Welcome to the Salon Owner’s Podcast, Phorest FM Episode 37. 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 37
The ‘money off’ type of reward may be an easy way to treat clients, but these types of loyalty programs don’t boost your business’ profile or revenue in the long run. In this episode of Phorest FM, award-winning salon owner Frank Di Lusso discusses the importance of rewarding salon and spa clients by implementing an efficient salon loyalty system and shares what has been working so well for his salon in the past three years.
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Transcript
Killian Vigna: Welcome to the Phorest FM podcast, Episode 37. I’m Killian Vigna,
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And I’m Zoe Belisle Springer.
Killian Vigna: This week’s episode is about the importance of rewarding your clients. We implemented a salon loyalty system with Frank Di Lusso, of Frank Di Lusso Hair.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And 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.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Good morning.
Killian Vigna: Good morning, Zoe. So, we actually have Frank Di Lusso on the line here – to
Zoe Belisle-Springer: We do.
Killian Vigna: To go through the importance of a salon loyalty system, and how to get your clients calling back to you more often. Frank has over 15 years industry experience and excels in all advanced coding techniques, as well as being Head of Education for J. Beverly Hills U.K., specializing in freehand techniques and colour correction. Welcome to the show, Frank. How are things?
Frank Di Lusso: Good, thanks, guys. How are you guys?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Pretty well, pretty well. Thanks. It’s great to have you on the show. Thanks so much.
Killian Vigna: So, Frank-
Frank Di Lusso: Thank you. I listen to the podcast all the time. They’re really good. They’re nice to hear. It’s good to hear people talking about the stuff that we do on a daily basis. It’s nice to hear the ideas and make sure we’re doing stuff right, or keeping us on our toes on the stuff we should be doing better. So, well done, guys, on the podcast.
Killian Vigna: Sure. We do what we can, yeah. Thanks for the shoutout on Twitter there! So, Frank, I was just having a quick look at your salon, and you only set up, I know you’re 15 years industry experience, but you only actually set up Frank Di Lusso back in about 2014, and the list of achievements in the last three years is unbelievable.
Frank Di Lusso: Thank you. Well, that starts our first… It’s a bit of a… It’s been a bit of a… It’s been crazy. Working in town in the West End, I really just want to make a salon environment with an experience.
Killian Vigna: Yeah.
Frank Di Lusso: Not just somebody you can go and get your haircut. I firmly believe that, rarely you go to get a haircut, the minimum requirement is a decent haircut. I think it’s the bells and whistles that you add on and personalize and customize to your clients and see to the people around you, which also gets through to the start, that work for you, so you kind of give people the best and personal outside experience you can possibly give them for the amount of time they’re in your salon. So, I think it’s a bit of a milestone, three years. It’s a hard thing to do in the salon, looking after a bunch of staff is never really easy, but it’s always fun, and yeah, it’s been really good.
Like you say, we’ve won a few awards. It’s always nice to get recognition from the business side of stuff, as well as the industry side of stuff. I think often people forget that hairdressers don’t just cut hair. We have to do the hard stuff behind the scenes and manage the business, manage the retail, manage the staff. We have to manage the marketing, the budgeting, the forecasting. All that stuff is a job, in itself. And I think it’s good to have the accolade and to be rewarded with accolades for being those things, in a good way.
Killian Vigna: Yeah, because like you were saying, when you started off, you started off in, kind of, creating styles and color. You wouldn’t have started off as a businessman, yourself, so you actually have to learn all of this while still keeping your skills going, as well. So, it all becomes-
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. I still work full-time on the shop floor, and that’s something I love doing. But I think someone in front of you and changing the way they completely look is one on the hairdresser. Running the business now, is one, staying a hairdresser. I enjoy it. I love doing the other things, as well. So yeah, absolutely, it’s really good to have your finger in multiple parts in your own salon and learning everything, because you know, life’s, in the industry, there’s so many hairdressers around, and to make yourself different is the hardest thing.
And I think before we begin to talk about later on, it absolutely, invaluable to be a little bit different and a little bit more ahead of the curve. When you start off with no clients and you have to build a business from scratch, it’s incredibly difficult, but it’s incredibly rewarding when it does seem to sort of work and you have the tools at your side in which to make that happen more productively.
Killian Vigna: Yeah.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: What was your mindset, first year? I suppose it was all about getting your business set up and running. And then the second year, what was your mindset? And then third year?
Frank Di Lusso: So, I did what most people do. I had no idea of why life happened, and I had a realistic idea of what I think would have happened. I think we were quite lucky. We hit an area which was crying out for something, which I wanted to do, and I was very scared initially. When you mortgage your house and do everything from scratch, it’s a gamble. You hope for the best, but you plan for the worst. We probably, within six months, we reached my goals of a year, which is down to not just me, but the girls that work with me and the girls that were learning, now are fully fledged hairdressers on the salon floor, working day in and day out.
My manageress was my junior, my assistant manageress was also my assistant, and she’s really flourishing under their roles and in the salon three years later. And now we’ve expanded the salon to have a lot more staff, and she gives me a bit more time to do stuff and to do the things behind the scenes, which now, I think, the fruits of the hard labor for three years have gone to show in the people that work here and the people that come in to have their hair done. I think I couldn’t really be happier with how things have gone. It’s a dream come true for the way it’s gone. I’d hoped it’d gone like this, but you can never tell.
Killian Vigna: Yeah, we were just looking. Not only do … You know the way you could set up a salon, it could be the best looking salon, the most skilled, I suppose, the most expensive designed one. But for you, again, it comes back to, it’s all about the complete salon experience, [inaudible 00:06:28] from the Bespoke hair care advice to your clients. But you’ve managed to do that mix of client focus and skill focus with your staff. Because you actually train up your own staff, as well, don’t you?
Frank Di Lusso: Yes. We have a salon mentoring here where everyone that comes in as an assistant will be given the privilege of training in the salon, and to work within the Academy, as well. Together, we commit to that person, they commit to the salon, and we basically plan a stylist to come in and be on the salon floor within two years, with a client base. I’ve found, probably in the past, a lot of people who leave salons at a young age, probably don’t really get the ability to join the shop floor straight away, or they’re regarded as assistants forever. Where this way, the way I like to teach them and the way they join the salon floor team is that they go in when they’re qualified and they work. They’re given the opportunity to really flourish in the environment, and to grow up within that salon.
It gives them a chance to be the best they can be at what they do, not keep them back, giving the shampoo or to put colors on or take colors off. It’s a way for them to progress in their career so that they can get the best work/life balance within the salon, as well as at home. No one wants to be an assistant forever. They want to be a hairdresser, but if I can help as many people be hairdressers as possible, I think I’ve done some of my job by them, and they can go off in the future, open their own salons, and I’ll be incredibly proud and happy for them, because I think that’s one of my proteges doing well, and that’s all I can hope for, really.
Killian Vigna: So for you, it’s not just building the best team that can work for Frank Di Lusso, it’s actually investing in people for the best for them. Because it always comes back to, the happier your staff are to work for you, your clients are going to be happy, happy that reflects, because you’re actively investing so much in to your staff.
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. With anything in life, you get out what you put in. And if you give your staff your attention, your time, your understanding, your … the benefit of your, depending on who you ask, wisdom. Whatever it might be, they will be extremely loyal and happy to work for you. And they’ll be motivated, and they will come to work smiling, and they will leave work smiling. That all transfers. It all goes back to customer experience. If you have someone who’s incredibly happy doing your hair, that puts that person completely at ease, and gives them a trust in you that you can’t really falsify. You can definitely tell when you ask someone to do something, they can’t be bothered. But with someone who’s genuinely motivated to do it, that’s quite a big step forward in that relationship between stylist and customer, and I think that’s what helps.
Killian Vigna: You’re actually giving your staff passion and drive, because they’re not just there to do a job anymore, they’re actually there because they want to be, and they’ve got the backing of Frank Di Lusso Hair.
Frank Di Lusso: Yeah. Absolutely. And of each other. We work in a way that no one has their own client. The clients are of the salon, and when they, if I’m busy, maybe someone else can do that person’s hair. And, because they’re all trained by my hand, they all know how… We work in a very similar way. So, just because my clients like me a bit more and I might have the benefit of more experience and more industry experience and they don’t, they still have the benefit of working under my tutelage for x amount of years, and they know how I would do stuff, and that’s how they do stuff. And, when they train people, they will train people how I trained them, but probably with a more exuberance of youth, which you get learning new techniques that younger people do.
And as they go through the industry themselves, I think yeah, that’s the way we work. And the passion that I have… I’m very passionate about what I do and the way I do it. I’m very particular, because it’s my brand, and they’re particular because they represent my brand, and they want the shop to do well, because they want the admiration for doing a good job. And I give it to them. And their clients give it to them. Which is why, when we get the reviews in, when we have them they go on Facebook and they read them and they like them and they show their friends, you can’t give that feeling back if you don’t have that extra service.
Killian Vigna: Exactly. Yeah. Your staff, they’re obviously quite inspired to work for you and work at your salon. We’re just going to move along, then, how to start, I suppose, relate to your clients. How to you inspire your clients to keep coming back to your salon? We just look and we see you’re a recipient of the Phorest Client Experience Award from 2016. So your clients obviously love you. What do you do, as a team, to keep your clients interested in coming back to you?
Frank Di Lusso: I think you have to be very consistent with what you give them. If you serve wine and prosecco and you give nice coffee and you give biscuits, you can’t not have that stuff, because that’s the associated experience, made with that stuff. If you have a particular way of working and a way of approaching and a way of gathering up a client, a way of washing their hair, a way of giving them advice with their products and the way they should do their hair at home, then you have to be consistent with that. The relationship between stylist and client is very different in each salon. And I can only speak for the way we’ve tried to do ours, where we do teach our clients to do their hair at home because they’ve got to wear it every day.
Killian Vigna: Exactly.
Frank Di Lusso: We only do it when they come in. So, we do try and teach them. We do advise them how to do their hair. We don’t advise them what to buy just for the sake of buying products. We want them to buy the right products for them, so that their customer experience should have prescribed at-home value. So, if I do your hair, and I say to you, “Maybe you should do this. Maybe steal your sister’s or your wife’s hairdryer or your mom’s hairdryer, and do it like this.” Then you’re going to go out from the salon and repeat what I’ve shown you every day.
And it adds value to the experience, and also adds value to the relationship, because you trust me, and I’ve given you advice that I certainly feel will help you in your day-to-day life. If you can transfer that to every aspect of the experience for the client, it would be a very pleasant time in the salon, and they’ll go out raving about you. And then they will tell their friends, and they will tell their family members, and they will come back through recommendation. I don’t think that there’s a more positive return on a customer experience than other people wanting to also have it.
Killian Vigna: You couldn’t have said it any better. I mean, like you’re saying, basically provide your clients with after-care, because it’s all well in good, people coming in to get their hair done by you, but you want them to be proud and keep their hair, I suppose at least keep the consistency over the next few weeks, so why wouldn’t you tell them how to take care of your hair, or how to manage it with new products or stuff like that every day. You’re going to want them to keep that style and refer you.
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. I mean, it’s almost like a guarantee. If you buy a tv and you have to pay a hundred pounds a year to get it fixed, just in case it breaks, you probably going to buy a brand new TV. But if you come to the salon, and we give you the after-care advice for free, every time you come in. Or maybe you’re not a client, and you’ve come in and you’ve passed and you’ve seen that we sell something that you’d like to have, or you’re not sure. So we’ll have a consultation with you. We’ll assess your lifestyle, we’ll assess how you live your life.
Do you work? Do you get up early with your kids? Do you get back late, do you wash your hair once a week, do you have color? What we do, is we can prescribe you almost to the next time, what your hair needs for your lifestyle and the way you live it, not how you wish you could live it. If you’ve only got an hour in the morning or you’ve got 15 minutes in the morning, we’ll do our best to maximize that time efficiently. And you’ll get the best out of products of your colour, of your whatever it may be, just so you have a better quality of life, and your hair works with you instead of being the thing that you don’t have time to do.
Killian Vigna: As a client going into Frank Di Lusso Hair, you’re essentially getting a one-to-one bespoke consultation with every session. And like you said, it’s bespoke, because-
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely.
Killian Vigna: It’s not just, “Oh, this is how everyone should maintain this treatment or service, it’s, this is how you should do it in the time you have.”
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. Everyone is different. Everyone has different lifestyles. Everyone has different ideologies of what their hair should look like, and I think you have to be able to understand the client. You have to relate to them in a way that is understandable to them, and therefore in using industry jargon on them, because they’re not hairdressers. You have to approach them and speak to them one-to-one, and say… They might say, “I’ve got three kids at home and I only have 10 minutes in the morning.” I’d say, “Well how about if I can do your 10 minutes. If you give me 15 minutes, why don’t you do it like this.”
Or, if you take half an hour for a week, then we can make this time go down to 15 minutes, and I can teach you, ultimately, what will take you 10 minutes to do your hair, you have to take half an hour to learn to do it, because practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. If you practice something wrong all the time, you’re going to do it wrong all the time. If you practice something right all the time, you’re going to get better at it, more efficient, faster, and it’s going to be better for you, long-term.
Killian Vigna: And it’s going to become a habit over time, then, isn’t it? Where you’re going to do it without even realizing.
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. It’s going to be part of your day, it’s going to be part of your lifestyle during the day. Part of your routine.
Killian Vigna: These consultations, they don’t even have to… We’re not talking a half an hour to an hour out of your time, per client. This is just a few minutes during your treatment, or even following up your treatment. It’s just a couple of minutes out of your day, but it’s bespoke to every client, and that’s going to keep them coming back to you more and more, and referring and stuff like that.
Frank Di Lusso: I think also, you’re absolutely right. It might be five, ten minutes at the beginning of an appointment. Or, maybe during an appointment, if they want to change their color going forward for the summer. You can speak to them. You should be speaking about their hair. You know, holidays and such and personal stuff aside, you have an hour with that client or two hours. You should make the most of that time to give them everything they need to know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, show them how you’re doing it, so they trust you, they say, “Frank, next time, what can we do? Can we change it? Can we get a restart, maybe change my color?” These are all opportunities within this time to get more for the client, to get your staff seeing you do stuff that’s different.
So, we you do put stuff on social media, you can show people maybe a complete change. [inaudible 00:17:26] we saw a new colour on someone, and they come in and go, “I saw that on Facebook. I’d love to have that.” I think people get very compliant and yeah, I’ll have this and I’ll have that, but you have to be actively trying to change the way your clients look. And that’s all in the consultation. Because, people don’t really leave salons because they have a bad experience. Most of the time, they’re just bored, and they see a colleague or a friend or a family member who’s got a particular color that they like, or a particular style, and then they’ll ask, “Where’d you get that done?” And that’s how people lose clients. You have to change the way people look. You have to, at least, give them the opportunity to change. And I think that’s all down to consultation, and how you approach each, individual person in a specific way.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: So, once you’ve got these clients coming back in and showing you their loyalty, at some point, you probably thought, “Well, I need to set up a loyalty system of some sort.” How did you go about that? How did you pick one?
Frank Di Lusso: I’ve been working in salons for a long time. I’ve seen many different types. I’ve kind of, within my mind, I’ve seen stuff that doesn’t work, which has helped me find something that does. What I can speak for is, I said I don’t want anything was a scam. I don’t say, in my business, I didn’t want to set up a culture of the discount culture, I wanted people to come into us because they love our experience. And I want a reward for the people who come in. I don’t want people to come in because it’s 80% off color or 40% off color, I want people to come in regardless of how much it costs; because they enjoy the service and they’re happy with the results of said service.
So, when I spoke to Phorest, I said, you know, I’ve looked into what you guys have. How can we use it within the salon? We’ve basically gone and got TreatCards, so now we have everyone that comes in the salon will get a keyring with a barcode, tied to that person’s account. Every time they come in, for every pound they spend, they get a point. If they book online through our app or through the website or through Facebook, they get double points. And I’ve also augmented the basic structure of the TreatCard system, so every time they recommend someone, they all get 200 points. It’s equivalent to spending 200 pounds in the shop.
Killian Vigna: So that’s your referral scheme, as well?
Frank Di Lusso: [crosstalk 00:19:54] It’s amazing. It’s amazing. But my marketing budget, is almost at zero, because of this.
Killian Vigna: Because of the Treat cards?
Frank Di Lusso: Because of the Treat cards. Anyone who doesn’t believe that these things work, really should… You have to try it. You have to be very strict with them. You have to be very, stick-by-the-rules that you create within your salon environment. But I don’t advert in papers. I don’t seem to [inaudible 00:20:24] to see put stuff in there. I have TreatCards. And everyone that walks around near of the shop has a Treat cards. They might go to a coffee shop and sit down with their friend’s over coffee, and someone will say, “Well, what’s that on your keyring?” They say, “These are the points I get for going to Frank Di Lusso. I’ve already had a free cut and blow dry next week for the highlights. I’ve had everything.” But positive word of mouth is the most valuable marketing you can do, and all you’ve done is rewarded the people who come in and spend quite a lot of money with you, for the most part, because the people’s that spend more, get more. And I’ve got clients who, for example, for the last two years, have never paid for a haircut, because they recommended so many people. What more can you do? They deserve every haircut they get, because they’re doing the job for me. Because, for me to do that job would cost me thousands. All I’m doing is giving them something which they require, they need, they give the full expense of the salon, and it costs them nothing.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. They become your brand ambassadors.
Frank Di Lusso: [crosstalk 00:21:28] works. Yeah. Absolutely. Another thing we do. Say there’s someone comes in on a Saturday, and has highlights on a Saturday, and they do get free set of highlights. You do it on a Saturday because you know what? They deserve it. They’ve come in, they’ve spent x amount of money, they’ve accumulated x amount of points, they deserve that cut and blow dry when they would normally have it.
Killian Vigna: That’s very interesting.
Frank Di Lusso: [crosstalk 00:21:53] the benchmarks, they’re going to get annoyed, because they think, “Well, I’ve come in every Saturday for two years, I would like to come in on a Saturday to have my highlights done. Why do I have to come in on a Monday afternoon when it’s not busy, because I’m busy then?” So you have to reward people in the right way. And I think, like I said to you, the rewards for the salon, itself, far outweigh any other loyalty we had in the past. In the past 20 years, many of the salons that I’ve worked in.
Killian Vigna: What were the previous ones that you came across, that you just thought, nah, not for you?
Frank Di Lusso: Let me use your kind of old-fashioned coffee shop stamp. Every time you have a coffee, every time you have a haircut, you get stamped, because people do lose these cards. Then they go, “Well, I have 10 stamps,” and you can’t just prove it. And you can’t… It’s difficult, because you can’t track anything. To be quite honest with you, I haven’t done a discount on a treatment… I don’t give anyone 10% off anything. We did an initial launch when we had no clients. The first day, we did free services for everything for everyone.
Killian Vigna: Free?
Frank Di Lusso: [inaudible 00:23:00] Free. Gratis. We had to really give a constant buzz about a new business, and the only way that you’re going to really do that, to make people stand up and listen, you got to show people what you’re about and the way you do it. So we said the first the day, we opened on a Saturday, we did it for free. The first week, we did 60% off everything. The second week, we gave 30% off everything. The third week, 15% off everything. For the rest of the… Every single day since then, I have not given one single one percent discount to anyone, because our value should not be discounted. I’d rather give it away for free in a TreatCard to the people who deserve it, rather than giving it as a discount.
If I could give you an example. If I did… I have gotten a shop, and I do 30% off color on a Tuesday, and I do your hair every month, I put, I do your root tip, and you see I’ve got a discount going, and you call into the shop and you say, “Frank, can you do my color?” After you booked, I look through the book, everyone I see only comes in when it’s cheap. The only person that’s losing out there is the person coming every month, who really does deserve that discount. They’re the lifeblood of my salon. They’re the ones that should be rewarded. Henceforth, these TreatCards, that’s what they do.
Killian Vigna: And there’s two-
Frank Di Lusso: If I’m the clients that come in every month and more or less get their haircut free every fifth haircut.
Killian Vigna: There’s two sides to this discounting culture, isn’t there? Because we say, we always see this market placing going on, a lot of salon owners are talking about joining and stuff. It’s basically, like you said, it’s a massive discount, and it’s not even like 15 to 30%. Some of these guys are discounting 60 to 80% off their service. So, you’ve got “A” here, where I’m a new client, of course, I’m going to keep going to you if you’re giving me 60% off every time. But then you might have a current client who’s paying full price every week, and then they see they’re paying full price, I’m getting 60% off, but I’m salon hopping then, because I’m not going to go back to you and pay the full price when you gave me 60% off last week. Then there’s the other side of it, where you, yourself, you’re a highly skilled man and looking at all the awards, everything is hard-earned, why would you discount your services, then? Why should you cheapen everything you’ve had to study and learn?
Frank Di Lusso: Absolutely. Because it’s not just a haircut. Like you say, everything you’ve learned, everything that I’ve put into this place, I mean, when you work six days in the place, you make it the best version of what you can do. This is what it is. Enjoy it. You will get, if you’re spending 120 pounds and you booked online, you’re going to get 240 points. If you recommend three people, you’re going to get another 600 points. If you come in again for another service, and I’ll just run this quick, your next haircut is free. You’ve only been in twice. This is how it works. It’s amazing. I can’t tell you the referrals.
And every time someone gets a text saying, “Thank you for referring x person to Frank Di Lusso Hair. Here’s 200 points on your TreatCard.” The other thing I use it for is on the TreatCard, is I’ve got my own product range. So, if you don’t want to necessarily have a service, you can then get a product free, with your points. This gives people a way to sample more from us for free. To play with them and show them to people, and have them in their bathroom. And also, seeing my branding all the time in their own house is going to reaffirm our relationship. It’s going to make them think, “Oh, I need my hair done,” or “I need to get some more,” or “I should go and see the girls at Frank Di Lusso. I need my hair cut. I need my colour done. I need to go see Frank. I need to have my highlights done.” It reaffirms all these little things, and again, you’re not marketing. You’re not paying full marketing. This is free. You’re giving this free. You’re giving a sense of worth. You’re giving a sense of loyalty for free. And there’s not a lot of other ways you can do that, I’ve found, other than the TreatCard system. And we found for us it works, so, so well. So well.
Killian Vigna: And you’re saying there, you’re giving treatments and products away for free. The Treat card, you can see like that with your own products, test them. It’s great for seeing if people will buy the product before you go bulk buying. I know under demand, it’s good to kind of, like you said-
Frank Di Lusso: Exactly.
Killian Vigna: Yeah. So, like you said, sample.
Frank Di Lusso: Exactly.
Killian Vigna: But it also removes this, I know I’m coming back to it again, but this discounting culture, like you said, you’ve essentially no marketing budget and you never discount anymore. And we want to move away from this discounting culture. So, for you to TreatCard, is essentially the answer to that.
Frank Di Lusso: It is, because like you said, discount culture works in such a way that if you’ve gone shopping and you see something discounted, it’s probably old stock or stuff that no one wants. So, you’re not getting premium stuff. You’re getting stuff that no one wants. So why would you… If I see a salon that’s doing their 60% off colour, all I’m thinking, maybe they’re not busy. I’d rather people come in because of us, not in spite of the price. And I think that’s what the discount culture promotes. You’re either going to be a salon that discounts everything and gets people coming through the door. You’re not really promoting at all to your good name. Basically, people who come in are great on Groupon, or on discounts or whatever it might be, and they’re not going to be loyal. They’re going to come there, purchase something for that one time. Now, unless you’re on a high-street when you got the footfall and you’re near busy… It could be Clapham Junction or Wortley Station or somewhere where footfall is so heavy that that’s not an issue, that’s a different business level and a different way to run your business. But if you’re a [inaudible 00:28:48] place, you’re in a village or you’re in somewhere where you’re seeing the same people constantly and you need to reaffirm your relationship and you need to give something back, this works.
Killian Vigna: Yeah. Just like you were saying, you’re giving something back. I know we keep saying “free Treats,” but the Treats aren’t actually free on your side of things, are they? Because the way the TreatCard points are worked out, it ends up being something like, they’ve paid for that service 12 times before you’ve rewarded them, or if it’s a product, they’ve paid for it six times. So, for you, it’s not actually giving free treats, it’s actually increasing your revenue.
Frank Di Lusso: Yes. It is. Absolutely. Because they’re going to come through our door. “I’ve got my points card, did you scan my card?” You create such a culture of loyalty scheme within my salon that people ask, “Oh, I forgot my card, what do I do?” I’ll say, “Don’t worry, I’ll put it on manually for you today. You come and bring your card next time.” You’ve created this culture within the salon. Nothing’s for nothing, it just works out, unfortunately, and yes, it does bring me revenue. Absolutely it does. It has to, otherwise, it’s not worth me doing it. Also, I care about my clients. If they see that they’re getting something, they’re going to continue to come to me. That’s the newest ping, that normally people can or will offer, or understand how it can help.
So, like I say, I’m very passionate about my customer experience, and part of my customer experience is giving them as much as I can, but it’s in a way that I can afford to do it. And if I can afford to give them a free haircut, because they’ve come in all year and spent x amount with us, then they should get a free haircut or a free colour. Because these are the people, like I said, these are the lifeblood of my business. Without my clients, I don’t go home with anything. I don’t pay my mortgage. I can’t pay my rent for my shop. I can’t pay the lights and the heating. They have to come in and spend money, and rewarding the people that come to you promotes loyalty, and these TreatCards are a loyalty scheme, and it’s invaluable. I can’t stress how much it’s really helped us in the last… We’ve had it running for two and a half years now, and even with the salon selfie and stuff, when they do the reviews, they get extra points, at least. When you’re doing their hair, they’re going home, they’re doing the work for you. They’ve put the pictures from their phone to you for you to post. They do all the stuff for you, for points. Now, entrenched in your contour of your salon, that’s what you want them to do. And I think there’s nothing nicer than when you see a picture of someone, and you’ve done their hair four hours ago, they’re going out, and they’ve got a picture in their bathroom or in their living room, or they’ve got their kids to hold the phone and they take a picture of their husband and they send it to you, that means they’re happy. And if they’re happy, that means they’ll come back. And if they come back, they’ll do it again.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Well, listen, Frank, on that happy note, I think we’re going to wrap it up now.
Killian Vigna: I honestly don’t think you could say anything more. You really nailed it on the head there. Like you’re saying, you’re only in your business for the last two and a half years. The TreatCards have worked brilliantly for you, in terms of new clients, client retention, and revenue. But not only that, you’ve actually managed to change your clients’ mindsets. Now when they think of Frank Di Lusso, they’re not thinking of discounts or cheap service, they’re actually thinking, “I need to bring my TreatCard.” So whenever they’re thinking of a new haircut, they’re thinking, “Oh, salon selfie, refer a friend.” So you’ve changed their mindsets and habits, that now the TreatCard is essentially stuck there with you. So, that’s amazing. That’s absolutely brilliant, Frank.
Frank Di Lusso: Thank you. Well, it’s number three. It helps when you have the right infrastructure behind you to help you do it. And Phorest helps immensely with that.
Killian Vigna: Well, Frank, thanks a million for joining the show. A really good episode.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Very enlightening.
Killian Vigna: Very enlightening. And again, a belated happy birthday to Frank Di Lusso Hair.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: From all the team in Phorest. Happy third year.
Frank Di Lusso: Keep up the good work, as well.
Killian Vigna: All the best, now. So on that note then, we move into our webinars.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes.
Killian Vigna: And we actually have a new one this week, don’t we?
Zoe Belisle-Springer: That’s what I was going to say. You look pretty excited about it.
Killian Vigna: It kind of follows on what Frank Di Lusso was talking about there. So, this is the first of our Salon Growth Series, and what we’re going to be doing is, we’re going to be focusing on one topic every month, so there’s going to be a webinar every week, each month –
Zoe Belisle-Springer: And this is for clients, correct?
Killian Vigna: This is for clients, yep. So, the first of the Salon Growth Series is “How to get clients in more often, spending more.” And what we’re going to focus on in this webinar is, like I said, how to get them in more, spending more, why it’s important to reward your clients, just like what Frank was saying. What works for other salons, we’re going to see what other salons are trying, what does and doesn’t work, as well as what you can implement. How can you increase your referrals and promote client retention, and most importantly, how can you increase your revenue by over that 20% mark. So, that webinar is on August the 10th. It’s from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Irish Time, so if you’re over in Eastern New York, it’s 10:00 a.m.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Killian Vigna: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., so you can join up through the Facebook page. It’s in the Events section, or you will get an SMS or an email during the week about that one. That’s one that’s worth jumping on board, just kind of see what areas of your salon you can work on.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes. So, that’s specifically for Phorest clients, and if we go on a broader scale, we have the Instagram Masterclass coming up on August 21st, and that’s open to everyone, and it’s the very first one, so it will be really interesting to see how that goes, and then if you have any questions about Instagram at all, jump on board and ask them there. Chris Brennan is going to lead that one, and it’s the same time, again, August 21st, 3:00 p.m to 4:00 p.m., UK Ireland time, or 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., US Eastern time.
Killian Vigna: Yep. So, as always, if there’s anything you want to hear on the show, if there’s any particular person you want on the show, or even if you want us to create a whole new webinar for you, give us a shout, let us know, and give us some feedback.
Zoe Belisle-Springer: I hope you enjoyed this episode, and you have a really good week. We will catch you next Monday.
Killian Vigna: All the best.
Thanks for reading!
#LetsGrow
