Here's how to create a personalised colour service (hint: it's easier than you think)

It’s time to get personal. Did you know that sales and loyalty increase when consumers are offered a personalised experience?*Just think about your own experience as a consumer in 2019 – you are offered a bespoke smoothie after a workout in the gym, there are iPad consultations at your local department store for creating your own specific make-up or skincare regime and your favourite e-tailer sends you newsletters based on your personal tastes. Consumers now expect personalisation at every turn. But is your colour service and salon adapting to these changing expectations? By speaking to those in the industry and investigating the trend for all things bespoke in the salon, we've found three ways that you can do to create a personalised colour service. 

Talking power  

One of the ways the hair industry can meet the trend for engaging services starts with the colour consultation. If you describe touching up Ms Smith’s roots sound as if you’re re-painting a faded garden fence, it will sound just as humdrum to her. But if you instead talk about her colour placement as though you are crafting a bespoke colour – one that is based on her personality, her skin-tone and eye colour – then you’ve made her feel understood and valued.

Clients love the mirror room as they can interact with the consultation, rather than feeling like we are talking at them. It feels personal as we use the mirrors to assess, analyse and see our guest’s hair in total clarity and we use colour capes to determine which colours suit each individual’s skin tone.

At Skyler London all clients visit a 360°mirrored consultation room. It might sound intimidating but this experiential consultation has proved popular. Lloyd Court, colour director at Skyler London explains: “Clients love the mirror room as they can interact with the consultation, rather than feeling like we are talking at them. It feels personal as we use the mirrors to assess, analyse and see our guest’s hair in total clarity and we use colour capes to determine which colours suit each individual’s skin tone.” At Moose House of Hair in Leicestershire, the team similarly pride themselves on their personalised approach. “Our colour consultation begins by inviting guests into the Balmain Couleurs Couture boutique,” explains creative director James Taylor. In the boutique, clients are met with a hair wardrobe of pre-coloured hair pieces they can try on for size. “It’s an instant and risk-free service that shows clients how different colours can suit their skin-tone, style and hair texture.” As well as seeing the colour, clients can feel the softness of the coloured hair piece, get involved in the decision-making process and try on multiple shades in a short space of time.

Time maximisers

In this time-poor era, it’s important to show clients the colour processing aspect of their appointment doesn’t need to be wasted. It can be put to good use and give you extra revenue by offering beauty treatments such as facials, manicures and threading. Not only do beauty treatments add an extra level of indulgence to a service, but they will help to maximise your client’s time. This is a sentiment which is shared by Elena Lavagni, company director at Neville Hair and Beauty, who introduced the idea of a one-stop beauty shop to her business in 2008. “Our business needed to fit into the client’s life, not the other way around. I firmly believe businesses need to become more customer-centric,” she explains.

Our business needed to fit into the client’s life, not the other way around. I firmly believe businesses need to become more customer-centric.

Most recently the company launched The Facial Bar, which offers 20-minute express medical facials that are designed to fill the colour processing time period. The facials are delivered while the client is sitting in the chair and the products are designed to be removed with gloves, sponges or face cloths so there’s no need for a sink. “The beauty of The Facial Bar is treatments can be done anywhere in the salon,” Elena adds. “We can apply lip masks at the backwash during a shampoo or carry out a signature facial while clients are reading a magazine waiting for the colour to develop.” London salon chain Live True London offers facials, manicures, pedicures and threading during the colour processing period. “By making a client’s colour service more efficient and combining their hair and beauty services in one trip, we have become a client’s one-stop shop,” explains Valerie Maine, CEO and director. Both Elena and Valerie agree it is essential to recommend the services to clients when they are booking in for colour, during their consultation and in the marketing you carry out between salon visits.  

Bespoke mixes

Professional colour brands are making their ranges more personal with innovations that make every client feel unique and allow stylists to show off their expertise. At Marylebone salon Billi Currie, the evo Fabuloso Pro system allows stylists to become mixologists. The machine blends custom-mixed colour conditioners for clients to take home to use between salon visits. Tom Smith, director at Billi Currie says: “It keeps colour looking fresh, shiny and vibrant and allows clients to become part of the colouring experience, while increasing their loyalty by giving them personalised colour.”

Stylists use the iPad technology [on the  Wella ColorDJ] to set how much of each colour tone gets added to the gloss. Clients get a product personalised to them – they pick the scent and we advise on how much moisturiser their hair needs.

Wella Professionals’ Color DJ also answers the demand for personalised colour. The world’s first digitally-enabled machine produces personalised hair glossing masks to help maintain colour at home or in the salon between colour appointments. Hani Jarcheh, creative director at Abstract Hairdressing in Buckinghamshire is the only salon in the UK to have the Color DJ machine. He says: “Stylists use the iPad technology to set how much of each colour tone gets added to the gloss. Clients get a product personalised to them – they pick the scent and we advise on how much moisturiser their hair needs.” The Color DJ machine is a focal point in the salon. It’s situated near the front desk and the scents that are used for the gloss sit in glass jars on the desk to encourage clients to try them. Interactive and immersive, clients can help create a colour formula they can see with their own eyes. Whether it’s through the consultation, add-on treatments or the colouring process itself, by making your service more interactive you can engage clients, increase loyalty and customer-spend. “At Billi Currie we are making clients interested in bespoke colour design and this in turn keeps them coming back for more,” enthuses Tom. Could this be the secret to running a successful business in 2019? * Beauty Retailing USA: Channel Analysis and Opportunities Report, Kline 2018 This article was originally published in April issue of Hairdressers Journal.