What would Donna Page do?

The owner of Salon Prisma in Bridlington explains how understanding why an “every client is precious” strategy was a gamechanger for her and the team

Although I felt most clients were happy with our service, I didn’t understand why the business wasn’t developing financially. It wasn’t like clients were complaining, but some of my team still had big gaps in their columns despite being trained to a high standard. During Covid I had time to really analyse my business and seeing how these historic gaps in columns had hurt my business financially, I decided to seek advice from a business coach.

I began by understanding the annual worth of our average client and how much losing just one client a month costs in a year. It was scary. I also learnt the necessity of proper planning before a client’s visit over our normal behaviour of pulling colour records if the client was booked in for colour, or otherwise just waiting for the client to come in before starting the consultation.

When we reopened, we were all trained to complete Actual, Optimised, Achieved (AOA) sheets weekly. Doing these meant we were completely planned and prepared before our clients came through the door, ready to discuss new styles, colour techniques and the correct home care. To do the AOA sheets properly we needed to use our client history on our software to its full potential. In the past this had been used just for colour records and any retail purchased.

Consistently filling out AOA sheets initially took a bit of time to get used to, but once we had all seen and benefited from the results, it began to become second nature.

Our annual team retail pre-Covid was £6k. In 2022/2023 we hit £22k, an increase of nearly 300 per cent! Client team retention has hit an alltime high of 96 per cent. So, the financial future of Salon Prisma looks a lot brighter, and I’m in the process of recruiting. We have a waiting list of clients who are eager to enjoy our “every client is precious’ service. Our existing clientele love the fact we talk about the past, present and future in their hair journey consultation regardless of whether they say: “the same as last time please!” @salonprisma_brid

WHAT MADE ME

LEE BEEVER

BLUE TIT GREENWICH AND WOOLWICH @bluetitlondon

After a hamstring injury took me away from performing at holiday parks, I needed something to put my creativity to use.

It led to the start of my development in the hair industry, a move that’s made me the person I am today. While trying to pursue my passion for hair, I was working full-time in call centres, pubs and retail to pay bills.

Working in salons has helped mould me into the person and stylist that I wanted to become, being able to channel my creativity into hair helped me not lose myself. In 2018, I moved to the Big Smoke with my husband to embark on the next chapter of our lives together, at which point I started to work with the salon collective, Blue Tit. Within this time my mother became very ill, and I was unsure if I wanted to be so far away from my Yorkshire roots. But my mum, in true Yorkshire style, was very persistent I continued with my journey as life goes on even if hers may not. It has made me an honest stylist which my clients value.

With her always in mind, I now pursue any opportunity I can and this has led me to own not one, but two salons with Blue Tit. We’re excited to join the Royal Arsenal Riverside’s ever-growing community, adding Blue Tit’s 12th salon to this thriving area.