Retail Success Through Front Desk Education
In August 2019, Lavender Square Salon in Southlake, Texas, brought in $23,200 in retail revenue—with just seven stylists.
The salon had a similar month in June, bringing in $22,500 in retail, and they’ve been averaging $21k in retail per month since owners Zaheer Mohammed and Sarah Sibley took over the salon in August 2018.
The secret to their retail success? Their guest care team.
A Retail Haven
Mohammed and Sibley quickly realized their salon location is easy for customers to pop in and out of, so people often stop in to stock up on their favorite Aveda products, whether they’re guests of the salon or not.
“We try to leverage this advantage as much as possible,” Sibley says. “So I trained my manager and guest care team to make sure our walk-ins get all the products they need.”
Front desk personnel at Lavender Square ask customers who come in to buy retail questions like: “Is this working well for you? Do you have any questions about this product? What else do you typically purchase? Do you use another product with this one?”
“People get frustrated with products at home when they aren’t working well for them or if they don’t know how to properly use it,” Sibley says.
“Even if it’s a product they’ve already been using, we encourage our staff to re-educate them so we know all their needs are being addressed.”
The sale of retail is also an opportunity for the guest care team to convert a customer into a salon guest, which is another focus.
Stylists are also incentivized to hit retail goals at Lavender Square.
“We follow Aveda’s RPCT [Retail Per Client Ticket] guidelines,” Sibley says. “We want them to hit $16.50, and when they achieve it they get education points they can redeem towards third-party education.”
“We’re a team environment,” Sibley says. “And our guest care team is collaborative with our stylists.”
Pushing for Growth
Owning a salon is a first for both Sibley, who was/is a stylist and Mohammed, whose background was in distributorship.
Recognizing they didn’t know what they didn’t know, the duo decided to bring Qnity on board to help them set goals and create accountability.
“We have goals for ourselves, for our guest care team and for our stylists,” Sibley says. “And we have goals for the salon that we work together to hit. Qnity has taught us to look at where we’re at and improving from there.”
Sibley and Mohammed have also found Qnity’s method of breaking down goals into achievable timeframes in addition to the constant accountability has helped them stay on track.
“We also push our stylists to invite guests personally to our salon,” Mohammed says. “We get a lot of people looking for Aveda salons on Google in our area, so we try to get out there and share our cards and be present in the community.”
Tracking their accomplishments daily, weekly and monthly with Qnity has helped keep Sibley and Mohammed steadily growing and hitting goals while still seeing the big picture.
“We can see what we’ve accomplished so far, and then move on to what’s next with the timeline Qnity has laid out for us,” Sibley says.
“And we’re not overwhelmed by the whole process. Our coach at Qnity is a sounding board. We can talk about issues and know that at our next meeting, we will follow up with actions and solutions.”