Q: How do you define the term "salon culture"?
A: For us, our salon culture and our basic business mission are one in the same: excellent client care. Everything that we say or do must meet or exceed this core value. Yes, we do haircuts. Yes, we believe in education. But it's our salon culture that dictates the quality of our client care and our ongoing efforts to improve our services. At Headlines, it's all about the guest experience.
Q: How do you incorporate excellent client care into your everyday practices?
A: First of all, I've learned through my involvement with Eufora that having a system for everything is vital to our success. These systems may govern different areas of our salon, but they all focus on maintaining quality client care in some way. We provide great education on a weekly basis and all of our stylists are required to attend outside workshops four times a year. We have a levels system, starting with our apprenticeship program and going all the way through to our most senior talent. We've also created a hiring process, which helps to ensure that we're investing in stylists that have the same passionate goals for their careers as we do.
Q: Interesting! Please tell our readers more about your hiring practices.
A: With pleasure! First of all, we don't hire built stylists. Instead, we have a systematic training system that's focused on new graduates. In this regard, we invite beauty school students to our weekly meetings and education events and we provide education services for our local beauty school on a frequent basis. When new grads apply for jobs, we request that they first interview with three other salons in our area to ensure that we're their No. 1 choice. Before making a final decision, we also have them shadow an apprentice for a day to learn firsthand what it's like to work at our salon and to allow our staff members to get a read on whether they think the applicants would fit into our culture. Equally important, we do not re-hire anyone who has left us to work elsewhere in the area.
Q: Do you have a handbook?
A: Absolutely! We actually refer to it as a "living handbook" that continues to evolve as our "new" company matures. Like our systems, our handbook helps to ensure that clients have an incredible experience from start to finish. To remain faithful to our handbook and culture, we revisit them often during our staff meetings. When something happens that falls short of our core focus, we address it as a group to ensure that it doesn't happen again. It could be something like running out of towels on our busiest day to respecting our work schedules. It's only human to fail once in awhile, but without addressing a negative situation, that one falter could take seed and shift the culture. No one in our salon wants this to happen.
Q: I understand that retail is also an integral part of your culture. Please explain.
A: Obviously, every salon needs healthy retail sales and we're no exception. Instead of selling, though, we believe that educating clients about how to care for their hair at home is a core part of delivering the best possible service. When one of our stylists loses track of this, we do speak to him or her on a oneto- one basis. Our goal is always to help that person refocus on what's most important - our clientele. It's also a vital part of our business well-being. As our retail numbers have increased over the past several years (from $5,000 a month in 2003 to $35,000 a month in 2011), so has our client retention rate!
Q: Please share some information about your "new" company. I'm asking, because I know that you've owned your salon for 24 years.
A: We didn't have a salon culture to speak of until eight years ago, when we experienced a devastating walkout: eight stylists left us to go to booth rental salons, which cost our salon $250,000 in annual income. Needless to say, we were in a do-or-die situation. I turned to Don and Beth Bewley, owners of Eufora, for advice. Through their mentorship, and the help of the entire Eufora network, we created a "new" business that had a culture, direction and systems for success.
Q: Obviously you've turned your business around. Would you like to share your most recent coup with our readers?
A: Please know that when I talk of success, I'm really speaking for every person on our staff. We embrace a single culture; we have similar goals. We also have 32 members that work in 1,700-square-feet of space, which was configured for a different time and a different owner. We're almost doubling our size and the entire salon is being redesigned from scratch. After all the years of building and rebuilding our staff, and dealing with a space that no longer suits our needs, I can hardly wait to physically create a business that truly enhances our team focus: It's all about the client! Headlines4Hair.com Eufora.net
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