6 ways to make a client coffee morning work for your salon

Events don't have to be big to make an impact on your salon business; a client coffee morning is easy to organise and is a great way to get people through the door to find out more about your services. Hair by JFK in Edinburgh recently hosted a Mothers Meet Up - here salon director, Karen Brown shares her top tips for hosting your own coffee morning and making it a smart business move, as well as boosting community spirit. 1. Ask yourself what you want to achieve from the event. We held our Mothers Meet Up Morning in order to create better relationships with the local residents and the surrounding community. 2. Set a target audience. Aiming your coffee morning at a specific group will help you decide how to structure your event. Our salon is surrounded by schools and nurseries, so I decided to invite mums along after they had finished the school run for a stress-free pamper morning where they could experience some of our services. At the same time, it would give them the chance to network with other mums. 3. Goodie bags are always attractive when hosting any event. No goodie bags – no attendees! It is important to put together goodie bags to hand out when clients are leaving. No matter how big or small they are, it really helps to promote the products we are retailing in the salon. 4. Set yourself some objectives. We offered hair consultations and HD Brow previews, giving clients patch tests on the day and taking their details to add to our client database. This encouraged clients to re-book into the salon for an appointment, as they did not need to worry about arranging to come in for a patch test. We also encouraged them to book an appointment on the day to receive £5 off their next hair or HD Brow service. 5. Show off your skills. During our event, stylists demonstrated quick and easy hairstyles for the mums to try out at home. This highlighted their expertise in styling and dressing hair and also gave us an opportunity to showcase the products we retail, some of which they got samples of in their goodie bags. The team explained how each product could help boost a hairstyle and let the clients feel the texture and scent of the product. 6. Show genuine interest. We selected a stylist to look after each client throughout the event, which showed our concern for their hair and beauty needs. We created good relationships with them throughout the event, so they felt comfortable asking questions and really got to know the stylist. Our aim is for the clients to remember their experience at the salon, which leads to positive feedback to other mothers and local residents – meaning more appointments are booked and more interest is shown into our salon.