Creating a salon care culture: john gillespie's expert advice

Schwarzkopf Professional’s global care ambassador John Gillespie has developed a new care culture for the newly re-launched BC Hairtherapy range. Here, he shares his expert advice on delivering the ultimate salon care culture to leave all of your guests safe in the knowledge that their stylist truly appreciates, understands and cares for their hair. 1. Listen If we don’t listen, we don’t know what clients want or what challenges they are facing. We can easily find out exactly what they want to do with their hair, find out what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t and how they feel about their hair by simply listening. 2. Ask the questions Always open with, "how do you feel about your hair?" It’s the magic question; it’s not intrusive or expecting them to be experts on hair - it’s quite simply asking them to explain their feelings about their hair. Follow this up with “what has been working for you and what hasn’t?” and “how does the condition feel to you?” Open-ended questions are the secret and our job is to encourage the client to speak and to encourage them that they know the answers. Don’t make them feel like it’s a quiz and after a couple of key questions you will really have found out most of the information you need. 3. Look Digest what client has told you and then take a look at their hair. Combine the client’s feelings with what we see as the professionals. Analyse the scalp and hair condition, follow their answers and confirm their hair is how they see it. This is when we need to reach an agreement on the best way forward and to  introduce the products that you are going to use to create their hair care programme. 4. Live Using the products that you stock in the salon isn’t really a tip, but letting the client experience it is. Whether it’s a scalp product, shampoo or conditioner, tell your client what you are using and what some of the benefits they can expect are. Regardless of the range you are using, the process is the same; if you are using a product and love it, tell the client what it’s called! 5. Learn Sharing with the client is important because it’s their chance to learn what products are best for their hair. Summarise near the end of their salon visit so they know exactly what products have been used and which are available to them as part of their home hair care routine. On countless occasions I have discovered that the main reason clients don’t buy products is simply because they didn’t know what was used and what they could buy to use at home. 6. Be specific when sharing the product information Say something along the lines of: "I want to summarise what I’ve used on your hair today. To get the full benefit of the products and continue your journey to perfect hair, these products could help. I’ve written them down for you here if you want to take a look at them." 7. Use your intuition Now you’ve shared the information and they’ve experienced it, they know what to buy. It’s up to you to use your intuition at this point and read the client to see if they are genuinely wanting more information about the products. I really feel it’s a more emotional approach to selling and it definitely works. 8. Follow all the steps If you haven’t done the sharing during the appointment, the prescription handover is going to feel awkward. If you’ve followed all the steps, it should be a natural conclusion to their salon visit. 9. Be consistent Make sure you are consistent in delivering this service. Every client has to have the same experience, whether you perceive them to be a retail client based on your experience of them or not, it’s vital that this becomes a salon norm. Integrating this into every appointment will mean that every client will expect to know and understand the products and this can only help when it comes to increasing retail figures. 10. Think about retail outside your salon Think like a skin care expert. I’ll bet you’ve never had a facial or manicure where you didn’t know what was being used. It’s the same for hair care. Think about situations where you have brought products; skin care and beauty is a great industry to benchmark yourself against as the similarities are obvious but the retailing difference is often quite marked.