The INSTYLE X Shortcuts Round Table brought together some true innovators to discuss strategies and ideas crucial to both their success and future of our industry. For this instalment of leading insight we hit Gemelli Italian on Brisbane’s James Street with salon owners from near and far sharing their invaluable perspectives on the future, writes Cameron Pine.
Brendon Mann from Epic Hair, Chris Hunter from Willomina, Alannah Read from Ella&Jade and Kristian Tognini from Togninis and Hey Hair sat and shared ideas testament to their success, while discussing some concepts and ideas that show how technology has helped to change their business for the better. With Shortcuts Software as the supporting partner, a software company truly committed to the future of salon business, all conversations were welcome regardless of brand with one main aim of sharing ideas and improving the overall position of our industry as a whole.
Zing Coaching Founder Lisa Conway helped to facilitate conversations around key pillars of sustainability in business, integrating new technology, social conscience, adapting to changing needs, growth strategies as well as consultation and client service. From discussing how payments are changing in other industries to how we can follow new ways of doing things to leading the charge with our own home-grown ideas, round table uncovers all.
STAFF AND FUTURE SUSTAINABILITY
“I guess my main kind of driver is creating a salon experience that clients have never seen before, so we position that as an anti-salon experience,” Alannah Read.
“We opened a new salon during COVID as well but have been fortunate that we have as a lot of suburban clientele and are supported by an education company. So we thought, how do we bring that flagship salon feel to the suburbs, with great training, great people, and offer that type of service in the suburbs? So far, it’s working really, really well with Hey Hair,” Kristian Tognini
“That’s what’s happening in Sydney, like people outside of traditional Eastern Suburbs client are going out of their way to find the salon they want. I love doing hair and all I ever wanted was to create a place where people want to be,” Chris Hunter
“Before COVID clients would go to the city salons but now they want that standard in the suburbs so salons have had to adapt their offering,” Cameron Pine
“We have salons in suburban areas where we have seen significant growth. We have 15 salons in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and with 170 hairdressers through COVID our training and setting up an Academy has been paramount,” Brendon Mann
“It’s really interesting, I live an hour away from my salon and where we are, there’s no similar high-end salon. So there’s like the idea that you consider maybe doing something in Avalon, but it’s our staff that really make our salon,” Chris Hunter
“We made a big change at the start of COVID, and it’s something that’s sort of saved us. We changed our apprentice training to be in-house ourselves. So pre-COVID, our apprentices went to a TAFE like everyone else but I realised the only way to do fast and efficient training is to do it in-house in real hairdressing situations. So for example our cutting course is a 26 day Pivot Point course where we have trainers come in to fast-track their cutting training. A lot of people have cut back their apprentices, which is the wrong choice at this time. The government paid us for half their wages in the first year and it’s a sure investment into the future,” Brendon Mann
“We can’t find staff at the salon level we need to be at. I mean, I’ve got 15 staff, so the fact that almost half of them are apprentices proves we can’t find senior staff. So I’ve called on one of my seniors to train them in house,” Alannah Read
“I think we hired five mature age apprentices in the period since COVID. We are finding the same thing, but the mature apprentices have the right work ethic, they know what they want to do, they’re passionate and they understand because they’ve been in a work environment for life lessons,” Kristian Tognini
“It’s important now as salon owners to create more pathways. For example if someone in our team wants to open a salon with us we’ve refined our business so it’s systemised. So for us futurising our business during COVID was very important and this even came down to not calling the new salon Togninis to make our business more adaptable and easier for someone else to come on board and grow with us,” Kristian Tognini
“There has been a really strong shift. It was the reset our industry needed to have. It needed to crash and burn,” Lisa Conway
“We can’t say staff. We say team members. That’s the first major shift. I just wanted to provide a place that people wanted to work in,” Chris Hunter
“Whether you’re the new kid on the block or the cool kid at the time culturally you’re responsible for that, so you have to acknowledge that success comes from what is working at the moment, but at some point your priorities may change, your staff may change and all of the sudden your culture changes as well, so you have to be willing to embrace that at some point another salon will be the cool kid, nobody is immune to it and it will always be a reflection of where your focus lies, whether on yourself or your staff,” Cameron Pine
“When looking at recruitment it’s important to look at all levels of recruitment. The successful salons that are still growing are looking at every single different way to recruit people,” Brendon Mann
CONSULTATION
“I think consultation is so important. It’s where you tell the story a bit. I have been to a few PTs and they tell you everything you need to do, they tell you the exercise you need to do when you go home and what food to eat. Then after a few visits, or a few months of seeing this PT, they stop telling you what you need to do at home, it’s the same for hairdressing and it should never stop. It’s exactly what happens in a salon. So someone will come in for their first visit. All the chats need to continually be a chat for the job – a consistent process,” Brendon Mann
“We email regularly and straight after the visit about the experience. For example, even their shampoo should be finished in seven weeks so at six weeks we communicate with them in between with an incentive to purchase and then they just go online and purchase or begin a purchase and pick it up in store on their next visit. So we are still offering the opportunity to purchase and to have that touch point. Around 60 per cent of people we contact get product with us,” Kristian Tognini
“You have to see the value that you provide and into the future. You look at everything that can be digitalised, across the board your craft becomes more valuable, your creativity becomes valuable because it can’t be digitalised. So, if I’m looking at leadership styles, I’m thinking in the future, creativity and adaptability becomes the best skill that you can have in leadership. I had a beauty appointment the other day. The beauty industry is much better at recommending and upselling than hair,” Lisa Conway
“I think the most potential is where our clients are having a conversation as well. In both of my salons we’ve got beautiful waiting areas. So, all of that consultation is done there before you even get them in front of the mirror. They get a choice of a croissant or cheese board and then after about five or ten minutes the stylist comes over, they’re already dropped into the space. Then it’s a conversation about ‘what are you using in your hair? How is your hair feeling?’ We have that consultation in the lounge before they even move to the chair. Talking to someone to a mirror is just not as personal,” Alannah Read
“When a client is checking out, the biggest barrier for them is actually handing over the cash. So how do you improve that checking out process, like a cashless checkout. Whatever amount it is, it is less likely to be a barrier if you save on file their details so the last memory is seeing themselves in the mirror, looking amazing and then walking out the door. If you don’t see the transaction it’s out of sight, out of mind,” Kristian Tognini
“You can control what happens after the service through technology, and obviously use this software to increase the volume of conversations. You’re also eliminating that in between salon time for them to decide to go to another stylist or to decide to go somewhere else because you’re enhancing their experience when they’re there,” Cameron Pine
“The other factor in our industry is technology has been a bit behind compared to other industries. So it’s only just recently that software has been able to connect the eftpos machine or software has been able to store the credit card for example. Remember seven years ago? I’ve been in the industry for 13 years, seven years ago, I remember going to a coffee shop and paying obviously with the credit card number, their computer system links straight to their eftpos machine but we haven’t utilised all these features as quickly as many businesses,” Brendon Mann
“It’s one of the biggest processes to get right – even take an iPad over to the chair and the relevant technology wasn’t where say hospitality has been to this point. There are simple things that technology can help with the experience. Having a better conversation with the client so when they do come in, they’re excited for a new service that you’re offering or excited to try a new product is all part of the experience,” Kristian Tognini
TECHNOLOGY AND CHARGES
“Can I ask if there is any particular technology anyone has experienced or something that happened that you feel is really quite game changing?” Cameron Pine
“Technology is key. We store everyone’s credit card details on file at the moment and it’s been really good. We have fewer no shows. People sit down in front of the mirror, have their service, then they get a little code on their phone. We’re taking it one step further and going to start taking deposits. So what does it look like? We’re still trying to figure it out, but what we’re hoping for these people is to obviously spend money before they come in, have their service and then because the service could be expanded it’s a bigger amount of money that we’re spending on retail or treatments at a different time. We are really harnessing the technology as well because the technology in our industry is so new. You would imagine that the tech guys are going to come to us with a whole bunch of new stuff for us to be able to harness that and really build out this stuff so that’s exciting,” Chris Hunter
“As long as your service is good from start to finish from the booking, from how they’re treated inside the salon from the actual service they have done, and then after the after sale service, then it’s fine charging the prices that you should be charging. We do a price increase every year,” Brendon Mann
“Currently, we as a salon are still relatively new, we started our prices off quite low, because obviously I wanted to get a lot of people in the door, but we have increased everything really quickly to get to the luxury price point, that’s what our clients expect regardless of technology,” Chris Hunter
“Another change we made with our pricing strategy two years ago was that we heard in a lot of salons that their hairdressers weren’t wanting to work Saturdays, so they changed their working week from Monday to Friday. Obviously, demand went up on Saturday, so we just looked at a surge pricing like Uber does. Now on Sundays we added 5 per cent,” Brendon Mann
“Our service is the most important thing and technology is a way to better to communicate our value. Everything is going up and my hairdressers don’t want to work for $28 an hour anymore,” Alannah Read
“Whether it’s the salon service that we provide or the way that our teams or clients are booked in, I think it will be very different in 10 years. We have to elevate to understand things like scalp conditions or hair loss or what people are going through, whether it’s through trauma or whatever’s happening in their life or becoming a new part of their hairdressing experience, and I think it does come into our world in the salons, probably quicker than what we all realise as well,” Kristian Tognini
GIVING BACK AND TEAM BENEFITS
“We widely communicate our fundraising with the domestic violence side of things, and we add $1 to every bill automatically to go towards domestic violence and its now part of our story and it works extremely well. We’re dominantly a female clientele but we also do have male clientele – they all appreciate it and our hairdressers appreciate it as well. I know our hairdressers have used the services that we donate money to, and I think we’ve raised $320,000 since 2001,” Brendon Mann
“Our salon manager is a yoga teacher and holds classes for our staff twice a month. It’s only just started this year but everyone gets involved. It’s part of her contract so we pay her for this time also in addition for all of our team,” Chris Hunter
“We’ve just hired an occupational therapist to implement training modules for the apprentices. For example, their safety training is how to pick up a box over 20 kilos, and how to do normal things that I saw in safety training when I did retail,” Brendon Mann.
“We talk a lot about neutral wrists and to try and stay as straight as possible, it’s all part of the healthy salon environment,” Chris Hunter
“I’m really excited. I really like seeing the young ones come through. I just think they have a completely different understanding to business, they don’t want to work 50 hours a week, they want balance and longevity,” Lisa Conway
“So there are so many different career paths that you can have now through Epic that we’ve been able to say ‘you can choose if you want to go on this journey when it comes to retail and carousels’, whatever it might be – a colour journey, a cutting journey, more education or anything like that. So we’re trying to make it so anyone in our bigger organisation can be individuals as well through that. We’ve seen that that’s what’s changing when people are guest Uber drivers, they have their own individual companies and things like that, we’re seeing that change. I feel like that’s how it’s going to be over the next ten years. We need to harness this diversity against the wants and needs of our teams,” Brendon Mann
“It’s always been about the team that I legitimately care about, and I honestly care. I want everyone to have a bespoke working experience of Willomina. I want them to have a nice time and come to work and enjoy what they do, to get paid well and be able to do what they want to do on the weekends. Let’s be honest as well. If you’re not offering it they’ll want to go somewhere else,” Chris Hunter
FINAL THOUGHTS
“We use tech as a way to bridge the clients and get them more familiar with our salon experience. Whatever they think about a traditional client model is completely wiped out,” Alannah Read
“For us it was really important for clients to come in and have a seamless experience where they don’t need to pull their cards out of their pocket, they don’t need to tap, they just leave,” Chris Hunter
“Look at the big mega stars and see how they’ve reinvented themselves and been relevant to the customer base. It’s the same in the salon – how do we reinvent ourselves?” Kristian Tognini
“I think technology, communication and the words we use, the value we place in our staff, are all things we have spoken about today that really summarised our industry and that’s the reason behind round table and that’s the reason we love to come together on days like today and celebrate this with brands like Shortcuts. We talked growth strategies, sustainability and ways that inspire us to continue to make a difference to our industry,” Cameron Pine
“There are still some people who don’t like to embrace technology but we have to adjust our system to work for them too. So we’ve tried some things like black Friday sales or special offers, and because of this offer we were really busy,” Chris Hunter
“It’s really important to get real feedback post service within a quick timeframe so we can let the team members know and we can get on top of it straight away,” Kristian Tognini
For more information visit www.shortcuts.com.au
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