Much more than an exercise in good “customer service” or another sales tool, this is a sales secret weapon that every salon should be using.
[gap height=”15″][gap height=”15″]The best part about this article is that it’s a platform for me to share what I’ve seen out on the road while working with staff at salons just like yours. These inspiring moments just unfold organically as I work with tanners alongside salon teams across the country. The best lessons are always just simple moments when I realize that this one little piece of knowledge could potentially propel sales upward for years to come.
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While working directly with tanning guests, most teachable moments occur within the broad and sometimes over-generalized subject of “customer service” and “in-store experience.” While many things can affect the in-store experience (e.g. products, prices, store environment, etc.), customer service is always going to be one of the top factors that impact not only how tanning salon shoppers perceive your salon, but also how much money they are willing to spend on the products you offer.
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Here’s a beautiful lesson I learned recently as I worked with a team of the most efficient note-takers I had ever encountered. By notetaking, I mean they had every important detail about that tanner, both past and present, (Tickle Notes) notated in that customer’s profile. Like clockwork, as each guest was greeted and checked in, those notes were used as a sort of script to help customize each and every tanner’s visit.
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It was a lotion-seller’s dream come true! With a quick glance, they knew everything they needed to know to help open more sales opportunities at that moment – like a cheat-sheet on exactly what to say to each guest. Info like: where they were headed on vacation, what lotion sample they had tried a week ago and loved. I saw one note in a tanner’s profile that just said “addicted to raspberry lol.” The point is that this salon manager took notetaking to another level and as I worked with the team, I realized they had taken a really simple concept and ran with it.
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It became clear this was taught to each employee and was practiced and perfected. Team members greeted each guest as they walked in, took a moment to glance over the notes and then, began to customize the rest of the conversation based on those notes. Then, during the rest of the visit, the team member added to the notes based on the visit results, the guest’s comments, what was purchased, sampled, etc.
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By the end of a night working with this team, I realized this was much more than just an exercise in good “customer service” or another sales tool. This was a confidence-boosting, report-building sales secret weapon that every salon should be using.
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They say that necessity is the mother of invention and when I asked them why they decided to commit to this extreme notetaking process for every guest, they told me it was because their staff were always saying they didn’t know what to say to create conversations with guests, so they figured that keeping a detailed log that basically tells them how to direct the conversation was the perfect solution … and it worked beautifully!
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What I love about customer service/customer experience is: you can create, craft and control it. You may not be able to control the weather or your competitors, but what your team does and says while working with your tanners is something you surely can control.
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