I can attest to the fact that consistency is key to a successful salon from the front desk to the back room. Before we started doing things in a more organized manner when we started implementing the strategies from Summit Salon the nail department was hit or miss. Some of the service providers gave a really good service and others provided a so-so service or a flat out skimpy one. Consistency was not at all evident in our department since we went from booth renting to being employees. We also had stylists starting to provide natural nail services since in Washington that is covered in the scope of their license. So there was friction between the stylists and nail techs over it.

We definitely had a lot of resistance to the changes that Summit Salon suggested at first — some of our service providers just refused to do the new service procedure at all. Some of them were convinced that their clients would hate the idea and were extremely hesitant to try. We had a lot of hurdles to overcome in the staff’s thinking about new service standards and how it would affect their relationship with their clientele. We had to use the coaching strategies that our Summit Salon coaches taught us as well as having the coaches talk to the service providers about the new way of thinking and helping them to reconcile the changes. Eventually they came around and realized the value of opening their mind to the new ideas we were learning.

Now we are working as a team and everyone does the same standard of service from the first-level stylist to the top-level nail technician. Our department flows smoothly and there no friction between the different providers. We are able to focus on growing our department and we have goals set to eventually make our part of the salon as profitable as Jill's is.

— Sandy