Hey, welcome back. This is the Justin and
Heidi Unfiltered podcast. I am Justin and I'm
Heidi and it has been one week for you
in 11 seconds for us. Yeah, but he
still forgot to say his last name. So I'm
just I'm Metcalf. Metcalf, Justin, am I?
You are how I do, Heidi. I do better. Yeah.
So, if you like about us, this is why they tune in. Maybe.
Or they're annoyed and they stop listening.
We don't want to talk about those people.
Okay. We're down to five. Hopefully we figure out who they
are and then we can talk to them and then
they don't know. We are back talking
about client attraction and
client retention. We talked about client
attraction last week and so today we're
talking about client attraction. So in my
field of work for the last five years, I
worked for a distributor and a major part
of my job was coaching. I would coach.
At least it was the most fun part of my
job. I loved it. Mentoring and coaching,
stylists on how to grow their
business. One of the single most
important things that we learned time
to time was that you have to be a
good person to look after your clients.
I didn't feel like, I mean I worked with
a lot of people who went to a lot of
different schools. They just got out of
school. They've been out 10 years or 20
years. I didn't feel like it was
something that was strongly emphasized
than any certain school or any specific
time. I just don't think that it's a huge
difference. There's still too many
hairdressers that don't understand the
importance of rebook.
I'll say this. One of the things that I
learned early on in my career was what I
like to do and what I wanted all my
books to do. The more I had what I
like to do on my books, the less
opportunity for things I didn't like
doing to get on my books. One of those
things I like doing men's haircuts. I
still do actually. That's one of
those things that I like to rebook.
A lot of guys are like, I don't know. I
don't know when I want to get my next
haircut. I get it cut when I know I
need it. I'm like, okay well you've
consistently come about every four or
five weeks. What if we just rebook
you for a day and time that works for
you in four weeks? If you want to wait
a week,
you're like, okay fine. Let's do it. I'm telling you I
retained those clients the longest and
the most because once they were like, oh
yeah and then it was time for like my
hair was bugging me and then I got a
text for my appointment. It was awesome
and it worked because I mean we just try
to make sure it's always on a day or a
time that they know they're just gonna
know just different things.
It's getting your clients used to
rebooking too. So training them.
So one of the things, the other
things is, I mean there's a lot of women
that are the same way too. I don't know.
I don't know if I'll have a babysitter. I
don't know if I'll have a, okay well
when is your husband usually home? If
it's that important to you and it's
done what you want done too, they'll be
home. Then you can plan
around it and so I think a lot
of times people who don't want to rebook
are the ones that are like, well I don't
even know what I'm gonna do in eight
weeks. Well now you do. You're getting your
hair done. Look around that.
But I also let them know like if we need to
move it, just text me. It doesn't mean you're
gonna get right back in again always.
But at least you know it's
on your calendar and you'll either
schedule around it because you see that
you have that or
you'll call me and be like, oh we got this
coming up.
Can I change it? We'll just change it.
No harm no foul. That goes back to the
training your client as well though
because if you've got somebody who,
when you tell them, hey if that ends up not
working out, just let me know
and they reach out and say, yeah I can't
the week after. No I don't.
But here's what I do have. And they may
only do that once.
Because the next time when they
rebook, they need to remember
yeah I need to rebook because Heidi fills
up fast.
And so
that's again going into the training
your guest. But
what I like is that in that spiel that
you gave,
really important selling techniques. And
one of them is,
it's a closer, it's a closing technique
when you say,
when someone says no I don't need to
rebook, I'll just call you.
Well why don't we put you on a schedule
and if you have to
change it later that's fine. That's a sales
technique. Yeah.
You know we're taught to do that in sales
very early on
because it's a very strong technique and
it's providing a service that you know
but it's getting over a silly
obstacle. It's an obstacle that we
it's like a knee-jerk reaction.
Do you want to do this thing? No I do
not.
You don't really know why you don't
want to do it though do you?
That's just what you say. You want to rebook?
Stop asking do you want to rebook?
Right?
Right. Honestly with especially with
most of my clients it was kind of one of
those.
So I've noticed you like to come about
whatever it is
five weeks. What if we just put you down
for
five weeks? Is this day and time work
good for you?
Yeah. Almost every time. Yeah.
Let's just do it. Yeah. If you need to
reschedule
just let me know. You know I thought that I
do
a whole podcast episode on the
psychology of the cave. Can we talk about
it right now? Sure.
Because we'll also talk about it when
we're doing retail.
So instead of doing a podcast on the
psychology of the cape I'm just going to
add it to these. So
what I found very very intriguing
that was taught to me by a very
prominent hairstylist
is the psychology of the cape and why it's
important to have these conversations
while the cape is on.
And this can be likened to a lot of
different industries when you're in them
in the sales moment during the sales
flow.
There's a point when it stops.
For us, for this industry, when your guest
has, when you've finished, you've done all
the blow-drying, you take off the cape,
you clean everything off, what's on
their mind?
The next thing. Yeah. The next thing could be
a myriad, it could be 12 different
things. Now they're trying to juggle that.
But while they have the cape on they're in
that's how it works. The psychology is that they're still with you, they're still engaged.
So these conversations need to happen
while the cape is on. Now I would
change this just slightly. Okay.
Depending on the work environment you're
in.
Okay. Because that is very true if you work
in the type of environment where
once you take the cape off they're
handed off to a different person.
Yeah. I work in a one-woman show, I work
I take the cape off all the time.
Yeah. We are not done.
They're not on to their next thing.
They're on to paying.
So when do I bring it up before they pay me?
Yeah.
Right? Yeah. And it's the same psychology
but it doesn't necessarily relate to the
cape. Yeah.
Because I do take the cape off.
However, I'm not passing them on.
Yes. And that's the difference. But
pretty strong sales skills. Yes. And I
will say
because even when because I've
worked all of those. I've worked
commission. I've worked booth rent. I've
worked in salons and I've worked by
myself.
When I work commission I would say that
conversation happened
as I was walking them to the front desk
saying, you know, I would
I think we should rebook you. Here's
Jen. She's going to schedule your next
card. If you need to
change that or you know if we need to
reschedule that. Here's my card. Yeah.
Right?
I yes I think to answer your
question. Yes. Right. That is correct.
For you and for the people who have
very similar personalities.
And I think for a lot of people who
who just that doesn't seem like it's
going to work for them.
Because it starts to get awkward for them and that social
anxiety starts to come in. That's going
to be hard a conversation for them to
have. And it's going to be harder to
convince themselves to make those
steps and to have that conversation.
Which is why you need to say it when
they're in the chair. Right. So I think
the point is you figure out a system
that works for you. Correct.
Based on your personality, your
ability to sell. Whether or not you see it
as sales.
A third thing probably that I forgot
right after I said the second thing. But
anyway.
So
if this if you don't have a system that
works effectively.
Try this. Right. So while they have the
cape on
and you might be thinking well how am I
going to talk about rebooking while
they have the cape that doesn't seem
natural.
You can drop it in at any time. Totally.
I mean especially
I think a great time is when you're
maybe not when the blow dryer is on.
But you're spraying stuff.
Like you're finishing the job.
That's when you should be talking about
like at home care. How you're going to
recreate this look at home.
And maintenance. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah.
A massive part of maintenance is when
you need to have the next upkeep done
professionally in the salon.
Yeah. So
I have learned that for me it's not
enough to say okay so you need to come back in six
weeks and get this done again.
I have learned that you need to say six
weeks is going to be November 12th.
Yeah. So that's right before the
holidays.
Right. And when you start to put it in those
contexts too when you give it an actual
like
daytime month then they're going oh
wait I have a trip book November 19th.
I'm going to be out of town on the 12th.
Actually I want my hair done before that.
Right. So then you start getting into their
head even more. Right. When you
actually because you say six eight
weeks
that's like December and it's like
June.
Well you're into their head because you're
breaking. Breaking it down.
You're breaking it down whether you
understand it or not and whether you
agree with this or not you're wrong
because this is objective truth.
When someone goes to an appointment for
their mind is already
created for them the basics of what to
expect.
Which means they're they've already
created the responses in their head.
So that's how our brains work. What we're
expecting
is for the cape to come off and for them
to say do you want to rebook
and if you haven't really thought about
it you have to say no I'll just call you.
I'll just call you. I'll call you when I'm
ready. And this is the kind of person who just
you you stay away from that kind of
thing and you know it's important
but when you put the question the way
that you do
you break it. The brain had not
planned on that specific question.
When they say hey your next appointment
is going to be November 12th.
Would one o'clock work for you? Their brain's
going I have a new question
and they're thinking what am I doing on
November 12th. Some people know
automatically and you said
I'm on a cruise. I'm going to
be in
it forces their brain to go to a
productive moment
and that's what we want to do. So do things
differently.
Do things differently and and this is
where
again I learned early on in my career
this is where I started to
really
dictate my schedule right.
So I learned early on
when I booked people for say Mother's Day
I was always going to get a cancellation and then not be
working on that day because
they didn't realize it was Mother's Day
weekend. So when I am booking my
clients
I am looking at all the holidays,
my school district, their calendar.
Oh your kids have school off that day
maybe you could come earlier.
Teachers oh you're out of school this
that weekend do you want to do it on a
different
weekend you might go out of town
because they're not in town you
when you start to really
dictate your schedule that way
like like even for the holidays like
people oh
it's going to be the holidays I'm not
going anywhere
so if you want to book it we can but if
you're going to be out of town and then
then they actually are like I'm not
going anywhere
yeah let's book it yeah but they also
want to know that
I'm not going to cancel yeah or that I'm
not going to be
paying attention to the nuances of
what's happening in my own life
not only in my own life but in the
world like normal
Mother's Day weekend for Utah
conference weekend like those
those things play into it so I
learned early on
I can I can actually know for a fact
my clients aren't going to reschedule
most of the like
we know right the possible objections
I'm thinking of yeah
that's brilliant and a lot of people
should should do that
yeah but it's not all that difficult
it's not that difficult I mean the
things that do change that is
like work schedules if something comes
up at work we're sick
yeah death in the family those are going
to happen like those things happen yeah
and that but that's where it's like I
have very little
cancellations yeah I have people that
are like I'm not going to be able to
call me at the last minute like I hardly
ever have a last minute
I almost always know right and then I
always have that person that I can call
and fill that spot with because
they're fine with their appointment the
way it is but if you can get me
yeah and it's like heck yeah I'll call
you
that's a great system to have I think I
would argue
hopefully you'd agree that takes a long
time to get to that point though
and you've probably cultivated that over
you know 20 some odd years I mean I've
perfected it but it didn't take me that
long to get
okay but that's because it doesn't
take that long to figure out
how to do that I see what you mean
yeah so the next thing I was thinking
of is
when you I remember there for a long time
you had your book
it was on paper your you did your books
and it was also our calendar for
everything I would see you every day
texting your guests the day before yeah
uh I don't think there's an argument
that can be made that that should happen
like that's just a no-brainer it is
and here's the reason why I think
especially now everything's automated
yeah but I still go in to see
did they get it did they confirm yeah
check my system is a green check yeah
then I still text them
okay don't forget your appointment is
tomorrow and why do I do this
because as much as I have an alarm for
everything in my phone
everything has an alarm to it and as
much as I think I'm going to remember
something
and it's in my calendar when you get
that text the day before not only is it
in your calendar it's in your brain
calendar exactly
so if you're not texting your guest and
you are getting no showed
to do it and you're not double checking
your system
that's on you that's the disconnect it
is a controllable behavior
that's on you and there are some people
it just it makes them feel icky to do
that
these are the little things that you
need to do that take very little time
that make a big impact on your in your
business yeah and you use
mevo too yeah okay there are a lot of
great systems out there so many and they
all
all the good ones at least they have
a reminder feature
is that's that's standard if you have a
system that doesn't have that
that system is archaic yeah don't do that
like
you might want to switch it's
probably not going to be around very
much longer
but my point was that you can't just
rely on that
to get people in your chair and I
love that you have a system
just to double check and it probably just
doesn't take a whole lot of time or effort
but you go to see have they gotten the
right you should also check the verbiage
too
because it if the verbiage is wonky
and almost encourages people to cancel
i've had some stuff like that i can't
remember who's like a doctor's appointment
but the way i read it was like are you
sure you want to come to your appointment
right you know i mean just make sure the
verbiage is is right
we have you scheduled for this day
this time i mean it doesn't have to be
please click to confirm yeah and when
you do that
you're you're telling yourself oh yeah
okay i've got it's in your brain for
tomorrow like you said
it's also telling your your stylist hey i
remember i'll be there
right because you're depending on them to
be there
right so i love that the people who
haven't checked you reach out to you
text
yep love that and and i i'm someone
who
who does two forms of reminders right
but then they get a text the day before
yeah and they get both
and the reason why is like i'll know two
days before whether they got it
because the people who are email people
they're clicking on it two days before
right but the people who aren't email
people who are text people
they're clicking on it the day before
doesn't matter to me i really don't care
that's why i do both
right but the text is just that second
now it's in my brain for because most people
100 of the time yeah
so that text is the like
now it's in my brain for tomorrow right
even though they got the email
yeah i think i don't remember when i heard
this there is even a study done but
like people the way they view emails is
just different the way from the way
they view texts
yeah it's like there's somebody at your
door versus there's somebody in their
car down the street
that's how urgent right so if you're
thinking about this right now and you
you don't have a system
set up to have these alerts what you
should do is pause this right now
and go into your software and get it
set up if you use a prominent software
they're all gonna have one vagarro
square
mevo if you don't know what we're even
talking about you know dm dms
yeah for real reach out to us
and hopefully we'll get royalties from
the companies that we're free we're not
that cool yet we're not that clear
when you go to the help section a lot of
these really great companies they've got very simple
tutorials
written or on a video to show you how to
do it
i mean they probably all have a youtube
video honestly yeah
they want you to succeed yeah they want
their software they do they want you to
stay
paying them once a month for a hundred
years so they're going to have a way for
you to do this so
don't let this challenge stop you
figure it out but even if you don't even if you're still doing paper and pencil
it
i had it still
automated in my phone i have text
replacement
every phone does text replacement yeah where it's
like i would type in three letters and
it would type out the whole thing for me
all i had to do was add in a date and time
yeah it literally did not take me
longer than
maybe a minute to two minutes to confirm
my appointments for the next day yeah
i promise you you can when you have a 20
minute no show yeah
if you're lucky usually it's longer than
20 minutes
yeah all right so next we're going to talk
about
um guest experience a little bit
and i think in a lot of our topics we
can go into guest experience because
it's
all-encompassing but specifically for
client retention
they they're going to want to want to be
this comes back to target market
okay i i have i've had guests before that
they don't like head massages they don't
like
the extra things that's so weird
i know right but but there are people
that don't like that
sure so it's again it comes back to your
target market and what are they expecting
yeah that keeps them coming back and
being consistent with what you do
yeah i agree i just thought of something i
was working with a colleague
at a phoenix salon suites
they weren't in my area but i remember
we were going
you know i was i just more open and he
wanted to
kind of see how i talk to people and
whatever so we walked into this one
suite
and it was very clear to me that this
stylist
she loved um semi-color
she loved vibrant colors
tubes or the the paper or the boxes
from her pulpriot colors so she had
turned it into
it was all of her wallpaper floor to
ceiling
on two of her walls it was awesome that
told me very clearly what kind of
hair she loved to do and who her target
market was
and that ambiance catered to that right
so when you've got your your guests in
a person you're like
what you've got around you makes a
difference and you're right the the little
extra things that you do make a
difference
so a lot of
more upscale classy type
you know people that are working mothers
or
you know maybe more affluent i think a mini fridge
makes a big difference
don't you have you've got one i do
you've got but it's stuck with water
i should always have diet coke no
my clients drink water that's awesome
i just wanted to throw in my joke well they all
bring in their stanley's of diet coke
if they're diet coke drinkers i don't
need to provide it
that's a good point uh but other little
amenities like that what else comes to
mind
well that's that's why i say it's it's
your target market so like
depending on who you're catering to and what
you're doing you might have the
espresso martini
drinks or the or the specialty drinks
that they're going to provide
for that service or that day that for
whatever season it is they've got one for
summer one for winter one for
christmas you know
that's not my target market right so
like again my mini fridge is full of water
because
whenever i ask my guests hey can i grab
you a drink they all say water
because they know that's what i've had but i've had other drinks in there and
i'm the one that ends up drinking them
and then i'm like i don't even drink
that i drink water
so but like giving a scalp massage
i do that at the shampoo bowl um but
whatever it is you do
you have to be consistent with i agree
so if you do a great scalp massage at
the shampoo bowl
you got to do it for everyone right
if you do a great
consultation is a huge retainer
consultation and you're understanding
them and they're understanding you and
you're
like that's a great guest retention tool
um
but whatever you do you got to do it
consistently yeah
if you're going to have a fridge stocked with
waters you got to have a fridge stocked with
waters
does it come to expect it totally and
that could be like it's a nice touch
my stylist has a fridge stocked with waters you
should go see her or they did this
espresso martini you should go see them
treats for long appointments so
you should go you know that could be the
selling point for somebody but it could
also be the not selling point for
somebody like
maybe they care more that no my
hairdresser asks me every single time
what i want my hair color you know to
be or
they explain everything so well to me and
put it in terms i understand
like whatever it is you do you just have
to make sure you're doing it
consistently with everyone yeah i
you know before we finish i want to
i want to share two examples of of
salons who do this really really well
that i know of
um the first is the balayage studio
downtown
um we're in salt lake so he's talking about
utah
down yeah we're in utah if they don't
know by now i mean all the
silly utah jokes and yeah we're in
utah
so anyway their shop is right next to
when i say right next to i mean
when you if you need to use the
restroom you step into this shared
hallway
and you go to your restroom but then you
walk around the corner and the coffee
shop's there
i suggested that they put a hole in the
wall
and it just be like a little walk a little
window yeah
can i get a but what she does is they're
like they
they offer that to their guests oh heck
yeah yeah like hey
what are you drinking today i'm going
it's so awesome really really cool thing
and that was like her diamond in the
rough
not everybody has that opportunity so
so make that a focal point because
there are a lot of people that are going
to be drawn to that oh yeah
such an awesome amenity yeah
another one that does it really really
well is rachelle's salon and day spa
okay these people are
they're amazing and they're um
you should pay us t if you're
shout out but
um so their spa is gorgeous it's
amazing you walk in it's so serene it's
beautiful
the feeling is very calm and then when you walk
into the salon
it stays that way it's very posh very
upscale
and they have this really really
amazing system
the right above them is kimmy's chop house
so they're on the first floor and then
um and so they have
the ability to get cocktails at certain
times of the day
and they just walked in this
beautiful spiral staircase that
connects the restaurant
and the spa it is so cool
and they've also created this thing
where
and maybe you can't get a drink at 10
a.m but if you want a hair service
done
you know their mint julep is like a
conditioning treatment brilliant
but that's like their diamond in the rough
it's what sets them apart
it's an amenity that very few
people have
and it's something that can get that can
target
a lot of people if you get them to talk
about it
like how awesome was this very unique
experience and if you're an experiential
person we've learned a lot of very
passionate people are if not everybody
tell them tell them about it tell your
because
I guarantee you very few people have a
coffee shop next door
they can just walk around the back
corner and get you a coffee
or get you a freaking martini from
a football restaurant right upstairs
you know what I mean right yeah those
those came to mind specifically but those
are things that like you said those are
very
demographic very you got to be yeah like
you can plan you
those things yeah but you can't that's
not in your control
that's not in your sphere of control
right that's more of that's how they
capitalized on something that was
available to them
right so and of course all of those
things are what you want to look for
but like I mean it's the number one
real estate rule location location
location
yeah that doesn't mean you have to be
in that location
if that's something you want to offer
then yeah you're going to look for that
opportunity if that's
the target market you're searching for
if that's the vibe you're going for
but even if you're in the perfect
location and they're located in the perfect
place and they have those amenities
if you're not being consistent with what
you're doing to their hair and to
for them behind the chair I don't care
how well that mint julep is or
how great that drink is they won't
come back right
all of the other things right that matter
every time you do a good job
so you're regularly educating yourself
you know what you're doing you've got
good quality supplies yeah I totally agree
yeah because you can have an a beautiful
salon with a great ambiance but if
their
services if you're a dick
but if their services aren't even
meeting up to the environment if if you
go in to get your hair done and you walk
out hating it
I agree there's a lot of factors and this is really
the whole point of the example is just
to say this is one extra thing that you
can
use to set yourself apart but it shouldn't
be the pillar of your
success no so because your client
retention although that is a great
amenity and it's a great thing to have
just like having the espresso martini or
just like having a fridge full of water
that's not the thing that's going to
actually keep them coming back right
uh they'd have to be blasted enough to not
know that their hair sucks
for like six to eight weeks yeah for
real
well um I I think this episode went really
really well what do you think
I like it yeah uh that's that's what
we've got for client retention um
we'll keep going on with other topics as
we move forward but
um thanks again for for tuning in we really
uh I have been
Justin Metcalf said my name that time
good job and you are why are we doing
this all of a sudden at the end
that's right we did the beginning that's
awkward
well anyway um thanks for listening
it's always a barrel laughs here
so funny very little laughs a barrel of monkeys
thanks for listening
bye I'm never gonna stop
pushing I'm not gonna push stop
bye I love you