Source: Aveda

Any salon guest who has experienced a Botanical Repair treatment with her service will tell you it was a game changer.

The bond-building Botanical Repair formula uses plant technology and botanical oils to create softer, smoother hair that’s five times stronger in one professional treatment.

Source: Aveda

But only 2 to 9 percent of salon guests are receiving a Botanical Repair treatment

Educating Your Guests

Most guests aren’t booking a Botanical Repair treatment because they don’t know they need one. But, before you explain the benefits of Botanical Repair to damaged hair, your guest needs a better understanding of the four areas of damage: physical, chemical, heat and environmental.

Physical damage comes from brushing, extensions, detangling and traction styling. Heat damage is the result of blow drying, flat ironing, and curling hair. Chemical damage comes from hair color, bleaching, perming, relaxing or Keratin straightening. And finally, UV exposure, humidity and hard water cause environmental damage.

So if your client has hair, it has damage. If it has damage, they can benefit from a Botanical Repair treatment.

At Van Michael Salon in the Atlanta area, add-on services like Botanical Repair are part of every client’s consultation.

“We’re on pace this year to make around $600k in add-on services,” says Van Michael owner Van Council. 

Van Michael charges $25 for a Botanical Repair add-on treatment, an inexpensive upgrade for the sophisticated color client.

“Color clients are already spending a lot of money on their service,” Council says. “They want their hair to look better and healthier than ever—Botanical Repair is an easy sell.”

Joanna “Joey” Hooten, a stylist at Van Michael, says, “We explain to clients that it should be part of every color service. It’s a three-step process, and each time it hits their hair, their hair gets better. Most of our clients hear those words and it’s a no-brainer. When they leave the salon, they can feel and see the difference.”

Everyone Benefits

Those $25 add-ons add up for Van Michael service providers.

Source: Aveda

“If you do eight clients a day and get an extra $25 per client, you can bring in an additional $52k annually,” says Susan Dykstra, CEO of Van Michael Salons. “You can make more money by going wide, and getting more clients, or going deep and adding on services to your existing clients.

“And because your color clients need it anyway, why not offer it to them? We let our colorists offer Botanical Repair free of charge when we first launched, and found after clients had it once, they wanted it every time.”

Dykstra adds, “We’ve also done contests surrounding Botanical Repair, we teach it in our classes and support it in our daily routine. It’s now part of our daily culture.”

Council maintains giving guests the best service possible is the most important thing.

Council also says he continues to raise the prices of color services, and when you add on Botanical Repair treatments, his salons are on track for a record year.

“And when service providers come to me wanting higher commission, I talk to them about how to get a bigger ticket with add-on services,” he says. “They can make more money and work less.”

Council also gives his team the authority to give a client a discount on her first Botanical Repair if she balks at the price.

“The guest really needs to experience it,” says Dykstra. “Then they’ll always want it.”

Source: Aveda