Mini Moment #11: What’s Working (and What’s Not) for Salons in 2025 – with Jeanette from Salon First

 Transcript

 Welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon Rising, the podcast mini Moments brought to you by timely. That intro is a mouthful. I've gotta say. Done so well that just rolled off the tongue. Thank so easily. Thank you. I really, you've done it a few times, I'm thinking.

No, I actually have, this is a new one. Like we've only just started doing this segment. Probably in the last like four or five months. Okay. So yeah, it's just making sure that I get the whole thing beautifully done. And she's not even reading from a script folks. That means No, I'm not. Thank you for pointing that out.

Yeah. Sometimes people ask me that. I think that's written on wall. They're like, surely there's like a over as. They're a teleprompter. A I don't have my glasses on so I wouldn't be able to read it anyway. We have a podcast voice too, so I am joined now with the lovely Jeanette from Salon on first, salon on first in Melbourne.

So for this mini moment. Again, such a timely, timely, for timely, uh, timely conversation. Because I've seen this a lot recently where people saying, do you want feedback? Do people actually want feedback? So the fact that you went out and undertook this survey that you've done with. The, you know, the places that you're supporting I think is so valuable.

So talk us through a little bit about what you did in terms of the survey. So we put a survey out to our salons because, and we, we felt that salons wanted to hear what other salons were doing. Like, again, this talks about being in the room and having those conversations, but we get it. That has to be presented in different forms.

So we asked our salons to, fill out a survey. We called it the business Success. 2025 survey. Bit of a mouthful too. And we kind of also preface it with, we know that you need to have failures in your business. Yeah. Like, we appreciate that. And for every success there's probably been 10 failings, but really people wanna know what works.

Yeah. People wanna know what's worked for you. What's, what's one thing that I can do differently or I can try that someone else has had success with 'cause. I've tried five things and they don't work. And it's like, well, don't give up. You know? Keep trying. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we, we basically, I think there was seven questions that we asked salons to give us a little feedback on.

And did they, was it anonymous response? Yes, it was. 'cause sometimes I feel like that's the things that pay, make people nervous as well. No, it was anonymous. Yeah. Absolutely. Didn't wanna know their details. Um, clearly there were customers of ours, 'cause we put it on our website. Basically a checkout kind of going, if you want a little bonus product.

Fill out this, oh, I like the bonus product. That's how you get people bonus to fill out the survey. Bonus, uh, fill out the survey. 'cause you're about to check out anyway, so we're gonna send it to you and Yeah. Didn't wanna send something separately that creates a whole freight issue. Yeah, we had like 200 response, like 200 responses.

That's decent. Yeah. In about a three week period, I'm gonna say. Yeah. That's a good hit rate. I started putting it on socials, but I just don't think it, it wasn't the right time and the right fit, but, so when I put it on our website, it was like bang, bang, bang, bang. Like they just. Build it out.

Yeah. So, yeah. Interesting. Um, yeah, it wasn't, some questions were multiple choice, but there was a bit of text too. So, you know, I had chat. GPT help me kind of digest all that and put it into a readable format. Absolutely. Um, that was super helpful. What were some takeaways for that? Um, niching down their menus, so.

The culling back. You don't need to be everything for everybody. Yep. That really helped. Or one thing that they did that was successful, we asked about memberships in business. Um, 20% said, yes, they do it or it's on their radar. So that's the flip side. That's 80% aren't, but it is one fifth of people that are so I get it.

You know, and it's interesting too, I think, I think because I'm interested in it, I'm seeing it a lot whereas. Maybe the messaging around that isn't getting out. Right. Yeah. Yes. I don't think they're confused. They're overwhelmed. Yeah. They think it needs to be across everything in their business and it doesn't need to be.

It's, yeah. It. I find it confusing too, so I don't think even the people that are presenting memberships are doing it properly. Maybe. Yeah. I'm not sure or not, there's not enough referrals to go, I'm gonna go and talk to sells, put it in. Yeah. I wanna, how, where they were, what they did, what does it look like now sort of thing. One of the responses which was really, curious was people aren't, they're finding, they're getting the traffic. Getting traffic to their salon wasn't a problem, but retaining the traffic was. So interesting. Yeah, that was a big one so people could always say, I've got no customers, but that wasn't the question.

It was, yeah, I've, I'm getting enough customers, they're just not coming back either often enough or, or coming back. So look after your existing clients. Yeah. So treat them like gold. They've taken the time to find you to come to you. Whether it's through a gift voucher or not, doesn't really matter.

They found you, the first conversation you had with them is not the first conversation they've had with you. Yes. You know what I mean? That's so true. Um, yeah. So they found you, those touch points, uh, had to be five steps down the road sort of thing. So talking to your clients, I think listening, particularly in beauty, I don't know, it's listening to your client, whether it's skin brows or whatever.

You can't just necessarily do your signature thing. You have to listen to what. Yes. Well, and you have to meet their expectations at the end of the day. So if they haven't met them, they're not gonna come back.

And

create a journey for them, like plan the journey for them so that they know it's like, okay, today we're doing this because I can see that this is the challenge that you were struggling with, with your skin.

However, I think that this, this, and this will really be the game changer for you. Yep. How about we get you back for that? Yep. And because you've listened to them Yeah. In, and you've read the room in, in terms of what their skin's doing or whatever it is. Yeah. What their hair's doing. You've read the room and listened to them.

F worked out what their struggles are. Yep. But see, this is what I think sometimes is the struggle with when people niche to only that luxury experience. Mm-hmm. So instead of,

that

that might be controversial, but like instead of problem solving for people, do you know what I mean? Like, because perhaps if you just want that nice.

You know, oh, I fell asleep. It was lovely type service, massage or whatever. That's not necessarily something that you're coming back for consistently, but when you've got something that's like, I know that you were struggling with this. Let's put you on a plan. Let's go on a journey. Yep. The people are coming back.

Absolutely. Yep. Agreed. Yes. Yes. So it's, um, rebooking them. Like that whole re rebooking process needs to be done there. And then don't just. Don't let them out the room without a string attached. Like Yeah. And it, this isn't reinventing the wheel, like No, it's just, it's coming back to basics. Yeah. And that's in the whole culling of the menu coming back to the basics, um, yeah.

Of how you look after your clients. Yeah. People are trying to get that new client all the time, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. It's retaining the existing ones. So look after your clients and advocacy is the most powerful form of marketing that you will ever have that. Advocate, that person, that whole heart.

Word of mouth. Yeah. 100%. Word of mouth. Absolutely. People far better believe what everyone else one else says about you rather than what you say about yourself. Yeah, exactly right. That resonates with everything. Yep. We find that in our business too, is try to get people to talk about us. You know, you can bang on about yourself all the time, but Yeah.

Yeah. It, it impacts greater when someone else says it. Yes. Yep, for sure. And then, so what other questions did you cover? I think trends, one of the biggest trends. Lash and brow. Yeah. What was profitable in your business? Lash and brow and skin. Mm-hmm. That no real,

um,

surprises there, I guess.

Yeah. What else did we do? So profitability , and the biggest services kind of tied together, which was the lash and brown skin. Two different, very different people like those that are doing that, they're not really crossing over.

Like I said, it's really dermal clinicians that are, are skinning down with, uh, sinking their teeth in, uh, yeah. Thicker skin, and l and brow. Which is, you know, that's all over socials. Like, that's, yeah. It's so Instagramable like leg waxes can't be Instagrammable, but, and does anybody even leg wax anymore?

Like waxing was so big for so long and we spoke about this with one of our, um, clients. On one of the podcasts that, that was like her bread and butter back in the day. Like she was waxing Brazilians left, right and center. But now like there's laser clinics just goes and gets it all lasered off every la, every waxing brand feared laser and IPL, but nope, it's one of our biggest product ranges still.

Yep. Wow. Wax and lash and brow by far. Their neck and neck. Interesting. Yeah, I know. Yep. You would think so, but it's just, you don't see it on socials. It's not something that gets talked about, so thank goodness you don't see it on socials. Yes, true, true. But yeah, it's, I mean, there's certain parts we can show on socials and there's others that we just can't.

Yeah, no, that's, there's nothing sexy about that. You can make it funny, but, uh, but yeah, no, nothing sexy about that, about it before and after leg wax. Woo. You know? Yeah. Under arms. Yeah. Sometimes underarms get confused for other things when you zoom right in. So you just, they really do. Yeah. It's like, what am I looking at?

So, um, but yeah, we didn't wanna make it hard. So, um, retention, listening to your customers, uh, looking after your existing customers, niching down, uh, lash and brow skin, they were the biggest takeaways of. Survey. So Yeah. Amazing. I just think, yeah, looking for that feedback and then supplying that feedback to your customers is so important.

Yeah. So, yep. That's a very commendable little saving that went on and we conversations like this too, so, yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Which is, yeah, it's great. It was a good, so we'll do it every year now. I think it's really valuable. So, and it was really, actually easy. And then see, and then you see how things are moving.

Yep, yep. And that's, yeah. How we were discussing in our podcast, like, how do we stay ahead of things? It's like, well, you need to be seeking the information. Ask questions. Asking the questions, getting in the room. Yep. And be open to the feedback. Absolutely. 'cause you don't know what's, what's the next big thing or Yeah.

What's on the horizon, so, and just get in front of it. If you're in front of it, you'll ride the train longer, so. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, for sure. So that's the little nugget takeaway in this mini moment today, guys. Get in front of it, look for feedback, and those are the key points that came back from this survey, which I think is really, really good to bring it back to grassroots and just think about those key focus points.

So go and look after the clients you have. Absolutely. Listen to them, rebook them before they leave. Yeah, absolutely. Tie them to your right Prince strings. Absolutely. Yep. They love you. Thank you so much again. You're welcome. Thanks Dan. And, we'll be back soon.