What effect does staff turnover have on your salon’s success?

As part of the service sector, salons and spas rely almost entirely on the skills and expertise of their stylists to bring in results. Of course, product sales will be able to supplement the services your team provides, but practically all of these product sales are also reliant on recommendations from your stylists. It’s not just the quality of stylists that affect your business _ it’s also incredibly important that staff are loyal. 

A friendly face

Salons are renowned for the relationship that develops between clients and stylists. Many clients view their stylists as friends, and look forward to chatting to them about the latest goings on. If a client finds that their favourite stylist has gone to work elsewhere, the client will be disappointed _ and might even follow the stylist and switch their trade to a different salon. Having a good staff retention rate means a higher client retention rate, which leads to a more reliable cashflow for your salon. You don’t need to spend as much money on marketing and searching for new clients if you’re able to retain your current customers. The relationship between your salon’s staff retention rate and client retention rate is clear.

Transitional costs

Recruiting new staff costs money. It can take time to train staff up to your salon’s high standards. It can also take a few weeks for new staff to become familiar with working at your salon _ finding items in cupboards, learning how to work well with new colleagues and getting to grips with your salon software, if you use any. Lower staff turnover rates will drastically reduce these costs and take the pressure off your bank balance.

The role of salon management software

Salon management software enables you to check the progress of all your staff members, set targets for them, and report back on their achievements. If you think your stylists will enjoy the targets and challenges that you set them, do so _ it will keep them motivated and they’ll thrive on the progress. Furthermore, with the data that salon management software provides you can reward the stylists with the best sales figures by teaching them new treatments or sending them on training courses for the very latest beauty trends, treatments and therapies. In this way, your best stylists will always be learning, and won’t need to hop to a new salon in order to further their development.

Conversely, salon management software can be used to identify which stylists are becoming disillusioned or lazy. Sales figures are a bit of a giveaway in this respect. If you see a continual drop in sales by a particular stylist, take them aside and speak to them about it. It may be that they’re losing interest in the job, or they may have a personal problem that’s temporarily affecting their working performance. If it’s the former, you can take steps to increase their interest by speaking to them about their plans for the future, and how your salon can help foster those plans.

To learn more about how salon management software can help your salon to not only succeed but expand, take a look at what our salon management software offers your salon. To see for yourself, book a demo with one of our team today!