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Step 3. Team Software, Sales & Service Education

October 12, 2020

Ok so your account in setup, you've picked your 7 Ambassadors and released your teaser posts - now time for team education.

Hopefully by now you have had an opportunity to familiarise yourself with the Salon BLOCS software, so now it's time to train your team not only on how it works, but also on the sales tactics and service plan.

It's important to keep in mind that your team will need to understand that your club members are receiving a heavily discounted service, and as such they must be able to keep to the time frames expected of them, as well as wasting no additional time with such things as consultation, aftercare, or bookings or waste no additional spend on products in excess of what is necessary.

Software Training:

Now we don't expect you to teach your team how to use a piece of software you have only just signed up to yourself, but it is good practice to have all your team familiar with how it works and general booking procedure - we have an in depth manual found in the members section of our website which covers all topics and questions - but the main points are:

  • Salon BLOCS works in the opposite way to a traditional online booking diary.

This means the "book" defaults to being closed rather than open. Members are unable to book whatever is available in your teams schedule, they can only book blocks which you open to them. These should only be regularly quiet periods which you need filling up (take the time to find patterns in you salon schedule) and last minute cancellations.

  • Standard appointments on Salon BLOCS are a maximum of 30 minutes.
This time is for welcoming, carrying out the service, and exiting the member. Communication, booking, cancellations and reschedules are all done in the software - none of this should be done face to face or over the phone.
  • Members cannot choose who they book with.

When you schedule your open blocks you can choose which team member you open them blocks with. This should be based on your salon hierarchy, with the less experienced stylist (and usually less booked) with the majority and the most experienced with the least or none at all. The member however can only see a single column on each day, and are not informed who they are booking with (for many reasons we won't go into here)

  •  Members can choose to bring a friend once per month free of charge.

Every month members have the option to bring a friend, this serves as a practical recommend a friend system. Although this client is non paying it is vital that the team treat them like a VIP and encourage them to join the club. Before service the friends details should be recorded.

  • Members can book extended appointments for an additional charge.
Members have the option to book an extended time for their appointment for an additional charge, these are used for members with extra long or thick hair, or extensions who cannot be serviced in a 30 minute time period. If the team find that they are consistently running over on a particular member, the member will need to be told that they must book only extended blocks in their next month. The extra time and charge can be changed in settings.

Sales Training:

Every stylist should have a basic knowledge and understanding of product sales techniques, and this is no different, so we are not going to go over that here.

Specifically for you membership however, it is important to "sell" the right feature to the right client. For the client a salon membership has 3 core selling points:

  1. Value for money - no doubt your members will be saving money on the the number of appointments vs cost.
  2. Hair care and health benefits - members in your club will receive regular professional care, using professional products, as well as weekly pampering and relaxing time.
  3. Exclusivity - your members belong to a club that only a few have the opportunity to join, they are pampered, given special treatment and receive promotions an products before anyone else.  

Your team should already know the best way to direct their sales patter for each of their clients, it is worth rehearsing a "script" to highly the key benefits too.

Most importantly your team should know exactly how your clients become members, to make this easy we provide printed marketing material on our members section but here are the many ways a client can become a member:

salonblocs.com/app (Login Members & Salons)

salonblocs.com/joinourclub (Smart Search)

salonblocs.com/findaclub (Map Search)

salonblocs.com/app/[salonname] (Direct Club Link)

Service Training:

Obviously a blowdry is a blowdry, the reasons for choosing this service (apart from the low cost to the salon) is that it can be performed to a high standard with only a little bit of training - so even you apprentice can be brought in to the membership team.

It's is vital however that your team perfect the timings. Once again ENTRY, SERVICE & EXIT IN 30 MINUTES OR LESS to help with this we suggest perfecting 3 - 4 finishes these can be:

  1. Curly.
  2. Straight.
  3. Braided.
  4. Volume.
At the beginning of the appointment the stylist asks the member which finish the are having today and so consultation is kept down to a 30 second exchange. (At different seasons you could swap one out for something more festive.)
Keep your team aware that although we want to pamper these members, time should be saved anywhere possible:
  1. At the backwash, we are looking for a quick wash with shortened massage sequence and ensure that the members hair is fully towel dried afterwards.
  2. In the chair, use quick drying hair products, such as mouse, to create volume experiment with upside down drying.

You can view training video made by Emma to fully prepare your team on their new membership HERE