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SEARCHWith a few hundred employees across three states, Robert Cromeans has gotten so good at reading individual staff member's performance data, he says he can predict how well they are doing in their personal lives, as well as at work.
As fellow hairdressers, most owners are used to checking the technical work of new stylists, but not necessarily their business work, says Robert Cromeans, owner of A Robert Cromeans Salon with eight locations in San Diego, Las Vegas and Oklahoma.
“It’s taken years for me to have that kind of transparency with my business,” he says. “Because I speak hairdresser, I can get stylists to see the value in following their numbers—after all we mix hair color using numbers, we book client appointments using numbers, measuring performance using numbers is no different.” Reviewing the statistics on his business, he calculated that after five visits one in five clients doesn’t return. You can’t measure client retention off the first visit—you have to go deeper.
With a few hundred employees across three states, Cromeans says ZeeZor has been a critical tool in helping his team measure and track their performance, and a vital tool in helping him get to know his team and reward them when they . “I get to know them through their data.”
While Cromeans says sometimes it’s about celebrating the team’s successes, that other times you’ll see real changes just because you and your team are paying attention to the numbers. One of his stylists Tiffany May recently grew her services sales from $100,000 to $150,000 in a short amount of time. “That’s just because I gave her the tool,” he says. “It is super beneficial to have a data-driven company.”
Cromeans says another team member saw a big jump in add-on sales after adding some fun dialogue to every consultation. “To each client she’d say, “Are we just going to trim it today, or are we going to treat it?”
It’s also given him new insight into his business. “I want our salons to retain clients the way I retain ice cream, but the statistics showed us after five visits, one in five clients don’t return,” says Cromeans. “It’s like dating. On the first data, you do everything right – take your date to a nice restaurant, hold open the doors, etc. By the fifth date, you forget your wallet and ask if they can pick up the tab,” he says. “We so the same with clients—we stop making cut and color recommendations, stop telling them about products and offering special treatments—we start to take them for granted. We have to get back to that first kiss with every guest at every appointment.”
For Cromeans, data paints a picture and he’s even looking at the art work when he interviews cosmetology school graduates. “I ask them questions to see if they’re already paying attention to numbers, such as what is their attendance rate and how much is their average ticket. “If they tell me their ticket is $41 or higher, then they’re already better than the industry average and I know they’re watching their numbers.”
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