Using salon management systems to drive stylist performance

Hair and beauty business consultant, Ryan Fox, explains how using salon management systems more effectively can improve stylist performance There are many salon management systems available and they all have different strengths and weaknesses, but most offer a way to monitor and manage performance which you can use for stylist development and training. Get to know the individuals You can tell a lot from a stylist’s figures on how they are performing, but don’t just look at what they take in terms of money. Other measures like the number of clients they do, how utilised they are, how many rebooks they make and how much retail they recommend are important too, these are your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Don’t just look at the figures though; take a coaching approach and get to know what motivates the individual by focusing on developing skills that help drive them. Set Targets & Monitor Agree realistic but stretching targets based around your KPI’s for all your stylists and then monitor their progress using your salon management system. All salon systems have certain reports which show you this information. Take time to get to know which ones are useful, run them on a consistent schedule and communicate them to your team through the notice board and one-to-one appraisals. Use the Dashboard, if you have one! Even better, if your salon management system has a performance dashboard then use this to monitor performance. Visual analytics is the latest trend in the data world and this technology is beginning to filter through into salon systems. Instead of having to run reports you are offered a visual dashboard of key information so you can monitor at a glance. Some systems offer live information while others give you the last week, month or year. Some even offer information at an individual stylist level. Look for Best Practice System reports and dashboard information can help you identify best practice within your team. You will always have your obvious high-performing stylists who stand out because they take the most money. However, a more in-depth look into the data can often reveal some interesting behavioural differences. Your top stylist might take the most money, but they may not be the best at rebooking, for example. Look for high performance in other KPI’s too and then find out how that stylist achieves it. This is identifying best practice. Share Best Practice Once you have identified who is the best at getting the results in different areas, produce a training plan to organise bite size training for the team so you can share best practice to improve everyone’s performance. No doubt you’ve heard this cheesy phrase before, but this is a real example of how Together, Everyone, Achieves, More (TEAM). Prioritise Performance Improvement Make a salon action plan. Prioritise the areas you want to improve on both at an overall salon and individual level. Set goals for the most important ones and avoid data overload by focusing on them first. Once these have improved, maintain the standard and ensure you celebrate everyone’s successes however small, because remember, every great journey starts with a first step. Ryan Fox is a Hair & Beauty Salon Consultant who improves salon performance through training and innovation. www.umbrellaconsulting.co.uk