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SEARCHAfter reading Unreasonable Hospitality, Salon Blond's Victoria Marino and her team brainstormed ideas for elevating and personalizing the guest experience in their salons. Marino shows what they came up with in an episode of Salon Insider.
In the past few years, Author Will Guidara has made the circuit in the professional beauty industry, speaking at events such as Serious Business and the ISBN Conference. Guidara is the author of the book Unreasonable Hospitality, which shares the story of his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, in New York, and how it became iconic for delivering extraordinary customer service through a campaign Guidara and his team started to spread joy in their guests' lives.
One owner who heard Guidara speak at Serious Business is Victoria Marino, the owner of Salon Blond in Dunedin, Florida. She purchased and read Unreasonable Hospitality, then convinced her fiancé to take her to New York to experience Eleven Madison Park for herself.
Owner Victoria Marino does her Unreasonable Hospitality research on a Florida beach.
Victoria Marino
“They paid attention to every little detail, from escorting you to the restroom every single time to removing every crumb left on the table. Several people came over to check on us—I mean, it was a well-oiled machine,” Marino says. “One of the most memorable parts of the book was a story about a couple who came into the restaurant to dine and happened to mention they had failed to try an iconic New York-style hot dog from a street vendor on their trip. Overhearing this, one of the services ran out, purchased a hot dog from a vendor, and had the chef make it look gourmet—all to elevate and personalize the experience. When we were at the restaurant, they somehow found out why we were visiting and arranged a special dessert experience in the kitchen for just my fiancé and me. It was just incredible.”
Marino and her fiancé at the New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
Victoria Marino
After her experience, Victoria began to wonder how Salon Blond could deliver unreasonable hospitality to its guests.
“My leadership team and I sat down and brainstormed how we could elevate the guest experience?" she says. "We have small gestures now that guests get every time, such as a hand massage, a neck massage, or an arm massage. And, men get hot towels and a head massage,” says Marino.
While the massages receive the most raving comments in the salon’s online reviews, guests are also delighted by unexpected snack trays.
A stylist surprises a Salon Blond guest with a snack tray as her color processes.
Victoria Marino
“We purchased these beautiful little bamboo trays and use little cupcake holders to create individualized snack trays. While a client's color is processing, we'll bring them a snack,” Marino says. “By experimenting with different snacks, we’ve learned our clients love the same things kids love—peanut butter pretzels, Goldfish, and Oreos.”
The other thing that really surprises and delights guests is the finishing touches the salon added at the end of each service.
“What do most women do at the end of their service? They stand up and put their lip gloss on, right? They’ll visit the restroom or go in their car and look in the rearview mirror and put their lipstick on,” she says. “Now we partner with Smashbox and have these amazing lip glosses, so we offer clients a gloss application at the end of their service. In addition, we carry the amazing Aveda Chakra Sprays, so we started offering them a spritz.”
As a result of these finishing touches, the salon watched as their sales on lip glosses and Chakra sprays accelerated.
Finally, Marino and her team took a page out of Unreasonable Hospitality, and started looked for opportunities to celebrate and personalize special occasions in their clients' lives.
“We’re very fortunate that our Dunedin location is right next to a health food store that carries flowers, and my Palm Harbor location has a florist in the same plaza,” Marino says. “So if it is the client’s birthday or anniversary, we’ll surprise them with flowers. Or if we learn of anything else monumental in their lives. It just makes them feel so special, and it’s been a true game-changer.”
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