Since Rachael is focusing on pre-books, I thought this should be the topic this week. I want to show you how pre-booking can affect salon congestion. When Summit Salon Consulting Group held seminars in Minneapolis, my salon was one of the salons on the tour. The Summit is an amazing business seminar for salon owners and managers. They have systems that have changed the way I do nails and have taken my salary to new heights. With their systems, I have gone where no nail tech has gone before. I enjoy educating and implementing their systems in your salons and sharing the techniques of highly successful service providers.

Many of the salon owners come to my salon to see all of the systems they heard about at the Summit in action. I have to tell you every time Summit attendees tour, they all ask the same question: "Are your phones working? How come they're not ringing off the hook?" I answer the question by telling them that 70% of our clients pre-book their next appointment prior to leaving the salon. With a high percentage of pre-books, our phone doesn't ring like crazy. The phone calls that we have coming into the salon are from new clients, schedule changes, etc. The salon owners are shocked by the calm at the front desk. It is amusing to see their astonished faces when I tell them this.

When the front desk is not on the phone constantly, they have more time to services our clients. My front desk is able to genuinely greet each client upon arrival. They offer a beverage, hang their coat, and welcome them into our salon. How many times have we had to make our clients wait because we're on the phone and we motion to them to go take seat? They also take a moment to tell our clients about our current promotions. The client will also hear about the promotion from her service provider. This gets the client thinking about the promotion and plants the seed.

We have a pre-booking station located in the nail/hair area just outside of the spa. This computer makes it really easy for our staff to book clients before they get to the front desk. The nail technicians, stylists, massage therapists, and skin care specialists all use this computer to schedule future appointments. We typically know our books better than the desk. You may see that if you stay 15 minutes later than your scheduled time, you can accommodate a client. The front desk may not have the time to run back and ask you if you can stay 15 minutes late for a client. You will have better control over your books and it's one less step for the desk to do.

This computer is also nice because we can look up their last fill, manicure, or pedicure. We can add our additional services to the ticket; this way they don't get missed, forgotten, or undercharged by staff. We can also look up products that our client has purchased. Maybe they want another bottle of polish and they can't remember the name. We can look it up with ease.

By pre-booking their next appointment and adding additional services products to the ticket, the front desk is the place to talk about retail.  We have their next appointment out of the way, now move onto the next step — closing the retail sale. Walk your client to the front desk — many sales are lost by not following this simple step. Escort her to the retail area and lead her to the sale. It also makes it easier to make the product offering. We can grab the product off the shelf and put it in our client’s hands. While the client is holding the product, we're talking about how much of the product to use, how often to use it, and the correct application. Since the product is already in the client’s hand, it is only natural for her to walk to the front desk with it.

With the next appointment pre-booked, the retail in hand, and the additional service already on the ticket, you may leave your client at the desk for the money exchange.

Challenge yourself and see if you can raise your pre-book percentage. You'll help your front desk and help guarantee your salary. Pre-booking — one more way to help you stand out above the rest and become the BEST!

— Jill