Welcome to the Salon Owner’s Podcast, Phorest FM Episode 54. Co-hosted by Killian Vigna and Zoé Bélisle-Springer, this show is a mix of interviews with industry thought-leaders, roundups of our most recent salon owners marketing tips & tricks, all the latest in and around Phorest and what upcoming webinars you can join. Phorest FM is produced every Monday morning for your enjoyment with a cup of coffee on your day off.
Phorest FM Episode 54
We always recommend planning for any big marketing campaign at least 7 weeks in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s just so much going on all at once that you blink your eyes open and the reality strikes you: there are no longer 7 weeks ahead… It’s more like 7 days. That’s why on this week’s episode we invited Chris Brennan – Content Manager in Phorest Salon Software – to discuss last-minute salon Christmas marketing ideas. Enjoy!
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Transcript
Killian Vigna: Welcome to the Phorest FM Podcast, Episode 54. I’m Killian Vigna.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And I’m Zoe Belisle-Springer.
Killian Vigna: The countdown to Christmas has officially begun. So today we invite Phorest content manager Chris Brennan onto the show to share his advice on your Christmas wishlist, the ultimate Christmas marketing guide for salons and spas.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: As always we top off the show with our upcoming Phorest Academy webinars.
Killian Vigna: This podcast is produced every Monday morning for your enjoyment with a cup of coffee on your day off. Now, let’s get into the show.
Good morning guys.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Good morning.
Killian Vigna: We actually have an “in-house” today. We’ve got the man, Chris Brennan, here.
Chris Brennan: Hi. Yeah, that’s my official title, “The Man, Chris Brennan.”
Killian Vigna: The Man, Chris Brennan.
Chris Brennan: Thank you so much for having me. I mean, it was great walking down those three flights of steps.
Killian Vigna: We were going to do a whole, like, The Simpsons Troy McClure thing like, “You may recognize him from…” what, the Phorest Academy webinars and Facebook Lives. You’re even always doing talks for us so yeah Chris, that big list of stuff; what are you doing lately?
Chris Brennan: Well over the past couple of months we’ve started using Facebook Live, and I’ve been doing the Salon Marketing Q&A every Tuesday. If you’ve been keeping up with kind of the latest in social media, you’ll see with Instagram, and with Facebook, the live feature is becoming more and more popular. Like, we’re kind of at the beginning stages of it, so for us, we wanted to jump in, kind of get used to. So then even for salons, we can talk about the dynamics of using live video for their benefit. But for now, our version of that is that every Tuesday we actually answer salon marketing questions live on Facebook. And if you actually tune in you can actually ask questions in the comment box.
It’s been really fun, and it’s been exciting just for me as well because I do a lot of webinars; I do live talks. And those are fine because they’re live and you can’t really have another take on it, but there’s something about looking at a camera and just like delivering everything in one go that should be a bit intimidating, but for some reason like when it’s live, you have no other choice to just do it well, so you just go forward with it. And it’s been really fun. I even thought with Zoe; Zoe was telling me like “Try to do about 10 minutes;” I was like, “Aw 10, that seems like a long time.” I think the first episode was like 25 minutes! I just kept going.
Killian Vigna: It is weird though because even when we’re doing the podcast, it’s not actually being visually filmed, so we’re just kind of chatting away, and like the facial expressions and everything here. But you’re staring at a camera, and it’s not even like when you’re talking to a person; you’ve got the whole kinda-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: No, because even in the beginning of the live, you have to actually try and build just interesting talk about nothing and everything at the same, because the audience has to be built, and that takes about five minutes. If not more.
Killian Vigna: Yeah exactly. Like I remember from the #30Days2Grow, and it just felt so awkward for the first few minutes. Where you’re trying to warm up, have we got enough audience? Yeah, will we go? Alright, yeah, okay. And this is all being aired.
Chris Brennan: Yeah, that’s it. Which is fine too. I think we’re still slowly building this new audience on Facebook Live for this exact format. It’s a slow process. And it’s really cool that we’ve been through this before to realize like, look, it takes time, like anything, like a podcast, like a blog. Most people fail at it just because they don’t keep up with it; they expect immediate results. It’s a slow process. You’re tuning your audience into understanding that this is a Tuesday activity, and this is an activity that you can also watch later on as a Facebook post, and we also put every single episode on YouTube as well as part of a playlist.
But like, we understand that it’s a slow process. And we might not have the amazingly big, thriving interactive audience yet, but that will come. And the way that comes is:Â quality of content and consistency. So I think hopefully we’re going to be consistent, because we’ve done 11 in a row now, and I’m going to hope that the quality’s there. I think so; I steal most of the info off of Zoe anyway, so!
Killian Vigna: Yeah, how long, you said you’ve done 11 of them?
Chris Brennan: Yeah.
Killian Vigna: Look at us. When we did Phorest FM, the first couple of episodes you’re looking like 30 to 60 listens a month. Now we’re what, 11,000, just over a year. So you’ll get there; you’ll be just like us! Here’s a little pat on the shoulder for ya.
Chris Brennan: It’s also funny because we looked at it going, okay so we have the blog, three blog posts a week, you know? We’ve got the podcast once a week. So we’ve handed written; we’ve handled audio. But we’re not really doing any consistent video content. And I thought that was like the one thing that was missing… I thought, well if we can provide a visual show for them as well, we’ve kind of covered all the bases. So it’s really cool to finally launch that.
Killian Vigna: So how’s the format of the show work? You were saying you’re answering questions but, is it at the same time every Tuesday, or at different times?
Chris Brennan: Same time; it’s on Tuesday at 12:00 noon; that’s U.K. and Irish time. And it goes for about 10 to 20 minutes, depending. It’s quite loose; I have a couple of bullet points and I’ve got the question, and then it’s not scripted like, I couldn’t memorize that much if I wanted to! But we’ve done so much of this stuff that, it’s funner to just kind of wing it and just discuss and describe everything that we know from our experience and from working with so many salons. And just trying to add value and be practical. So it wouldn’t be like, “The reason why Facebook’s important.” No, it’s like, “This is how you handle, like, your Facebook strategy; this is how you can develop the best times to post on Facebook.” Like real practical, informative and engaging information that they can actually benefit from.
Killian Vigna: And like you’re saying, it’s a Q&A, so it’s not just you talking the whole time, it’s you answering actual questions that you guys have.
Chris Brennan: Yeah absolutely. At the moment our format is one long form question. But in time it can break out to be answering questions as they come in. But at the moment, it’s just you have to build that audience; you have to develop it and have to invite people to actually ask these questions.
Killian Vigna: Cool. And one question that we have got is, advent has started-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: What do you do to market your salon for Christmas?
Killian Vigna: Exactly, yeah, so like, we’ve been talking about salon marketing for the last seven weeks. Or no, about four weeks, because we always say get seven weeks ahead. But now we are on the fourth of December, so 21 days left.
Chris Brennan: I’d say at this point, as you say, a salon probably would have used the end of October and the whole month of November to fully book out their December. Like, it’s such a busy time no matter what, so I’m just going to like, highlight what you probably would have done, because I don’t want to tell people at the first of December, like “This is what you do in November”! You know?
But it would be that you’re trying to book it out, and the techniques you can use is through the channels like SMS, email, rebooking people as they come into your salon. An angle you can have would be, there’s parties coming up; there’s all these Christmas parties, you want to make sure that in this stressful holiday period you’re not putting extra stress on by having to like, find a salon that is booked up.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Speaking of which, I actually got an email just this morning from my barbershop saying, “Are you having a Christmas party soon?” Like, “Book your spot; we have very little spots left”!
Chris Brennan: I love it. That’s exactly it. Because look at that, the booking is now a favour. It’s like, “Look, we’re just trying to take a stressful activity from you.” Like, we did this when we did it on the blog a couple of years back, we created a salon Christmas playlist. And the reason was, we know that it can be stressful having that one other bullet point on your to-do list. So we created it; we sent it off. And then I think a day later, somebody emailed me going, “You know what? I was going home; I was so stressed thinking about how I actually had to put this list together, and then it just arrived in my email box. Thank you, Phorest.” It’s the same way, like, you just provide value. Now your booking isn’t a favour; your booking is a favour to your customer. “Hey look, just take this one to-do thing off of your list, and then arrive whenever you’ve booked it.” It’s perfect; it’s easy. And you do this across the board, and you’re fully booked.
So that’s like November basically. But now, as it is at the moment, it’s what, December 4tg as I’m speaking. So, now we’re kind of in the busy period. So I think right it’s mainly about maintaining this amazing five-star customer service in a very stressful environment, and understanding that what you’re doing now, even in customer service terms, is marketing your salon for February and beyond. You should have a lot of clients walk into that door, and your objective now is to get all of them booked in again. Don’t let them go out the front door without having a booking for January.
And also, I was thinking just before we started, another fun thing to do is to start a campaign for gift cards.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Chris Brennan: If people are leaving, maybe you don’t hit them up at the desk with it, but maybe your staff can highlight, like, “Do you have all your gifts organized for Christmas? Well you know, we have gift cards.” And try to push those gift cards, because they’re there-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: It’s the easiest gift at the holiday period. I mean, it’s the most easiest thing, if you don’t know your neighbour that well, if you don’t know your work colleague, or you have anything you have to buy and you don’t really know what to get them specifically, a gift voucher is perfect.
Chris Brennan: And you did a report, in a blog you wrote recently, I remember reading a report that it’s actually one of the most popular gifts at the moment.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. During the holiday period, yeah.
Killian Vigna: This is going to sound so scripted, but I was literally just talking to my mom yesterday on the phone because my sister’s birthday is in two days’ time; she is in December. And we did not know what to get her. So we’re like, “Yeah, we’ll just get her a gift card to get her done because she’s got our Christmas party coming up.” So that’s off the cuff, but I mean like, I just bought into that. So now my mom’s gone to her local hairdresser to-
Chris Brennan: It’s great though. I know that even anecdotally, the same thing, like every year my brother and my father have no idea what to get my wife. But they always want to get her something, so they come to me. And every year, I’m like, because she likes Body Shop, so I’ll go- and my wife’s birthday’s in June, so it’s like every six months she needs more Body Shop. So my dad is in charge of the Body Shop pickup, you know? And my brother, I’m like, “Just get a gift card for like, her salon. Like, she’ll love it. Like don’t go too far; don’t go zany and get some weird gift that she doesn’t understand, or some inside joke. Like, just play it safe. Go for the gift card. You know for a fact she’s going to use it and she’s going to love it.”
So imagine all these people coming in your door getting an appointment and having fantastic customer service, having a great treatment, and then they’re also in their mind, they’re wondering what they should be getting. It’s a great conversation too, for the duration of the appointment, and then it could end up with your upselling your gift cards.
Killian Vigna: Like what you were saying there, the gift card really works if you are providing that, like, ultimate customer experience because, then too, like your wife, going into that salon, that’s a couple of hours to herself.
Chris Brennan: Yeah.
Killian Vigna: That’s a nice kind of relaxing time away from Chris and the kid!
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Not just even that; I just went into town this weekend; it was absolutely manic just in Jervis, in the shopping centre around the corner from here. It was just, I managed to stay there for an hour and then I was like, “I need to get out now. Like, this is way too crazy.”
Killian Vigna: Yeah.
Chris Brennan: It’s like early December and it’s already this way.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: So I mean it’s just a nice time to, like if someone has to come into the salon in December or January, it’s a nice time to just enjoy that calm and peaceful hour.
Killian Vigna: It’s like, the minute they switch on the lights, everything switches in everyone where they just go crazy. It’s like, “The lights are on… Oh no!”
Chris Brennan: We take it for granted that, maybe if you’re listening to this and you’re sitting there going, “Well I’ve already organized all my gifts.” And I’d be that way too; I enjoy the gift-giving and I kind of plan it out early. But I also know that there’s way more people that just panic and rush and then they have no idea what to do. That’s why those places are so busy; it’s mad scramblers at the last minute going, “Gee, I think she mentioned once that she liked this book, I don’t know who it’s by. Oh, there’s so many books.” And all of this kind of stress. Take it off their hands.
Killian Vigna: So, we’ll come back to the gift cards again for a kind of, I suppose, boomeranging everyone back into January, but we’re talking about providing the ultimate Christmas experience. What do you reckon salon owners should be doing to provide that? Because it could be just as easy when your appointment book is chock-a-block with appointments, it’d be like a conveyor belt system. Alright, you’re in; quick done, quick out. How do you provide a good experience that will make them want to come back in January?
Chris Brennan: It’s basically- if it feels like a conveyor belt, make sure that they don’t feel like it’s a conveyor belt!
Killian Vigna: Exactly, yeah.
Chris Brennan: It doesn’t matter if you feel like that, but you have to, use your client card notes more than ever right now. Like, if you’re so busy that it’s one after the other, then make sure there’s actual information in those notes. So you can know their name; you can know a little bit about them. Hit that note before you go to greet them. So then you actually can start the conversation and the experience off a bit better than like, you’re trying to catch up with who they are and what they do and how they’ve been since that time. So definitely use those client notes.
And if all your client notes are blank, use this time to start filling those notes up!
Killian Vigna: Yeah, because more than likely, in December, it is going to be your clients. Like, it’s very rare that you’re going to have new people coming into your salon unless they’ve left it so late that their actual salon …
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Is booked out!
Killian Vigna: Is booked out. So it’s probably going to be your own clients coming back, so you’re going to have those notes like Chris said. And if you don’t, get them filled up.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Well we had a blog, we actually spoke about it just last week on the monthly roundup, if you’re missing ideas and you don’t really know where to start when writing down client notes, we’ve got 24 things that you could write down that would be really well worth it for future appointments, at least.
Killian Vigna: Yep. So, I suppose, how do you get your own clients back in? SMS and email, like, you have their contact details there. You don’t need to spend a fortune on Facebook ads or even Google ads if that’s what you’re doing. Utilize your own contacts.
Chris Brennan: And also, just another idea about the gift cards, maybe a new idea that they haven’t really thought of using Facebook, would be that instead of using Facebook to target who you think would be your actual clients, like to create an audience of your clients, create an audience of the opposite of your clients, and target like, the men who are looking for gift ideas. And then go like, “Hey, are you looking for a gift idea for your wife or girlfriend? Drop in and get a gift card here,” you know? So what you’re doing is going against everybody who would be into beauty, into all that stuff; you can target tech guys of a certain age, and just go like, this is the anti-audience of me, because guess what? Their spouse potentially might be a customer. And they would potentially not be seeing this ad. Or you going, “Check out this.”
So it’s just a different angle you’d be targeting somebody who’s completely clueless as to what they should be getting, and you’re going, “I’ve got the solution for you. Just drop in here.” And that’s actually a great way to get new clients.
Killian Vigna: It’s so true though, because we did a webinar on gift cards last year, and it was broken into like four of the biggest gift card purchasers. And one of them was, the last minute males. It’s that panic of, what do I get? They pop into a salon; they get the gift card. But why can’t you be that one where you’re advertising on Facebook because, they’re on their phones the whole time anyway. In work, they’re on their laptops. They don’t even need to pop into your salon; they’ll just order online.
Chris Brennan: They’re googling, “best last-minute gift for my wife.”
Killian Vigna: I’ve got a bookmark folder there, yeah.
Chris Brennan: It’s funny. Even my wife is like…
Killian Vigna: It is funny, but like…
Chris Brennan: My wife says, “You’re tough to buy for, Chris.” And I’m like, “Really?” And then I’ll actually like, Google last minute gift ideas then I’ll find stuff that I like, and I’m like, “Look just literally type it in, just start typing like your question into google,” like, it’s so good now that it’ll actually-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: So many people have asked it before you …
Chris Brennan: If you go like, “gift ideas for comic book lovers,” “gift ideas for filmmakers,” that kind of thing, whatever, it covers you. So I guarantee they’re probably typing in “gift ideas for beauty bloggers,” things like this, you know? Like, they’re out there. So it’s good. I think we’re a bit gift card heavy though, so I think we’ll call it a day on gift card ideas, right?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Killian Vigna: Gift Card 101.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: But like, even in-salon, I love the idea that David Barnett had the other day on the show.
Killian Vigna: I was just about to say…
Zoe Belisle-Springer:Â The Wheel of Fortune.
Killian Vigna: You robbed it!
Zoe Belisle-Springer: So he had a Wheel of Fortune, and had a night in the salon for customers and his staff as well. If you bought a certain amount of products or spent a certain amount on services, then you could get to spin the wheel once, and every spin is a win. So you could get something at the end of it, if you spent a minimum amount in his salon that day.
Chris Brennan: That’s very cute.
Killian Vigna: That’s a nice way of rewarding clients, yeah. Then on top of what he was saying right there, it’s a great chance for your retail products too. Because he had this three-step approach where, just to recap, so while you’re doing someone’s hair you’re showing them the products you’re using. You’re leaving it in the mirror in front of them, and then you bring it up to the till again.
But another way to utilize your products, especially the dusty products, like the products that are sitting on the shelves and you find a tough time to sell, repackage them. Make them into a little gift idea. Again, if I’m popping into a salon to get a gift card or a gift voucher or something like that for my partner or whatever, and I see a nice bundled up package of beauty products or hair products, I’m probably going to pick up that as well.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Chris Brennan: That’s a great point, because when I send my dad into Body Shop, he doesn’t by the individual products, he looks for that big wrapped up thing that says “Merry Christmas” on it.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: It’s easy!
Chris Brennan: So people just need to be told, like, “This is a Christmas gift. This is the Christmas gift right here!” Like, “Just give us a chance here.” You know?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And even like, I remember as a teenager, like 16 or 17 or something like that; I didn’t really know what to get for my stepmom, and it was just my dad was like, “Well get her beauty products.” And it was always that retailed packaged thing, that it was just so easy. Because I didn’t know any of it. Like, I didn’t know what would suit her, what she’d want, or anything. So at least with that whole package, I was covered!
Killian Vigna: I don’t know about you Chris but I can count already, it’s probably two hands to use, how many toiletry bags I’m going to receive this Christmas.
Chris Brennan: That’s it.
Killian Vigna: The bags with the aftershave, the razor blade, the sprays, everything. And the thing is, I’ve already picked up two of those beauty products gift packs this weekend. I popped into town; I had a Kris Kringle and yeah, it was the first thing I saw.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Chris Brennan: Yeah I get that every year as well. Last year I got it for me and I was like, “You? You too? You got me this? Usually, that’s like the uncle manoeuvre!”
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. And then on social, I mean you can run so many different Christmas competitions as well, and get people to engage with you, raise brand awareness. I mean, actually, there’s another fun thing that one of our clients has done. So Mimosa Beauty and Jenny, we had her on the show a few episodes back. She’s created this whole email campaign of like “25 Days of Gratitude.” And it’s really, really amazing. I just woke up to it this weekend; I was looking at the Phorest Instagram. And essentially you sign up for it and you get 25 emails, one a day. And it’s just like, what you should feel grateful for, and how you can feel grateful for it.
So for instance, today was being grateful for the feeling of touch. So, you know, how does it feel when rain falls on your face? You know? How does it feel when you step out of bed and you, I don’t know, step on a really cold floor? Just realizing these little tiny things…
Chris Brennan: Real evocative stuff.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. And yesterday’s was taste, so think about the first bite you take into, I don’t know, your pizza, your Sunday night pizza, or something like that, and just appreciate it.
So it’s all about the gratitude practice that she really enjoys and that she transfers over to her staff, family and things like that, and she’s sharing it with everyone now.
Chris Brennan: That’s fantastic.
Killian Vigna: Yeah it’s a great idea. It’s like a play on mindfulness, and we did something similar; our social team organized a 30-day trial with Headspace. So it was like short, five to 15 minutes of mindfulness or meditation. It’s brilliant because, November does be a busy time here in Phorest, and that’s when we had the free offer and everyone just seemed nice and happy and kind of chill compared to last year where everyone’s running around the place.
So something like this from Mimosa, it really is a brilliant idea because it’s so easy to get caught up…
Zoe Belisle-Springer: It stands out as well.
Killian Vigna: Yeah, it’s so easy to get caught up in the commercial aspect and how hectic the life is, and I suppose there’s a lot of other feelings going on around Christmas time as well. So, it’s just a couple of minutes to sit back and, it doesn’t even take long. Like you said, you could still be lying in bed; you turn on your phone; that email is there.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: It was there 9 a.m. in my inbox, and now it’s just like, “Oh okay. I’ll try to think about that today.”
Killian Vigna: Yeah.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: It’s a nice thing to think of.
Chris Brennan: That’s great.
Killian Vigna: To be aware of it for that day, throughout the day as well then, isn’t it.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. And then she’s also sharing her experience of that whole gratitude practice.
Killian Vigna: Yeah so, that’s a…
Zoe Belisle-Springer: We’ll link that in the footnotes anyways… of the episode.
Chris Brennan: That’s a really nice idea. And a lot of marketing isn’t about trying to throw your product or service in there. A lot of times it could just be reminding people that you exist by adding something thoughtful to their life. Or to their day, like that. I really like that. I actually might sign up and just follow that too! It sounds great!
Killian Vigna: Yeah, because this has nothing, no push of Mimosa Beauty at all here. This is just Jenny going, “This is what I do, and I’d like everyone else to get involved.”
Chris Brennan: And that’ll resonate so much. And people might actually share that more than your deal of the day. Like, “Hey look, I’m actually following; this is really great.” It’d be more shareable than your newsletter where you’re like, “Buy my stuff!” You know?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Killian Vigna: And this is purely just, like, Jenny didn’t approach us about this.
Zoe Belisle-Springer:Â No.
Killian Vigna: This is, you just came across it.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. Absolutely.
Killian Vigna: Yeah so if anyone else has anything similar like that, tag us in it and we can share it too because. Yeah, this is a great idea and everyone should try and get onboard with that.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Another thing that I thought that worked quite well in a few places, were businesses that shared wishlists. So, you know for example, when you type into Google, “What should I get, last-minute gifts,” some places actually create those wishlists, of “These are ideas that you could get for this person, or this person…”
Chris Brennan: That’s great.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And then obviously they plug in their products or services, some of them, into that list, but at least you have an idea of like what you can try and get for that person.
Chris Brennan: That’s great. Because the problem you’re solving is their time creating the list. It’s like, “We’ve created the list for you.”
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. Just now pick! Yeah.
Chris Brennan: Even on social media we find that there’s always more engagement, especially when you’re starting out with social media, that if you ask a question, okay you get some engagement. If you ask a question and give them a, b, c, d, multiple choice answers, like pick an answer? People will go “a” or “d” and then they might have a conversation. So, at all times, taking as much away from their decision-making process actually benefits for engagement. So that’s a really good idea.
Killian Vigna: It’s a paradox of choice, isn’t it? It’s funnelling it down to just a few little examples or ideas or answer. Don’t give too many options. It’s like a menu; when you walk in, you see a menu in a restaurant and there’s hundreds of different offers and you’re like, “Mm-hmm (affirmative), nah …”
Zoe Belisle-Springer: I feel like that’s you!
Killian Vigna: That is me. And again, I got takeaway at the weekend; it took me half an hour to decide. The menus are too big. Funnel it down!
Chris Brennan: You just call them up and they just tell on the phone what you’re having, “Chicken curry, okay!”
Killian Vigna: It was satay but yeah.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: That’s pretty much my ideas for Christmas marketing anyways, and we do have the huge bundle of Christmas ideas on the blog. Do you have anything else that you could possibly add or think of at the moment?
Chris Brennan: Yeah, I think you recently compiled all of our Christmas marketing posts and management posts into one mega-blog; I think that would be the best place to go. I was trying not to repeat things that are on there, because it’s very comprehensive and very easy to read. So I came in with a couple of those gift card ideas and some customer service ideas. I just had more of a mindset to go like, your marketing is also your customer service right now. You might have new people in, but either way, you’re trying to make sure that they come back and it’s not just an annual thing, you know?
Like, try to get them the idea that, okay, they need to be there for like a Christmas party, but why should they come back in January? And that’s a big message that not just you will send, but your team should be sending. And maybe have a little meeting right now and kind of figure out how best to display this message, because this right now is a launching pad for next year, and you can really kick it off well if you get your January right and your February right. And lead from Christmas all the way to Valentine’s Day and then jump off of that and use these landmarks as momentum builders for your business.
Zoe Belisle-Springer:Â Yeah. And don’t hesitate to take down things that have worked well this year so that you can replicate them next year as well.
Killian Vigna: Just what you were saying about a team meeting there, just kind of off the cuff, you could I suppose, if you have a team meeting today and you go, “Alright you have these clients, you have these clients, you have these clients,” why not set a goal of, what are you going to do to get these clients to book back in next month?
Chris Brennan: That’s great.
Killian Vigna: It couldn’t be something like that. Then, it’s tried and tested; you can hear from each of your staff members who’s doing what to guarantee another booking.
Chris Brennan: That’s true. I love it. I love anything that’s kind of like, it’s more engaging and interactive with the staff. That’s one thing I’ve heard so many times by salon owners that, they have an issue with their staff, but I think it comes from that they’re afraid to individually go up to them, or to gather them together as a community, and set out the goals. And once they do that, they always come back to us and go, “It’s such a difference!” I’m like, “Yeah, because you’ve actually engaged with them,” like, it’s so easy for them to come in and it’s like a monotonous day; every day is the same. But you give them goals, you give them targets, and you incentivize them and reward them, then you just see their interest and enthusiasm and the results skyrocket.
Killian Vigna: Well you’re giving them responsibility too because it’s down to them to come up with a new way of getting their client, because you’re treating it as if it’s their client if you can book them back in.
Chris Brennan: Absolutely.
Killian Vigna: So responsibility, sharing that leadership.
So, that pretty much wraps up the Christmas things. We’re not going to go on about it too much, because like you’ve said, you’ve got a blog, you’ve got everything on it. It’s worth checking it out and downloading all that material; it’s free, utilize it. But-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: I’ve actually seen one of those Christmas graphics on Instagram recently.
Chris Brennan: Yeah!
Killian Vigna: Have you?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.
Killian Vigna: That’s a nice little-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: That’s a nice little touch.
Killian Vigna: Isn’t it? So that was just a little shout-out to Jenny. And we actually have another shout-out now. If anyone that listened to our podcast, it was Episode 23… or what do I mean, if anyone has listened to our podcast? Obviously people are listening.
Chris Brennan: And if they’re not listening, then they wouldn’t be hearing you ask if anybody’s listening.
Killian Vigna: Well I’ll keep talking until someone talks back.
Chris Brennan: That’s Facebook Live!
Killian Vigna: So, back on Episode 23, we actually interviewed Graham Kent of FHC. And why we interviewed Graham Kent was all about how his salon gives back to charity and to do a lot of donations. And it’s something that he has believed in and done for a couple of years now.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Even to the point where he got over 30,000 pounds raised for St. Michael’s Hospice, actually.
Killian Vigna: Yeah exactly. And by doing that they kind of created little, it was like catwalk events, him and the staff, and everyone got together and it was a chance for his staff to become incredibly creative as well. So it was almost like a good kind of “express yourself” for his team.
So we just received the news off our CEO this week that he’s actually retiring; he’s hanging up his scissors after 52 years in practice, and he’s done over 81,000 haircuts. And like you said already, he’s raised 30,000 for St. Michael’s Hospice. So, because we’ve interviewed him on the show and we just thought that’s an overwhelming achievement right there, we said we were just going to say-
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Give him another little “good job” and…
Killian Vigna: Yeah, good job.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And happy retirement?
Killian Vigna: Yeah, all the best for your retirement, I mean like, fair play, Graham. And oh he’s also just received his craftsmanship award as well. So yeah, well done, fair play, and all the best with your retirement.
So, usually this is where we move on to our webinars, but December, everyone’s flat-out, so we thought, you know what, we’ll take a break off our webinars this month as well. So what else have we got? Back to Chris.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Facebook Live.
Chris Brennan: Yeah, Facebook Live, yeah. I’ll still be doing our every Tuesday the weekly Facebook Lives throughout December. And we do have the recordings of the previous webinars still available. So if you’re listening to this and you don’t have access to those recordings, you can just hit us up like in any format, like email us or you can hit us up on Facebook…
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Twitter.
Chris Brennan: Or Twitter…
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Instagram.
Chris Brennan: Or Instagram. So, we usually run webinars for about four to six months and after that, we move on; we change the subject. But the thing is, we still have the recordings of those old ones. And there’s some people who joined Phorest, they were introduced to us, that have never been able to access those. But have all the recordings. So we started off with a Facebook one. We have a retail webinar …
Zoe Belisle-Springer:Â Snapchat.
Chris Brennan: Snapchat. Client retention. So we’ve got a nice diverse mix of content. So even though we’re not doing any live webinars this month, if you haven’t check out one of those other ones, we can send you the video version, and you can enjoy that at your own time and convenience.
Killian Vigna: So, that summarizes us on the show today. If you do have any more questions and tips that you’re looking for, for that last minute Christmas stuff, or even how to get your clients back in, in January, hit us up on any of the hundreds of channels that Chris has just mentioned.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: We only have three episodes this month in December because obviously, we won’t be in the office on Christmas, nor New Year’s. But then we’ll be back with the Summit, with another live episode from the Summit.
So, that’s kind of our show today. We wish you a wonderful week, and we’ll catch you next Monday.
Killian Vigna: All the best.
Thanks for reading!
#LetsGrow
