropping others.

• Ortmann: One.

• Ong: Two.

• Mount: One.

Of your gross sales, what is your average retail percentage?

• Schlaeger: We run at 30% retail percentage. I am proud of that but shooting for 50%. We also measure PPC-Products Per Client-with our goal at 100%-we are approaching 40%-actually double the national average!

• McGee: Retailing is a mystery we haven't yet solved. Our retail to service percentage is 7.5%, a number of which I am not proud. As we've improved service sales and guest services, concentrating on a WOW experience for clients, we've dropped the ball on retail, especially in this economy.

• Ortmann: For the first full nine months of 2009, our average retail percentage is 20% of our gross sales. Our retail sales are up 11% for the first nine months of 2009 as compared to the first nine months of 2008.

• Ong: Retail accounts for 20% of our gross sales. 18% is hair care with 2% skin, nails and specialty items.

• Mount: Our retail percentage is 22% of the total of service and retail sales. Our retail percentage is 26% of the total of service, retail and gift certificate sales.