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Welcome to the Salon Owner’s Podcast, Phorest FM Episode 79. Co-hosted by Killian Vigna and Zoé Bélisle-Springer, Phorest FM is a weekly show that puts forth a mix of interviews with industry thought-leaders, salon/spa marketing tips, company insights and information on attending Phorest Academy webinars. Phorest FM is produced every Monday morning for your enjoyment with a cup of coffee on your day off.

Phorest FM Episode 79

After another short podcasting month, Killian and Zoe dedicate this week’s episode to a round-up of everything that’s happened on the Phorest Blog and Phorest FM in June. From the most popular blogs to snippets from previous Phorest FM episodes and announcements in regards to upcoming Phorest Academy Webinars, you’re sure to get all the marketing advice you might have missed.

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Transcript

Killian Vigna: Welcome to the Phorest FM Podcast Episode 79. I’m Killian Vigna.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: And I’m Zoe Belisle-Springer. This week’s episode is our monthly roundup bringing you all the best bits from the Phorest blog and our most recent Phorest FM episodes, all the while adding in a few announcements around things to come in July.

Killian Vigna: Grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and join us weekly for all your salon’s business and marketing needs. Good morning, Zoe.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Good morning, Killian. End of the month of June, I cannot believe it. I was just speaking with some people this weekend and thinking, where has the time gone? Six months from now, it’s Christmas!

Killian Vigna: Ah, you just really had to put a change on things just there, didn’t you?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Well, to be honest, I even saw on social media this weekend that some salons have started booking their Christmas appointments already!

Killian Vigna: Well, I mean the earlier you can get them booked in the better, because I think we usually encourage people to start campaigning around September, isn’t it? That’s what we were doing last year, because think about it, all of the staff parties and stuff like those, they get their schedules around then.

We have our Summer AGM coming up here now next week, but we’ve been notified about this for months. Anyone here that needs to get their hair or nails done or anything like that, they would have already had it booked in for about the last three, four months.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: That’s very true, yeah. When you put it like that, yeah. But it’s still crazy.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, it is crazy. Yeah, monthly roundup, what did we have this month? In relation to the podcast, we had two really good episodes this month in June.

The first one comes from Heather Yurko of Neatbeat and also founder of PIP University. What’s PIP University? PIP University is Positively Impacting People. For anyone that listened to that episode, they’ll know exactly what that title means, because there’s just so much enthusiasm coming from that woman. One thing I especially took from it was, “You’re never busy. You’re just being productive.”

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: To be honest, I remember saying, “Can I steal that off of you?” I have been using it ever single week now, and I do find there is a difference.

Killian Vigna: I’ve started using it myself. Yeah, and the funny thing is, it’s gone from… Do you know when you always say, “Oh, I’m busy,” and you have that… It sort of feels like, “Ugh.” But when you say, “I’m productive,” you say it with a smile. It’s mad how just changing one word, all of a sudden, you have a different perspective on your day. Yeah, you’re not busy, you’re just being productive.

But that episode focused around KPIs which was great, because it was six months down the line from when we did the, “Reviewing Your Salon” which was actually the live episode we did here in Phorest, and it was going through how you review your past 12 months and putting a strategy into place for the next 12 months. It was great to have that episode 6 months down the line.

For anyone who did listen, there’s a really good tip she has in there for getting people booked in for the next three appointments, not just the next appointment. It’s definitely worth listening. But here’s some snippets from it:

Snippet 1, Heather Yurko: There are several key performance indicators, several benchmarks that a salon can look at. We have narrowed them down, because we want to understand them as salon leadership. Salon owners and managers, it’s one thing for us to be going through our reports and our KPIs. It’s another thing for us to train our teams to be able to do it.

Snippet 2, Heather Yurko: The smaller those are, the few that you track to narrow them down, the easier it is for your team to get on board and know exactly where there at.

Snippet 3, Heather Yurko: We can’t just look at our team and be like, “We need to pre-book. We need to pre-book.” Especially if they don’t know how to have that conversation to get the guest to say yes, especially to three appointments.

We do something like this. The artist is standing there with the guest talking to them. They go through the technical consultation, whether it’s cutting or colouring. Then the artist says something essentially like this, “Based on what we’ve talked about today with your hair and to keep your colour looking the way that you want it to and to keep your haircut fresh, to where it’s not getting on your nerves, I’m going to need to see you back in here in about five weeks. Now is there better days and times that work best with your schedule?”

The guest will say something like, “Yeah, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30 or after.”

We write that down, and then we say this, “Okay, that sounds wonderful. Today before you leave, we’re going to go ahead and get you your next few reservations set up. This way, you don’t have to worry about calling. Everything is set up for you, and it’s really convenient with your schedule and works best. I’ll have Kiara from our Guest Happiness Team get those set up for you. Now, tell me what works best with your home care maintenance?” Then we go straight into retail.

 

Killian Vigna: Yeah, so there were some snippets from Heather Yurko. But, again, check out that episode, because it really is… It’s an empowering one too, even though we’re talking about KPIs, and you’re thinking, “Ooh, this is going to be heavy.” No, it was actually nice and light and some really good advice there.

The second episode then comes from Stephanie Fox Jackson from the Canvas Salon in Ohio. Where we came across Stephanie was a couple of our guys went to the Data Driven Salon Summit which is run by Modern Salon Magazine over in Atlanta, Georgia. They said that there was this panelist talking about independent salons and booth renting that we just had to get onto the show.

Again, another brilliant episode, this episode was around millennials and salon compensation and benefits. Now when we were putting together the questions for this show, we actually approached the education team and had great craic generating questions, because our education team all actually came from the salon industry, so they had loads of stuff for us to ask.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: They’re all millennials as well.

Killian Vigna: They’re all millennials. Yeah, they’re all around our age. They had loads of good questions for Stephanie, and she did a brilliant job answering them. One question in particular that I really liked was, what are the two biggest, I suppose, benefits for millennials, is it more money, or is it more flexibility? To find out the answer, check out these snippets here.

Snippet 1, Stephanie Fox: Millennials in particular the reason they show up so differently is that when things feel difficult in their work, they have social media, and everybody they’ve ever met in their life, including strangers that they’ve never met, all of their lives look prettier. It looks like their life is easier and better. It’s very easy for the millennial-aged person who’s only known this crazy technology around them to really be able to think, “Oh, grass is greener over there, I’m out.”

Snippet 2, Stephanie Fox: The days of a business that’s a hierarchy where there’s a boss that gets to be the end-all be-all decision maker, those days are really gone. Millennials really want to be part of the conversation. They want to feel like the work they’re doing is meaningful. They have a purpose there. They can be heard. What I do in my business is, I share very transparently.

Snippet 3, Stephanie Fox: My personal belief is that everybody fits into two buckets, and I call those buckets your financial and growth bucket and your culture bucket. I think of it as, we each have a foot in both. We’re straddling these buckets. At some points in our careers and in our lives, we care more about the culture that we’re involved in. And there are some points in our lives where we care more about the growth opportunity and the money.

 

Killian Vigna: Okay, so now that’s the recap of our two Phorest FM episodes this month. We’re moving over to the blogs, and Zoe, no better person to talk about them, because you’ve actually wrote them. But we have three blogs here, don’t we? The first one is, “Get Long Lost Clients Back With These SMS Message Templates.” Give it to us.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, that’s a long-lasting one to be honest, not to play on words, but it really is. People… We’ve used this article many, many times. We refresh it every now and then, because we just keep seeing there’s quite a demand for it.

Essentially, the whole gist of the article is to provide you with SMS templates that can help you reconnect with clients. If you use Phorest Salon Software, we have a tool called Client ReConnect, and that can make your life way easier. But if you don’t have Phorest, how do you reconnect with these clients that you haven’t seen in a little while? How do you manage if you’re in Europe with GDPR to do that? How, if you’re in the States, how do you do that with the CAN-AM and anti-spam laws and stuff?

It’s localized on the blog for all these different regions. If you’re in Europe, you can check out the Irish or the English version of the blog. In Australia, you have another localized version for consent, around consent.

Killian Vigna: The information is specific to your region, so you don’t have to worry about all these other things going on. It’s just what’s there for you.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, exactly. You have to essentially where you are based and look at the version of the blog. You can change the language at the top. If you’re in the U.S., just make a change to U.S., and then you’ll have the version for the U.S., same for Europe and same for Australia.

There’s different text message templates. Some are around birthdays. Some are around just fun marketing in general. I think if you’re any bit creative, you can just take one, spin it into ten, and you’ll have a bank for the full year almost.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, you have one here, it’s the riddle one. I love these riddle ones. What is grown, yet can’t be bought, painted, or left bare? Then you have to text the answer, don’t you?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, exactly.

Killian Vigna: What is the answer?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Nail.

Killian Vigna: Painted or left bare?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: I was thinking nail at first, but then… Oh! I read that wrong, okay, never mind. I was like, “It can’t be painted or left bare.” I was like, “Well, you can paint nails,” but anyway.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, so that’s one that’s a classic one. At the bottom, we explain how Client ReConnect actually works, so our tool helping you to track your regular visitors and their booking patterns, so that you can reconnect with them before they actually become lapsed. Which is an amazing tool, so I would encourage you to go check out that blog. It’s, like you said, called, “Get Long Lost Clients Back With These SMS Message Templates.”

Then on the Phorest Blog this month, another one that made a big splash was the celebratory blog around the Client Experience Award, because that comes around every year for the last four years. The Client Experience Award, and, this is, of course, you need to be a Phorest client to have it or to be eligible to get it, at least. You need to have kept your salon reviews consistently high, so at four out of five or above for 12 consecutive months, and that would be from May to May, and have a minimum of 65 reviews.

Now we’ve had questions around, “Oh, but is it around Google reviews?” No, no, no, it’s through the reviews that are sent out through Phorest.

Yeah, we had a lovely little post there with a video that I compiled with all the salons who received the award this year and were tagging us in at different posts. It could have been Facebook or Instagram or any other platform that they’d been using and shared photos with us with the award, and it was great.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, that was huge on Instagram. I don’t know, it just felt like it was way bigger this year than last year with the amount of them put up on Instagram from salon owners. There were so many of them. But it just goes to show, everyone was dying to get the Client Experience Award.

I find it hilarious it’s… Ever since my mom found out I’m working at Phorest, she always takes a picture of the Client Experience Award in the salons that she goes to and sends it over. She’s like, “Oh, this is Phorest,” and my housemates do the same. It’s just crazy that so many people actually recognise this in your window and are going, “Ooh, hang on.”

There’s a digital version of it too as well, isn’t there?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, there is. In that same blog, actually, I do post five ways that you can promote your award. This can apply to any award that you win to be honest. Adding it to your print and digital marketing campaigns, adding it to your product or public displays… If you’re having something like a brand-new product line, you could add it there, and say, “We’ve won this award for…” whatever. Like I said, it can be applied to any award that you win.

You can make a video of you and your team, post that on your website, on your social media. Anything that makes it fun and relatable. Use it in a press release if you want to reach out to local newspapers, magazines, or blogs.

One that’s fun as well is that you can say because these awards, especially the Client Experience Award one, it’s based on customer reviews, so how your customers see your business and their experience in your salon. You could if you wanted give back to your clients with a little promotion through SMS or through email and just say, thank you, essentially, “This is thanks to you that we’ve won this award, so we want to thank you by getting you in with X, Y, or Z.”

Killian Vigna: Yeah, it’s showing your gratitude for it. Because it is a big achievement to have so many people, like 65 four out of five star reviews in a year. That’s huge, boast about that, put that everywhere. People love to see good reviews.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, and like I said, the main difference with this award is that it’s not judged by a panel or anything. It’s really judged on your client base, and how much they appreciate your service. It’s really flattering, very humbling.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, that’s your social authority. For anyone that remembers, Steve Martin’s talk at the Salon Owner’s Summit 2018 that was one of his key principles, social authority.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, absolutely. Then the third blog that made quite a splash isn’t actually much focused around words, it’s more focused around a photo gallery. But it gives you an insight into the Modern Salon’s Artist Session Influencer Series that went down in SoHo in New York which I was present at with my colleague, Sinead that you would have known from events and organizing Salon Owner’s Summit.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, you were actually at the event doing a lot of photography yourself, wasn’t it?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: I was yeah. Chatting to people, taking a lot of photos, hearing about people’s stories around Instagram. Obviously, the whole idea behind this event was essentially to hand-pick 16 artists that were very influential on Instagram particularly and that would hopefully gel really well together, share their knowledge together, and learn from each other throughout the weekend.

Because essentially the first day was a whole education day. Everyone was allocated, I think it was 15 to 30 minutes, to be on stage and show the other 15 artists one of their techniques, and how they went through it.

Killian Vigna: Okay, cool. It was more of a masterclass than having them up on stage sitting down chatting.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, the first day was definitely that. It was a bit of a masterclass for them. It was a very closed event in the salon. It was all done from a salon space called Collective Plus in SoHo. It was a very, very gorgeous salon to be fair, and then there was see them exchange with each other.

That’s what I’ve learned the most and taken out of the whole weekend was you never… You should never think or feel like you’re too good to learn. You can always learn something from someone. It’s just so amazing the content and the knowledge that you can share with people without even realising.

Sometimes it’s just things that you do because you’ve been doing them for years. You don’t realise that someone else maybe just needs that little one tip and then makes their life so much easier. You’re like, “Oh, well, I’ve been doing that for years. I wouldn’t even thought it would have helped you,” but it does. It’s really great.

Killian Vigna: The day you think you know it all is the day everything comes crashing. You’re always a student, you’re always learning. Again, that was in one of our episodes at the start of the month, try not to be the smartest person in the room.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, exactly. Then so the second day of that event, they were paired up, and they had to create this special look that they were fully in charge of designing. They had at the end of it a editorial photo shoot with the model and the look obviously for the hair. There’s something coming up later in the year on Modern Salon, so keep an eye out. I can’t actually say anything.

Killian Vigna: Just a slight, little bit of teaser there, yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yup. No, it’s going to be great to be honest.

If you wanted to go have a look at that, that’s on the Phorest Blog. It’s the Behind The Scenes, and there’s a photo gallery of, like I said, behind the scenes of what happened during that weekend.

There’s also a list of all the influencers who were at the event. I would strongly encourage you to go give them a follow, because to be honest, their work is just amazing. You can learn from, like I said, anyone even just the smallest techniques, so yeah.

Killian Vigna: Was this the first time this was held, or is this… Is there are a series of these?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: This session was the Influencer Series. All the influencers were actually hand-picked by Modern Salon’s team. This is like an off one, but Modern Salon do host artist sessions which you can apply for and attend. The next session is on October 15th and 16th, and it’s also in New York City. All the information is listed at the very bottom of that blog the Behind The Scenes photos, but it’s also all available on Modern Salon since they actually host that. I can link up the URL for that in our episode’s notes.

But yeah, it’s a really, really good session. You get to learn how to do a photo shoot, how to maximise the reach for those photographs, how do you up your profile via your work essentially. Which is… Anyone can be looking for that at any stage of your career.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, that’s very important, because at the end of the day, you’re an artist, and artists need to have portfolios. If you can show off your portfolio in a really good light, then that’s definitely a good skill to have. It goes for anyone, hair, beauty, even outside the industry to food and stuff like that.

Look at your Instagram, they’re just completely jazzed up images. Now, if you can make your own work look really presentable, you’re going to be miles above everyone else, miles past the competition.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, and speaking of influencers, we have announced our second speaker for the Salon Owner’s Summit, and he is described as one of the most influential speakers of his generation. That is not a small feat. Our second speaker is Ryan Holiday, for anyone who knows-

Killian Vigna: Yeah, this guy is brilliant especially for someone so young as well. He’s only in his 30s. His name gets, I suppose, shouted about a lot here especially in the marketing team. He’s done books like “The Obstacle Is the Way,” “Enemy is the Ego,” “Trust Me, I’m Lying.”

The man has been through it all especially again for someone his age. The whole thing of be a workhorse when you’re young. Now, he’s flipping that all over. It’s very stoic-based. I suppose anything I say here is not going to do him justice. You’re just going to have to Google Ryan Holiday. Check up his books. Check out “Ego is the Enemy,” “The Obstacle Is the Way.” They’re two very good ones to start with.

But, yeah, he’s got tons of podcasts out there. I think he’s been a guest contributor on most big podcasts out there now. Definitely going to be a lot of people excited for this one, so check him out.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, and then that leads us onto last bits from the show I suppose, the webinars, the giveaway. The giveaway hasn’t actually been announced yet. It’s dropping this week. I am going to keep that secret until then for the prize. The webinars… There is one coming up on July 9th, and it’s the Salon Instagram Masterclass, and we’ve run this one before.

Now, this one is very much adapted to Australian hours, so if you are based in Australia this one is for you. If you’re also based in the UK and Ireland, it will work from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. We know that in the U.S., unfortunately, the time zone difference isn’t really going to make it easy for you to attend. If you do sign up for it, you will get a recording, so that’s not a problem if you wanted to get a recording at least. For anyone based in Australia, that would be from 7:00 to 8:00 PM Australian Eastern Time.

In this Phorest Academy Masterclass, we will be going through four crucial areas for Instagram success: setting up your account the right way, getting the most out of your posts, so how do you create engagement, best practices on the platform, and who are you supposed to follow to get inspiration. It’s definitely not one to miss. It’s an hour-long masterclass. It’s with Chris Brennan, and it’s all about turning your account into a premiere marketing game changer for your salon.

The next one that we have, and this one is causing quite a lot interest on Facebook at the moment as we’ve posted the event promoting it last week. It’s the Salon Reception Masterclass. Now this one is a two-part webinar series. The first part is on July 30th, and the second part is on August 6th. They’re both at 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM UK/Ireland time, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time.

It’s all about learning how to build a winning and high-performing reception team and ensuring that it’s actually functioning at the best of its ability, so that it actually increases revenue for your salon. We know that reception is at the heart of your salon. It’s the first and last touchpoint. How do you get it to perform to the extent where it can actually grow your business?

Killian Vigna: Now I’m assuming for that one, that’s not necessarily someone who has a dedicated receptionist, that’s for anyone. People with a reception team or if you are your receptionist yourself.

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, absolutely. If you want to sign up to any of these two, two or three webinars, all you have to do is go onto our Facebook page in the events section you find the event that you want to sign up for, so either the Instagram Masterclass or the Salon Reception Masterclass. If you go into the ticket section, you follow that link, enter your details, and you’ll get a link to join on the day. Fairly simple, it’s free as usual, and we hope you enjoy. It’s an hour long, full, jam-pack of information that you will not find anywhere else.

Killian Vigna: Cool. That’s pretty much it from the show then, isn’t it?

Zoe Belisle-Sprigner: Yeah, so that’s pretty much it for us today, indeed, Killian. If you have any feedback, feel free to leave us a review on iTunes or on Stitcher. As usual, we’re always looking for suggestions on how to improve the show. We’re working on getting our podcast onto Spotify, so stay tuned! Otherwise, have a wonderful week, and we’ll catch you next Monday.

Killian Vigna: All the best.

Thanks for reading!

#LetsGrow

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