I think for anyone running a salon business or any hairdresser it can cause you to panic or get lost that you are either not doing this or your team are nervous about these new techniques. I have a step by step formula for implementing the correct colour trends for success in your salon business or salon column.
1. Respect your brand value
You must look carefully at the type of hair service and ethos your company portrays. Who is your client? Are they asking for beautiful contemporary hair or edgy hair colours and styles? What type of services do you offer? Do you need to adjust your offering to keep it fresh and continue with client retention? Your team may be inspired by bright colours and cool looks, which is important that they stay inspired, but does this reflect your clientele and brand image? Could you promote new colour services i.e. bespoke colour techniques which would work for your business.
2. Involve your team
Let you team choose and create their own trend mood boards to keep in the salon for clients or put it on an iPad to show. They should always create a spring/summer one and then an autumn/winter one and feature aspirational hair colour, cuts and styles that their clients want to look like and what the team love. The mood boards should be divided up into, Blonde, Brunette, Redheads colour trends and techniques and then a Be Brave category which can show fun colours and techniques like the new rainbow colour trend, rose gold tone or new grey shades that we have seen on Instagram.
3. Educate for skill confidence
Do you need to update your team’s skills and if so invest in training for your team. But training should also be linked to your brand and clientele, so it can then be immediately used with style and knowledge. Remember even if it is a creative technique or new colour tone, to have commercial success it must be practiced many times to be perfect, like they practiced to be excellent at application and techniques ala foil highlighting. Education should always be twofold: skills and communication.
The start of the journey is consultation; your team should have a proven step by step approach which they use consistently with every client.
4. Agree on how you communicate to your clients.
Yes, social media is fantastic and works for some salons, but look at your clientele and how do they like to be communicated too; via email or social media. It is always good to review and you could send out a very short questionnaire in-salon to ensure your communication tools are working and effective. Marketing is very different now and you need to be highlighting expertise, skill and service difference to drive new business and maintain client loyalty. Repeat the messages that work and offer value for money over lots of discounts.
Finally, always be true to your brand values and your team, don’t be afraid to shout out using all media mediums on what makes your salon ‘special’ and be ‘real’ to your clients.
