What are the most common areas that salons will upskill their staff in this year and how does this relate back to increased revenue?
This was the first of six questions thrown out to our group of leading experts to discuss at Professional Beauty’s ninth industry roundtable, focused on Advancing Education.
In attendance was Bianca Polinelli from Just Lashes, Otto Mitter from Ex-Import Niche Products, Emma Hobson from Dermalogica, Pene Timberlake from Syneron Candela, Karla McDiarmid from Macquarie Medi Spa, Anh Hoang from Le Beauty, Jess Goldenberg from The Therapist Co and Kylie Scarfe from Vamp Cosmetic Clinic.
The esteemed guests agreed the level of training, whether it was in relation to treatments, technology or customer service, had to be continually revisited to ensure standards were maintained, which in turn resulted in increased revenue.
Karla said customer service was going to be “big” this year for her and her staff, to make more money and get better results for her clients.
Emma said personalisation was a trend that was influencing the way clients were treated in Dermalogica clinics and that at “the root of everything” was excellent communication skills.
Pene said people were coming in to see you for an experience, not just to get an outcome, and it was crucial to communicate on that one-to-one level, and to tailor the treatment to the patient.
Kylie said good customer service relied on “careful staff selection at the beginning” as no matter how much training you provided for some staff, they may not respond and you end up “flogging a dead horse”.
Otto said that everyone could have the same services, but how you stood out from your competitors was dependant on your team.
Bianca said she was working on a complaints management process in her salon because “no matter how hard you try, things are always going to go wrong, but what is important is how we turn it around when a client is unhappy”.
Anh said she applied role playing in classrooms, because although she may be delivering the same training to the same people, they’re always going to learn something new out of it.
Jess said even coaches these days were starting to look beyond training, not at just the hard skills for the therapist, or even their diplomas, but those softer skills that they needed to be able to have that intimate, personal communication within the client interaction.
Following the discussion, held at The Pickle Room in Butcher & The Farmer, within Glebe’s Tramsheds, guests networked over drinks and lunch.
Watch the video below for the full discussion.