Does Your Nail Department Pull Its Weight?

When a client comes in, does she receive a similar services every time? What if you're out sick or on vacation and your client needs to see someone else, what happens? Is the level of customer service similar, better, or worse? Do you worry that your coworkers may take better care of your clients while you're gone? Do you worry that your clients may leave you for another nail tech who takes better care of them than you do? Sometimes when this happens, it can be a reality check.

 

Does your salon have service standards? Are there salon policies? Is there a certain way we are to perform services or use products to ensure a similar service every time? We may think that everyone does all of the same things, but look around and you may be surprised.

 

Have you ever thought about hiring professional salon consulting services? What if there was someone who could come to your salon and work with your department to set the service standards? What if there was someone to show you the add-ons that really work and generate money? Have you tried doing in-salon training before and the training doesn't get accomplished because one of your coworkers dominates the session? Do you feel like you're fighting with your team members to do services a certain way? Do you feel like you're not being heard? Do you have stylists who cross over to do natural nail services and it feels like they don't care about the service? Does it feel like they are just there to fill their time and make money?

 

So many salons have training for the hair department constantly, because the hair department is what usually carries the salon. Then it's always build the spa; build the spa and the nail department gets left behind. Often we feel like we're the step children of the salon, an afterthought.

 

Would you be open to training if there was consulting exclusively for nail departments? Aside from writing this blog, being a full-time nail technician and a salon owner, I also work for a salon consulting company. I travel all over the U.S. and Canada to work with nail technicians building strong and profitable departments. This is something that I am extremely passionate about!

 

I was sick of not being able to find business education that was exclusive to my department. Every time I went to a class it was in hair terms and I had to figure out how it applied to me, my department, and my clients. I spent so much time decoding the information and figuring out how it could work for me that I often missed most of the education. Sure, there are many great product educators and most of them are very good at what they do, but that is mainly for product knowledge. Where’s the business part of our service?

 

I met Summit Salon Consulting Group over 10 years ago when my salon started receiving salon consulting services by them. At the time I was an employee and I was a stressed out nail tech with a book full of fills, fills, fills. The consulting company helped our salon to grow in many ways.

 

The one area they were particularly impressed with was our nail department. The consulting company recommends that 15% of the salons entire income should come from the nail department. That means if the salon generates $100,000 that $15,000 of that money should be generated by the nail department. Many salons think that they are providing 15% of the money, but in reality we find most are doing 7%-8%. The bigger salons are doing 10%-12%, but almost no one is doing 15% or higher. My salon however hovers around 32%! The consulting company was astounded and wanted to know what we were doing to do achieve this high percentage. Well, I know what we're doing to hit 32% and that's why I get to go other salons and help them to build their nail department business. I have spent and lost tons of money on gimmicks and services that don't work. I have made all of the mistakes, so you don't have to. I have failed at services, products and crazy additional services that sounded like a good idea at the time. This is just the beginning of our series on salon consulting. Tune in next week for more information on how my nail consulting services can help you build a nail department and turn it into a profit center! One more way to help you stand out above the rest and become the BEST!

 

— Jill