Spending Season Savvy: Having a Killer Quarter 4

for success . So we're ready to dive into this incredible topic today and grateful to have you along this ride with us .

And so you know , if you think about it , you've probably had quarters , like at the end of the year , that you feel like you've really planned for and maybe they worked out , or maybe you really planned for them and they didn't work out .

Um , but to have that roadmap or that journey to be able to say , hey , this is the plan that we have in place , really helps to create freedom for not only yourself as a salon owner , but also as your team . So today we're going to give you some ideas and unpack the ways to really have that spending CZ savviness .

We're going to just dive into a lot of things that really can impact , you know , having that killer quarter four , you know , and I think the first thing that we want to dive into actually is this is the best time of year to raise your prices , and so if you have been sitting on some sort of a price increase that you've been putting off , or you've looked

at your numbers maybe you've gotten a really cool calculator that we offer for your area specifically around how do you come up with that pricing ? Now is a great time to launch it . Sometime during October is one of the best times to do a price increase .

And so let's talk about how do you do a price increase without the panic , because I don't know about you , but I have sat in that seat before where you're like okay , I know we need to do a price increase , but oh my gosh , I'd rather do about 4,000 other things besides a price increase .

It's just , you know , you start to think of , like , one guest who's going to complain or one guest who has complained in the past , whatever that is . But really , you know , setting your team up and your guests up like this is a great time of year and your guests up like this is a great time of year You're going to do some sort of a price increase .

You know , every year in spending season . Just a little hot tip If you do , just you know , you know , maybe some years you raise your chemicals a few dollars , or maybe some years you raise , like your haircuts and some of your static services , a few dollars .

That's a really great strategy so that you don't , you know , then all of a sudden not have a price increase for four or five years and need to right size your prices quite a bit .

So , um , you know , looking to kind of create a plan each quarter for during spending season is a great time to do it , not waiting for the first of the year , because this is a time where people are like they're ready to spend money . It's the holidays , you know .

They've got all these gift buying and , just you know , taking care of themselves on their brain right now , and so right now is a great time to look at doing that .

And somebody wants to say , well , Jen , there's a much different price between milk and having a salon experience , I said , yeah , but this shows up in all aspects of the world . Like , if you're going to buy a luxury bag , let's say a Louis Vuitton , like they don't send out an email blast and say , oh , our Louis Vuitton bags just went from 2000 to 2200 .

And so , like I think this applies to many verticals and aspects of our life that , like you , don't have to make that big of a deal . Sometimes I think we make a bigger deal than it needs to be and it creates a lot more confusion and chaos , not only for ourselves but for our team and for our clients .

Just know that , like hey , if somebody has questions after you have just implemented the price increase , just say you know , hey , thank you so much for asking , we're happy to honor our old price . And just so you know , moving forward , this what it will be , or this is what the price will be during your next visit , you know .

And so equipping your team like , hey , we're going to do this . But , like you know , they've gone to the grocery store , they know they're paying more for groceries , like literally everything costs more money right now .

And so setting your team up with , like , hey , you know , this is , this is great , because it's going to mean , if you're commissioned , it's going to mean a raise for everybody . That is part of the commission plan .

But then also , just like you know , that's the way the economy is right now , and just letting them know like , hey , they know where that they shop is calling them , letting them know about a price increase beforehand . But of course we want to honor , like if a guest is really caught off guard by things you know and also that's a good thing to know .

As a salon owner , it's great to never have a price that ends in zero or five , because people psychologically can remember those numbers easier and they fixate on them a little bit more .

If your haircut price is , you know , $20 since you know 1962 , they're going to remember that versus you know , if it's $21 and you go up to 23 or you know , obviously those are lower numbers but it's just to kind of make that impact on our mind and just you know , keep that in mind when you're thinking about those price increases .

If you've been at even numbers or zeros or fives , like try to get them in some kind of off-centered numbers , so it's not so it just doesn't create that story and then you know you can just easily kind of move through those pricing increases again in the future .

But , like , think about what . Like , what are some bundled services or special holiday treatments that we can create to really help elevate the guest experience ?

You know , an example would be I think one year we did kiss your hair with this , with a luxury treatment I can't remember , but like , and while they were at the shampoo bowl I don't think that was the exact wording that we use , but they got a little kiss with it . And so , like , we actually saw it's so , it's so magical , just the power of words .

Like , we actually saw a 22% increase in our treatments that month just by offering that little kiss and changing the language . And so , like , work with your team , because you know , synergy , one , two , three , four brains are so much better than one brain of thinking like , how can we create these specialized bundles ?

Or , you know , special promotions that will really entice , you know , our clients this season and just know like you don't always have to discount the price , sometimes it's just changing the way you present the opportunity helps to get that buy-in from the client . Yeah .

It's great to even just put out a little sign , you know , maybe at your processing area or a little mirror talker um that has like a list of people not to forget to buy gifts for this time of year . You know , like don't forget you know your , your kids' teachers , or you know um thinking about who your avatar is and who they might be shopping for .

So maybe it could even be , uh , you know a house cleaner or your mailman or , uh , you know whatever that might be like . Just create that fun list of like don't forget these people when shopping um , so that people can pick up their gifts there . And just even remembering to highlight that you sell gift cards this time of year is such a good thing .

You know , don't don't get yourself into like a cash um flow situation with giving away too much with gift cards , because people are naturally going to buy gift cards this time of year and so if you just even have a cute little display with a gift card available , that signifies to people oh yeah , they sell gift cards here .

That would be a great gift for my sister-in-law , or whatever it might be .

So if you have a loyalty program , you know a huge opportunity is , like , what are some incentives that we could put in place for the loyalty program to maybe incentivize them to get extra points or whatever it is that you dollar amounts or whatever you do in your loyalty program ?

Like , maybe you take your top 25 VIP guests and just send them a handwritten card or email that says hey , jen or Lindsay , we appreciate you so much , thanks for being a loyal VIP guest . Here's a gift of the extra hundred loyalty points for you . Thanks again for being you .

And so I think there's just so many ways to give back that , on your end , provide so much value but have a low cost in return . So just thinking about , like what can we do in that aspect ? And you know , like what are little value pieces ? Maybe it's like a blanket that smells like a candy cane , I don't know , maybe that might sound good , right .

Or like just little senses because , like you know , we have like 50 , uh perceptions and like so just awakening sometimes some of those senses like using Christmas smells and things like that can just really help .

You know , uh , help you have a successful quarter , for it helps the buying season , it helps the client smell that and say , oh yeah , I need to buy this .

This is when we want to reserve , you know , set up our January and February right now , in September and October , november . So doing something to where you know people reserve to future appointments , they get entered to win something or , you know , just

having those conversations to get people in that future reservation mindset , I think really helps with that client retention and it will set you up for a great quarter one as well .

So a lot of you salon owners you probably have already gotten all that your manufacturers Christmas or holiday deals that are coming out , and so you know you just want to ensure that you stock up but you also abide by your budget , because a lot of times what we will see is like you know you've been giving all these amazing discounts .

Because a lot of times what we will see is like you know you've been giving all these amazing discounts but you just don't really have the cash flow to purchase a big bundle like your manufacturer is trying to get you into . So you know always . That's why it's so important to know your numbers is to look at your budget .

Yeah , I think it's also great too to think about , you know , looking through your retail to see what you have extra of because you want to get that off of your shelf before the end of the year .

So even creating like little packages with some of the inventory items that you have and making sure that you have a plan to sell through what you purchase and to , um , you know , get rid of some of those items that you have too many of on yourself , is really helpful with that inventory management as well .

So , once you've nailed that , um , you know , really diving into this , your team training and scheduling for quarter four , because people are going to have additional , uh , fun things going on inside of their life and so really like getting that mapped out now .

Talking about the importance of like , hey , we're going to be busy here and it might be a little bit quieter here , so this is a great time .

If you want to take a few days to spend with your family , it's better to do it , you know , the week after Christmas versus the week before , because that's when everybody wants to look their best before they see their family and even kind of tucking in some pockets of when are you going to focus on some , you know , customer training or customer service experience

training with your team , because , like really working on boosting that guest satisfaction .

You know a lot of people are going to be coming in , we're going to be experiencing a lot of different energy levels during quarter four and so , like really optimizing your team's mindset around you know how they can help create an environment where people want to buy and where they want to experience what it is that we have to offer is key .

So getting something scheduled now like a couple little pockets of some training that you can do with people Maybe it's at your salon celebration , whatever that looks like Just really focusing on how can we set everybody up to win in quarter four .

And you know , one thing I'd like to look at too is , like when you're creating that marketing you know had our podcast not so long ago , as it said captions that connect , and so like you want to have communication , connection and trust .

So when you're creating those messages , make sure all three of those pieces are present , because you do have a lot more enrollment when you use those three pieces . And when one of those is missing , it kind of some the client is reading it and they're like Hmm , something goes off , but they just can't explain what it is .

And so like , for example , let's say , a um marketing strategy is you're trying to increase your average ticket , and so , like some of your marketing strategies around social media would be like what a transformational treatment does for your hair , like some before and afters . Um , you know some testimonials from some of your clients when they experienced a treatment .

So getting clear about what you want to promote or increase helps you get clear about what marketing strategy you'll use with that .

You know that people enjoy and want to be a part of , and so , just , you know , thinking about how you can enhance your salon to kind of create that holiday , holiday vibe that you want to , whether that's through festive decor , you want to play some seasonal music or maybe offer like a holiday refreshment , like hot cocoa or cider , or just even adding like

cinnamon sticks to your spa water , whatever it might be like , just really creating that ambience where people feel cozy and excited and they really are like , yeah , this is great , like they don't know it's been in season , but they know that they're like out there making it rain and all of the retailers , and so , uh , creating that environment where people want to

, you know , spend money and enjoy being in your presence . Uh , thinking about all of the senses you know sight , sound , touch , um , everything . You know , like Jen mentioned earlier , there's about 50 perceptions that people have , you know . So , making sure that the temperature is a great one .

Just all of those things like thinking about that whole ambiance that you want to create and just really kind of nailing it during this season .

But I think fourth quarter is a huge opportunity and I'm not meeting December 31st , but you know , the first October , november , is a huge opportunity to see what worked and what didn't work for 20 , for the year previous year before , and so , like , if you're in year 2024 , what worked , what didn't work , and let's go ahead and plan for 2025 .

Like , what could be our sales goal ? Like , how many people would we need to hire to make that sales goal possible ? What's our intention going to be for the year ? And I think the more crystal clear you can get about that , the better success you'll have when 2025 , or whatever year it may be , comes .

And so I think the sooner you can start planning , the more connected you'll be to that plan and the more likely make it happen .

So , whether you're going to host some sort of holiday event for your salon or you're going to do some sort of a give back inside of your community maybe a community haircutting event , you know , really looking at ways that you can participate in local holidays or , you know , just get connected with your community . You know this is a great time of year .

You know lots of people are feeling different ways during the season . You know sometimes it brings up great feelings for people , sometimes it doesn't .

So looking at like how you can create more of those good feelings , looking for ways to give back , you know , and then just creating kind of a plan on how you're going to execute this and who all is going to lean in to help in those different areas .

And so another opportunity for spending season savviness is going to be your client feedback improvement , and so this is where you can you know this is a great time because you are going to be seeing more clients in the salon is to get their feedback , because we truly believe that feedback with the intention of love will really serve you in a beautiful way .

So I know we've all received feedback that maybe came from a place of blame or shame , but , like you know , somebody um client the other day was saying you know , I love seeing a certain stylist in our salon company Cause when I see her like she does the little extra things that everybody is doing , and I was like , oh , this is great feedback for me .

We really need to make sure that we got those systems and processes in place so that nothing is getting mixed , missed , and so this is a really incredible time to collect that data from your client so that then you can make those improvements when the next year comes to even better your guest experience or client experience .

So we've gone over price increase without the panic , holiday promotions and packages , client retention and loyalty programs , inventory management , team training and scheduling , marketing and social media campaigns , salon ambiance and decor , financial planning and budgeting , community engagement and events and , last but not least , getting that client feedback and improvement at the

end of the year . So we've loved having you with us on today's podcast . If you can think of another salon owner that would love this , please share this episode with them or give us a review or rating on whatever platform it is that you love to listen to . Thanks so much for tuning in .