Salon Swagger

Brie (00:01)
Hey there, Salon and Spa superstars. Welcome to Salon Swagger, your go -to podcast for all things commission -based salon and spa ownership. I'm Bre, your host, and I'm here with my co -host, Chandra. Hey, Chandra, what's up?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (00:12)
Hey, not much, doing good.

Brie (00:14)
Awesome. Well, today's episode is going to be the first in a series of episodes about creating a guest journey for your salon or spa. I think this is going to be really, really important. A lot of salon and spa owners that we work with, they think that they have a complete guest journey, but in reality, they don't. We tend to ask salon or spa owners to look at it from our perspective instead of from the guest's perspective. And so I think this will be a really, really good

kind of session to walk through. What do you think?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (00:47)
Yeah, I think it would be really good.

Brie (00:50)
Awesome. Well, the journey that you create for your clients, it can really either make or break the salon or spa visit that they have. With that being said, get ready for this game changing episode because today we are diving into the world of pre -visit guest experiences. Trust is the name of the game here, but how do we go about nailing that trust? That's a really important part. So tune in as we uncover the secrets to building trust with potential clients.

and actually chat about what happens when that trust falls short. Keep in mind, this process kicks off before anyone ever sets foot into your studio. So it is a must know for every salon and spa owner out there.

Chandra, what kind of pre -visit, guest experience visits do you do at your studio before we get into the heaviness of this conversation?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (01:47)
I think it's just setting up a lot of it's your branding and stuff that you're putting out there before that they even come or call your business. It's having, you know, that presence online or, you know, what they're doing before they come to you from your social media or from your website or any of those things. So I think it's really important to start with a lot of that stuff.

Brie (02:07)
Yeah, I completely agree. And that's actually everything that we're going to go through today because I mean, let's be real trust with clients today. It starts before they ever even step over that threshold, right? If there is no trust, you are more than likely never even going to get the opportunity to meet the client that was potentially going to book with you. Now, back in the day, when I started my career in this industry, things were so much easier.

It was all about word of mouth referrals. That's just how it was, right? I trust Chandra, Chandra tells me to go see someone. I'm gonna go see that person. But now, now it is a whole different ball game. People are more cautious. They have their guards up. They are more skeptical over everything. They want to know that they can trust you before they ever even think about booking an appointment with you.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (02:45)
Yep.

Brie (03:02)
So what does that mean for us as salon and spa owners? Well, it means we have to step up our game and we have to change almost everything that we are doing. We've got to talk about the trust factor in so many ways because that is the foundation of any good relationship. The same goes for a relationship between a salon and its clients, right? But in my opinion, the thing is building trust with someone you've never met, it's not easy.

In fact, it's pretty dang hard if you think about it. There's really only two ways you can go about building trust with someone that you've never met. And that is through your messaging and your communication techniques. So we've got to learn to be crystal clear about who we are, exactly what we offer, and why someone should trust us. With that being said,

What do you do differently in your messaging and communication techniques that makes you stick out as or at your studio?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (04:09)
Yeah, I think a lot of it is how we're presenting ourselves online and things like what I was saying. We start with communicating what we're about, who we are, and showing people what that looks like through our internet presence. So it's really giving them a taste of who we are before they even come into the business.

Brie (04:31)
100%, the power that communication and verbiage and marketing and positioning that it has on your business, it's absolutely insane. It's crazy the power that it has. We have to remember, in my opinion, every move that we make when it comes to marketing, it tells a story about who you are and exactly what your brand is. Now, when I start thinking about things like this,

There are really three major things that can make someone hesitate before they would ever book an appointment with us. It would be they don't connect with or understand our verbiage, the verbiage that we're using, whether it be on social media, on our website, wherever that is, in our marketing, right? Our pricing is unclear and they don't understand it at all. Or number three, our booking process is a hot mess.

It is so hard that people don't want to do those steps. So let's chat about these three topics just really, really quickly, kind of see what your process looks like, some ideas that I have that may make things a little bit easier. Let's start with the first one. They don't connect or understand the verbiage when it comes to websites, social media, marketing, whatever that looks like. So what do you do differently in your salon to make sure that your clients are connected?

and understanding the verbiage and communication that you're using.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (06:06)
Yeah, I think we just try to keep it really simple and really clear. I think a lot of salons tend to over complicate their menus online or over complicate what they're explaining. And we just make it very cut and dry and very clear. So each service is just the service and the price. And we might put a plus sign there because sometimes the price can be variable, but it's very clear and easy for them to find. We don't hide all the pages and.

and have things in a hundred different places, it's very spelled out. So it's like when you come to the website, it should just say, you know, services and they can click there or online booking and they can click there instead of having to fight through your website and look at all these different things. I think that's one of the biggest things when it comes to.

like the website clarity and that transparency is just making it easy. If you go to a website and you get frustrated trying to find the pages, you just leave and you go find a different one. So I think keeping it really simple is probably the most important thing.

Brie (07:00)
Yeah.

I would agree with that. I think something that I've also seen a lot is when it comes to that verbiage and communication style. What I see salon and spa owners tend to do is speak to their clients like their clients are cosmetologists, right? They use verbiage like glaze and toner and eye tips and machine tied wefts and things of that nature. And 90, probably 8 % of your client base,

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (07:20)
Yeah.

Brie (07:34)
They don't have their cosmetology license. So you have already lost them. They do not have a clue what you are talking about when you mention those things. It doesn't do anything for your guests except really make them uninterested in your marketing, in your communications, which is then going to make them uninterested in your services and in your business as a whole.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (07:59)
Yeah, for sure.

Brie (08:02)
So the next thing I want to talk about is pricing. And this is where people are all over the freaking map. Your pricing cannot be misleading in any way. It can't be mysterious, right? It can't be where people don't understand what it's talking about. It just can't be. Most clients, if they go to your website or your social media or wherever you have that pricing posted, if they don't understand it, they're not going to pick up the phone and call you and say,

Hey, so I saw that you have this and this and this, but I'm not understanding it. Can you explain it to me? So what do you do to make sure that your pricing is clear and concise?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (08:44)
I think what we like to do is make sure that whatever the services, the price is just spelled out with it. So instead of making blondeing ultimate blondeing, you know, whatever it's just, you know, highlights or, you know, balayage and cause that's what clients hear. That's what they know from social media or what they're finding online. And so you want to really make it that speaks to them instead of trying to make it be this.

you know, super fancy thing. And I think just putting that pricing there and only putting the main services too, you don't need to list out like every single thing that you offer. Just list out whatever the top most important things that you offer are that people are scheduling. Cause I think that's what they're looking for. And they don't want to have to sift through all these things, trying to find your balayage or trying to find your haircuts. And so that's probably what we do is just really keep it very simple, very clean. This is the service. This is the price.

That's what they want to know. That's all they care about.

Brie (09:45)
Yeah, no, I think that's very, very true. I also think that we have to be careful when we offer things like packages as well, right? Because I feel like a lot of people get confused there because it's like, we have this brightening, blonding package, right? And if that's all I have on my website or on my social media, if I get someone like you, Chandra, who is a level one that wants to be my client, you're going to be like,

well, this is all blonding stuff, so I don't even know if they will cater to someone like me, and I don't want to book a blonding service because that price and that service is not going to work for me. So I think we have to be very careful of who we are catering to as we are creating these packages and things of that nature. Now you brought up something very, very important earlier, websites, and we've been talking about them, I've brought them up too.

I used to work with a company who said that you don't need a website. And I want people to know that that is 100 % inaccurate. You have to have a website in this day and age for your business. What would you say is the number one reason for needing that website?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (10:59)
Well, that's where people go first. They're going to Google you, they're going to search you. If you come up in any kind of search, that's the first point of contact they're going to have with your business. And so if you don't have that website and people are searching, your potential clients are searching for, you know, a hair salon in their area or something, you know, best hair salon or balayage or whatever in their area, you're not going to come up. And so if you don't have a website, it's you, you're, everybody else is going to get ahead of you. So I think that's the most important thing is.

really that's their first point of contact with you and that's how they're going to find you. So you've got to have it.

Brie (11:35)
Yeah, I agree with that. I also think if you want your business to run at its maximum potential, you have to have that, right? If I didn't have a website for people just to book with me, our phones would ring off the hook all the time. And so many people fight against me as I'm coaching them about having online booking for websites, but there is a way to create it, to create it well so that it will work. Well, in fact, I think this is a conversation we had, right?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (11:49)
Yeah.

I was going to say, I was one of those people. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Brie (12:03)
when I was coaching you. Yeah, and you didn't want it, but once you perfect it, it really benefits you and your team and your business in a lot of different ways. So if you are out there and you don't have a website for your salon or spa, or you do not have online booking, I highly recommend making that change. Since this is something that you kind of fought me on when I was coaching you, explain how it has benefited your business.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (12:31)
it is where the majority of our new clients come from. I mean, to be a hundred percent honest and transparent, that is majority of the new clients we get come in from online booking. And I didn't expect that. And so I did fight it. I fought it because it's in my hairdresser brain. It seemed confusing as to how people are going to know what to schedule and they're going to mess up their times and they're going to pop in all over the place. And it actually has worked out so beautifully. And all of my team.

loves it because they were hesitant in the beginning too. But if you don't have that set up, you are missing out on so much new business, so much new business.

Brie (13:10)
Yep, I agree with that. I think at the end of the day, we use our websites to sell ourselves, to sell our brand, to sell our services, and honestly, to hire new team members too. And so you cannot not have a website if you are in the beauty industry. Let's get into number three really, really quickly because I think it is probably the most important and it's kind of where we left off with you kind of starting that online booking.

And that's really the actual booking process, right? After working with thousands of salon and spa owners, we always think that our process is perfect. I've got my website set up perfect. It runs smoothly. Anybody can make it work, right? The layout's great. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's just what we think. It has to be seamless though.

It has to be seamless. And just because we think it's that way does not mean it is that way for our clients. So when we were setting up your online booking and doing things of that nature, how did you test it to make sure that that process was seamless for people?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (14:23)
well, I mean, I went in and I booked myself a few times trying to make sure that it was easy and then it walked them through every little aspect of it. I had some of my team go on and test it out as well, just to make sure that they felt comfortable with the process and understood what was going to happen when those appointments started popping on their books. And then we tested it and putting it in different places to see where people were going to find it. And so I think.

You wanna make sure you fully understand it, so you've gotta go through all the steps too, just like you're a client. You've gotta test it out just like you're a client.

Brie (14:56)
Yeah, a hundred percent because of the potential client, if they don't know where to begin or what steps to take next, right? That's going to make them feel confused. It's going to make them feel unsafe and you are going to lose trust in that process. And so it's got to be laid out very clearly where they know, okay, this is the step I take first and this is what I do second and this is what I do third. If they feel unsafe, if they feel untrusting, they are never going to book that appointment. So,

You're going to lose them. I think verbiage on your website is very important too. It's got to be simple. It's got to be clean. In my language, it's got to be kindergarten, kindergarten and everything that you do. Right. My opinion is that let's just say that I was going into book.

in appointment. Okay. And I'm on somebody's website and I pull it up and there is crap all over the place. And there are these words that I don't have a clue what they mean. And I'm already starting to feel overwhelmed and untrusting. And I don't see it with a welcome page and take me right here. And these are your next steps. I'm going to move on, start Googling other salons and do something different. So if you were telling someone the steps to kind of create what that

process would look like, what would be the five steps you would tell them that they need to have in order?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (16:24)
I think really just spelling out the top things you need people to go first. So if you want to put your pricing first, your online booking, the things that you know they're going to need right up in front. So that would be the first step I would go. And then the next thing I would do is make sure that that layout is easy to follow. Because if everything is all over the place, like what you're saying, you walk to you get get on a website and everything's all over the place. You.

You can't navigate it. So figure out the first things that are the most important to getting new business in the door and showing people who you are. And then the second thing would be laying it out so that everything is easy to navigate and follow. And then I think the third thing is definitely presenting your branding through your website, but you don't need to spell out your entire mission statement and your entire stuff. Like keep it really clean. Like just show them little bits of what you're about and make that easy for them to read. If it's annoying.

Like you said, they're going to bounce. And so I think those are going to be the top three things. And then I would just make sure that it works on mobile. That would be another thing that I would really stress is making sure it looks just as easy to navigate because sometimes desktop and the mobile look totally different. So if you're not checking both of those things, it might not, you might think it's great online. And then you realize later down the road that people can't navigate it on their phones. And that's the most common place they're going to look for you.

And then I think the next thing would just be making sure that you have your online booking or those things on several areas of your website too. So keeping that on your, let's say your pricing page, you should have a button for online booking on your main page. It should have a button. So having, you know, easy for them, they might've gone there, seen your online booking on the front, but then they went into your pricing page.

And now they got to go back to the front to get your online booking button. So making sure that all of those things are accessible for them on several different areas so that they can easily just click straight from there. I think that making that seamless is the most important thing because I do that. If I get annoyed, I'll just find somewhere else to go. If it's that annoying to navigate their website, then it makes me think how annoying it's going to be to be in their business. So, yep.

Brie (18:38)
Yeah, right. It makes you feel unsafe. It makes you lose trust and you don't want to do it. With that being said, let's talk about why people lose trust sometimes before they even come into your studio, right? We said that that could be from the messaging, the verbiage, things of that nature. I think it could be from what you are putting out on social media. So you've got to be really, really careful, right? That content that you're creating. It could even be the way that your team or your front desk,

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (18:59)
Sure.

Brie (19:07)
is explaining things if people call or if they chat to you on your website or on social media or whatever that is. I just think it's really important for people to understand all of this has to be laid out correctly because nine out of 10 times if people don't find it easy and if they lose that trust, they are going to bounce like you just said, you are never going to have that opportunity at all. It's all about building a reputation.

However, there's things about reputations, right? Everybody has one. Everybody has one. I have a good reputation, you have a good reputation, but Sally down the street may have a little bit better reputation than what we have. You know what I mean? And so there are thousands of people out there, thousands of salon and spa owners out there that have won awards, that have done this, that have done that. We all have good reputations. It takes a lot more than that to build trust.

And I think that's what we have to remember. We've got to build that trust through our communication and through all of our verbiage and things of that nature. So now that we've kind of talked about those things, let's talk about what a good pre -visit guest experience would really look like. In my opinion, it has to flow through all of the channels seamlessly, right? Meaning it's gotta go from your social media to your website.

to the actual booking process flawlessly. You also have to make sure that you're building trust on each and every one of those sites for people to want to use your business over somebody else's. And so there's a lot that goes into it. People think, I'll just create this Facebook account, this Instagram account, and then TikTok, and then I'll have a website, and then people will just book and they're going to love it, right? But that's not how it works.

So what channels do you find are the most important to build trust with people and to really make sure that you have a lot of content on?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (21:14)
Yeah, I mean, I think your Instagram page is going to be really important for like that channel would be where I would start having that social media presence and then making sure, like you said, your content has to reflect what your business is and what you're about and what you're trying to attract. So people are going to look for those avenues first to see if they trust your business. If they get on your social media and there's a bunch of weird stuff or there's a bunch of things that are geared more towards.

say the salon world instead of the client world, which is what happens a lot on different social media accounts for salons that I see, they're not gearing towards their clients. So they're not necessarily capturing that engagement and that reputation at the client level. It might be in the industry, but they're not relating to that. So really, that's one of the biggest things is getting those people to trust that process. So if you can get them to look at your social media and be like, hey, you know what?

this place looks like it'd be really fun, really cool. I'm going to go check out their website. And then they get to your website and they see, this is really easy. This looks really good. You know, that's that second piece, right? And so then they might call from your website and, you know, talk to the front desk or talk to whoever's answering the phone. That part has to be seamless. And if one of those things breaks in that process, you're going to lose them. So it's got to have that, that same level of experience.

throughout your social media, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever, into your website, into your process, if they're calling in, that all has to kind of flow, I think. And that's, I think that's where a lot of places go wrong too, is you might have a stellar social media, but your website sucks and they get there and they're like, this is annoying. Or they might feel really good about all of that and then they get to the front desk and that falls apart. So having that seamless sort of flow.

Brie (23:09)
Yeah, I completely agree. So for me, like if I was looking at my ideal, right, pre -visit experience, it would look something like this. I'm searching on Google. I've got a few salons picked out that I want to look at. I'm going to visit their Instagram. Let's just say that I'm looking for a bright blonde, right? I want blonde with maybe a little bit of dimension. So I'm looking at that Instagram. I see blondes all over. They are seamless. They are gorgeous. Got me hooked just a little bit, right?

So I go over to their TikTok and I see, okay, this is how they're treating their guests. This is what their shampoo experience looks like. I'm hooked just a little bit more. So I'm going to go visit their website. I get on their website and it has a great welcome page and it says, you know, in order for first time clients, this is what you do. It walks me through every step. And then it goes to book now. So I'm thinking about booking. When I click that, it shows me exactly what to expect from this moment.

until I step foot in their door. I'm fully hooked at that point. I am booking that appointment. It was seamless. It was beautiful. I know I'm going to get what I wanted and needed. And so my job is done. And I think that's how we have to sell ourselves, our brand, our story, our team, our services, and all of those things combined.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (24:11)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah, for sure.

Brie (24:32)
Kind of feel the same way, huh? Awesome.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (24:34)
It's their first impression, right? So it's like that first impression is all that matters. And now with the internet, the first impression is coming from there, not from a face -to -face conversation. So, yep.

Brie (24:47)
Yup. My how times have changed. That means we're getting old, girl. We're getting really, really old.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (24:50)
I know, it's really scary, but yes.

Brie (24:56)
It is kind of scary. So if you let's talk about the guest journey just a little bit. What would you do if you if people were listening to this and they're like, my gosh, my stuff does not flow seamlessly, right? I need to take an audit of what I've got going on. What steps would you tell them to look at first so that they can just get this process started to make it a great experience for those potential guests that may be coming in?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (25:24)
Yeah, I mean, I think I would definitely do an audit of all your stuff first and have clients that you trust maybe even do it for you and go through that and see what their opinion is. We've done that before where we thought, again, we thought we were doing good and then we'd have a client that would pop in and be like, hey, I was trying to do this and it didn't work. And I'm like, my gosh, what happened? We have to go back and look. So that first step would just be really auditing what you've got going on.

And then I think your website is probably one of the biggest places to start. Your social media is also really important, but I think your website's gonna tell a lot of your story and what that process, booking process and everything's gonna look like. So I would start there. If you're like, I need to fix everything, I would start with my website probably, and then start looking at my social media and my online booking process from there.

Brie (26:13)
Yeah, I agree with that 100%. I think people need to make their websites just more user friendly all the way around and make sure the client knows exactly what you stand for and exactly what to expect as they come in to get services. So with that being said, let's tell them kind of the steps that we're going to go through in this session. So why don't you walk through what a complete guest journey would look like so they know what the upcoming episodes will be about.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (26:43)
Yeah. So the guest journey as far as like once they hit the salon as well or just the pre -cold thing. Yeah. Yeah. So I think starting with what we talked about today. So they're going to have that pre -experience before they actually hit the salon. And then it's really going to be from there. You have to continue that same flow as they enter the building. So you've got to have your front desk set up with that same simple processes and that same

Brie (26:48)
Yeah, let's talk about what the next few sessions will be.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (27:12)
you know, experience that they're going to receive. It has to be as good as it was, like you said, your experience, you saw the blonde, you did this, you did that, and then they get in. That's going to be the next step is when they walk in that door. And then it's really setting up your process throughout that entire visit of that guest. And so it's going to be that client. So it's going to be, you know, from them, then when they hit the service provider, what does that look like? How are they treated throughout that entire process?

How are they treated once they get finished with that process? And then how are they treated as they check out from your business? And that's gonna be really to complete that entire guest journey and that entire flow is setting all of those things up so that they run in a seamless way that the client continues to have that trust and consistent way, because that's when you lose the trust. You might knock it out of the park once or twice and then if it falls apart in that guest journey anywhere, you potentially will lose them.

even though you were good in the beginning. So that consistency of that client journey, I think is going to be huge.

Brie (28:11)
Yeah, I agree. And I think it's going to be a really exciting few episodes kind of showing people exactly what they need to do to build this. And I would even go one step further after the checkout process, right? Like what that communication looks like between their next appointment and after they leave. And one of the mistakes that I see people make all the time is they're too markety. They're too salesy after that client leaves, right? And so you've got to find that really.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (28:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, right. Right. Yeah.

Brie (28:38)
nice point of not bombarding them and spamming them, but yet letting them know, Hey, we're thinking about you. We love you. We can't wait to see you again. And so I think this is really going to help a lot of salon and spa owners out there change their entire process that they're looking at and just make it seamless across the board. Because without this trust, like you said, you may be losing clients that you don't even realize that you're using losing.

because of one small step that you're missing. So I think this is going to be really, really good. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, building trust with potential clients, like we said, it's not easy, but it is absolutely essential if you want your salon or spa to succeed by being honest, by being transparent, by using the correct verbiage, by making the process easy. You can start building that trust long before anybody walks through their door.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (29:08)
100%. Yeah, no, I agree.

Brie (29:35)
With that being said, anything you want to leave the listeners with today.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (29:40)
I think really start doing an audit on what your business looks like when they're not in the business. Like, what does it look like? What does your website look like? Start checking those things and seeing what your stuff looks like. Is it hard to navigate? Is it hard to get through? I think just really, you know, sit down with yourself and be really mindful about that process because it might look great to you.

But as you really start walking through it or have some other people that you trust kind of walk through it and see how easy it is, I think that's gonna be very eye -opening and that will be a great place to start. Because as we finish walking through more of this series and really talking about setting up that really client journey, I think having that part sort of locked in already would be really, really helpful.

Brie (30:22)
Yeah, I agree with that. I think if people that are listening could go ahead and start this process now, by the time we get to next week's episode, they could literally just build out their guest journey as we're going through these episodes. So I think that is absolutely great. Well, guys, thanks for kicking it with us on Salon Swagger today. Now go out there and create amazing pre -visit guest experiences and make some boss moves. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for strategies, interviews with industry experts, and these in -depth.

discussions. And if you have any topics or questions that you want us to cover in future episodes, you can reach out to us. Chandra, how do they do that?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (31:01)
Reach out to us on social media, follow us on Instagram or Facebook and send us a message and let us know what you'd like to see or if you have any questions or you can shoot us an email at admin at the beauty biz agency .com.

Brie (31:14)
Awesome. Yes, follow us on social media. We have some amazing free resources on our social media and our website that you can utilize immediately to level up your studio. So take advantage of that. With that being said, until next time, keep slaying those business goals with style, SaaS, and a whole lot of swagger.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (31:18)
Mm -hmm. Yep.