5 Rock Solid Reasons your Salon/Clinic/Spa should consider the Benefit of Employing a Switched on Receptionist

Many Salons and Clinics operate without a dedicated front desk person, and this could be contributing to poor client service leading to a loss of clients and therefore sales and of course Profit!

Not sure what I mean? Consider this…

What happens when all operators are busy in your salon or clinic? The phone rings or someone comes in to the desk, someone has to break away from their client to answer the call or greet the caller, or the call goes to an answer phone, this is bad (well, it’s not the best) for many reasons:

• The client in the salon is now not getting 100% of the operator’s time and attention that they are paying for.
• The caller is generally being rushed through the call.
• The operator is harassed and not concentrating on either the caller or their client in salon.
• The owner is getting stressed as the operator is spending too long on the phone or at the desk answering questions and the waiting client is fidgeting in their seat getting annoyed that they are being ignored and kept waiting.
• You ignore the phone altogether and let an answer phone with a standard ‘We’re busy at the moment, Leave a Message’ message on it.
• OR the worse reason of all is that the trainee or junior answers the call with little or no experience or training how to answer the phone properly or answer questions!

How much business are you losing because of this? Lost clients – in salon, visitor, phone caller…

How many opportunities are you missing out on? Sales opportunities on phone up-sells, in salon up-sells, retail sales, the in salon client is now in bad frame of mind and will be negative to recommendations… the list could go on and on.

So if Profit is important to you, if gaining sales and salon growth is important to you, Read on for 5 Rock Solid Reasons your Salon/Clinic should consider the Benefit of Employing a Switched on Receptionist:

1: Focus: A dedicated receptionist will be able to focus on answering the phone and taking care of incoming clients, leaving the team in salon to focus on their client. Your receptionist is the first face a client or prospect sees when they walk in the door or call and first impressions count. An efficient, warm, welcoming receptionist sets the tone for your clients visit and is responsible for their comfort and ultimately the smooth running of your salon, Client Consistency is the winner here.

2: Efficient Appointment Bookings: A switched on Receptionist will be able to run your book with more focus and efficiency, booking clients up the page, filling gaps, making your salon team more efficient, thus effective and Profitable. It’s amazing just how much wasted time an appointment book can show up from inefficiency of bookings, believe me, your team know how to make the book look busy but still allowing a few minutes here or there for slacking off out the back – you know what I’m talking about! Productivity wins hands down here.

3: Getting the Sales Process Underway. Instead of asking the client to have a seat in the waiting area to wait for her/his appointment, perhaps the receptionist could begin with talking about the products and additional services that the salon offers, they could introduce a new product line to the client and hand them marketing material to read whilst waiting for their stylist, or they could talk about the latest salon promotion, there are so many sales opportunities for a receptionist to perform that they could almost pay for themselves just in additional salon sales. Revenue generation at its best here.

4: Computer Management and Marketing.  This is a much neglected area of most salons and one of the most important areas to develop and get on top of. How many of you have a salon management computer system? And how many of you use it as a glorified till? I’d hazard a guess that most of you are not using the computer system that you have to grow and develop your business. The dedicated salon management computer system is so much more than a till, most have appointment scheduling, client records, marketing areas, product management, staff management, payroll and more – get your receptionist managing this very important piece of equipment for you, the extra sales generated from efficiencies and marketing will more than reward you for the efforts. Clients, team and ultimately salon wins here.

5: Stock Management. How many times have your orders been placed late (when you have NO stock at all) or when the boxes arrive they’re left sitting by the desk all day for the team to dive into looking for that medium brown colour or moisturiser to sell… and you are left staying behind into the night just to get the stock on the shelves trying to make head or tail of what went where, did the stock arrive and have they delivered what I ordered? A receptionist can manage your inventory, place your orders, check it off when it arrives and restock your shelves – all in the course of the day, leaving you with a much tighter stock control system and you getting to leave the salon at a decent hour stress free! Money saving right there!

Running a salon is much more than just being a good hairdresser or beauty therapist, knowing what you need to do to be a savvy business owner and where to invest your resources is an important aspect of today’s successful entrepreneur salon owner, and as such, a receptionist is a hidden gem. It just makes good business sense to have a front desk superstar in a busy salon, and yes they will pay for themselves, as long as you take the time to train them on what you want and need them to do from the outset. Don’t hire someone and say, there’s the desk – go for it and leave them to it!

If you need to know how to get the best from a receptionist, reach out to me and I’ll take you through the process – Click Here