Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations

045 - Replay from the Stylist Soul Tribe Resource Fair - Nurture Panel

• Lisa Huff

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Hi, friends. Welcome back to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations. a couple weeks ago, I did a podcast episode where I recycled content from the resource fair that we put on A couple months ago now. the content is so good and there was three panels during the resource fair. There was a branding panel, a nurturing panel, and a marketing panel. I uploaded the branding panel as a podcast episode so that people don't have to search through an old Facebook group to find this content. the content is so, so good. I asked for feedback on if people wanted me to continue uploading the rest of the content in podcast format and YouTube video format. And quite a few people said yes, they want to be able to easily search for this content. So I figured this week's episode would be a replay from the 2024 Annual Resource Fair, nurturing panel. So in this podcast episode, I do want to preface with this was a live event, so if it feels a little bit messy, it was a live video. It is a long episode, about an hour so it is long, and It's definitely going to be best consumed on YouTube, so if you are listening to this on audio right now, I highly recommend searching for it on YouTube. The three speakers, which is Paloma, Afton, and Laree. They're sharing tips on nurturing. they are sharing their screen with slides. They're teaching these mini masterclasses. if you are listening to it on audio and it's a little bit hard to keep up, you may enjoy the video version better because there is a lot of visual aspects to this podcast episode. So it's already a really long episode. I will quit yapping. I will let you guys get to it so that you can watch I do think I'm going to, in another two weeks, put out the marketing panel as a podcast episode just again, so that these all live in one place, but I'm not skipping any new content for, three weeks at a time. So hope you guys enjoy it. if you do, please leave a review down below. It means the world to me. It really helps support this podcast and get it out in front of new people. And I hope you guys enjoy. Okay. Bye. Alright, so I don't think all of you were here for the branding panel, but I think a lot of you were. So we're going to do the exact same thing. 20 minute share, 20 minute share, 20 minute share, 30 minute Q& A. So I am going to resist the urge to just start blabbing, and I'm going to just turn it over. To Paloma, who is sharing first, she's going to do her first 20 minute presentation. She just tested her slides, so we should be good. So Paloma, go ahead and take it away, friend. Hey everybody. I'm so excited to be here and presenting. Thank you for having me and sharing your time with me today. I can't wait to talk about nurturing. It's one of my favorite things. So let me get this presentation thing going here. Amazing. And then, yeah, see if you can pull the chat up and if you can't, I'll just read the chat to you. I'll unmute once it gets to that point. Yes. It keeps going full screen on me. I know, it does that. See what I mean? How discombobulating it gets? It's all working just fine. Autumn knows! Autumn knows! Okay, I just had to make my window bigger. We're good. Laura, I love that you have your camera on! Hi! Good to see you! Alright, Paloma, you got it? Yep. Let me, I got it. Let me change to share screen here. Are we good? Are we doing it? I did not see your screen share. I pressed it. Okay. Go over to Zoom. There? There it is. Now I see it. Okay. Great. Cool. Take it away. So today we're going to be talking about making moments meaningful. I became a stylist because I really love creating relationships and connections with my client. I'm a performer and that's something that I do on stage all the time. And I wanted a career that would also support that. And so I have noticed. In my lifetime, I really appreciate and value experiences because they stick with you, their memories that are forever. Even there's no amount of money that you could spend on something, a material thing that could trump an experience. And that being said, most of the most meaningful experience do not cost money at all. So I just want to introduce myself. My name is Paloma. I've been doing hair for 13 years, and I'm in Southern California. I do lived in color extensions and personalized guest experience. I am a Disney girl beyond. I'm a Swifty and I love to perform musical theater. And I, like I just mentioned, I'm a sucker for experiences because they leave lasting memories that give you a story to tell later on, which is why creating a memorable moment for my client is so close to my heart. So I want you to take a moment right now in the chat. Every day we have opportunities to make memorable appointments for our clients. And I want you to think about first thing that pops into your head, what was a time that you can remember being made to feel special at something that you experienced? And what was it that stood out to you that made it so impactful? Okay, Lisa, I can't see it. No, I don't. We'll give everybody a second or so to put that in. Do you mean when we have a service provide provided or what? Yeah, like when you've gone somewhere I went to a restaurant with my husband for our anniversary and when I got there, they knew it was my anniversary and they gave us a little something at our table and they were like, happy anniversary, thank you for joining. I was like, oh my gosh I didn't think they would actually care that I wrote that down, and they took the time to do that, and, just something like that. okay, so we have a few things in the chat. Kimber said, it's simple, but I've never had a bad time at Chick fil A. Laura said they knew my name. Caitlin said the airline I stood in line for yesterday had a magician doing magic to make everyone less angry. That's going to be the takeaway from the nurture panels. We all hire a magician. That is hilarious. Disney Polynesia did so much with my family and I stayed there. We were sick. It's a welcome huff family. Every every time we left and room service came, they would like it. Set my kids stuffed animals off with the lightsabers and stuff all our shit that was just laying around the room They would set it up and cute things on the bed. They had Bell service deliver us antibiotics to our door at the polynesian when we were sick there Becky said lunch and dinner for my husband and there was a birthday card at the table side signed by all the students Melanie said the person remembering details of a previous conversation. Kimber said, I went to a restaurant for my birthday and all of the servers signed a birthday card for me. I've never had that happen to me. Laurel said a restaurant found out my husband and I had just gotten married a few hours earlier and made a huge deal and brought us champagne. We still talk about it to this day. Larissa said last night I took my sister in law to dinner for her birthday and they came out at the end with cotton candy and a cupcake and a sparkler. All because I Marked it was her birthday on the reservation. So special and fun. Lisha said the Scottish Banner, my husband and I went to one time, left a note with our names and chocolates for our anniversary. Chad of course said we're already magicians. That's everything in the chat. Okay, that's perfect. I would even say at the retreat, Lisa, you giving everybody Starbucks was like Top notch right there, too. So my point being most likely the gesture was not extravagant. It was heartfelt and thoughtful So that's where we're going to go with this today So how do we create a meaningful moment for our client? And how do we do that simply and effectively without spending a lot of money personalize the guest experience? So this picture here is what my station looks like when my client comes in. I put their name on this board, they have their snacks, and I like to do affirmation cards because that's part of my brand. But it makes your clients feel special. Like when you go the extra mile, when you put their name, when you address their needs, and you're paying attention, it's showing them that you care about them as a person, not just another client or, this is what I do every day. It's this is what I'm doing for you. And that goes a long way. So I've narrowed it down to three things that I want to like, that I try to keep in mind, which is acknowledgement options and special touches. So acknowledging, just like listening, standing in front of them when you talk, greeting them with the warm, welcome, like giving them a grateful thank you so much for coming. Like even those little things go a long way. Cause I think nowadays, like people forget to be polite sometimes, and it really stands out when you do show them that you're genuinely interested and in them and what they have to say. Giving options for their appointment makes them feel in control and less anxious about coming to a new experience. So I like to send out a pre visit customization form where they can, choose what kind of vibe. Do you want to chat? Do you want a silent appointment? Would you like a snack? Can I give you some, extra amenities for free? Then I've add ons also that people have enjoyed, but just giving options gives people a little bit more control of the situation to feel more comfortable. And then special touches, especially when they're unexpected, they can leave a lasting impression for your client because it shows that you really took the time to show that you care and that you did something unique to them. And the best part about that is that like they can't help but share that. And they feel like they're a part of something and makes other people want to be a part of your business. So here's a few ideas that I came up with that you could screenshot. based on the three things that I just shared, here's a few things that I do or that you can apply to your guest experience that doesn't really take that much time or space or money to really do. should we go on? Does anyone have any questions about these? Okay, great. Cool. The next thing about making moments memorable is creating a connection with your client because That's what makes it more than just a haircut. It's the experience you guys know, our clients are very vulnerable. We've shared special moments, weddings, babies. Sometimes you're the only person that they can vent to. And you've shared even like low moments. Like I've had clients crying in my chair because they're just like, I really needed this today and they feel safe and they have, when you have that relationship, it builds trust with your clients. And let's be real. They may come to you because of your work and good hair, but they stay with you because of the relationships that you build and how you make them feel when you're in the salon. So really emphasize thinking about things that you can do that are going to create that bond and a connection with your client. And a little goes a long way when it comes from the heart and you guys know, like you're here, you care about elevating your business. We're surrounded by want to elevate and it can make you feel man, my experience is nowhere near as good as that person or I'm not doing enough. But we forget that a lot of times people in our area aren't doing everything that you're doing and that it's those little Things that you do with your people that make it stand out and there's a lot of privileges that you have as a stylist that sometimes we forget to take for granted because we do it every day. We've been privileged to be able to physically touch our clients. We have time to talk with them. And so I like to go into the love languages when we address some of those things, because those are like, when you're feeling, filling up your client's love tank, they are like already feeling so much better. So I put a few things to like address that, like you might be the only person that your client talks to, like just instead of going to the back during, their processing, maybe sit there and take the time to listen, spend the quality time with that client that really values quality time. be the only person that's acknowledging them. They may be a busy mom or busy with work and nobody takes the time to tell them like they're appreciated. And we as service providers have the ability to pamper them, to serve them, to make them feel like this is their time where it's like, Oh my gosh, no one does this for me. This is why I look forward to coming here because I feel so much refreshed afterwards. Like I mentioned earlier, a very rare time that you're able to touch somebody physically, and we do that in our industry every day, and it seems like normal for us, but some people, if they live alone, maybe they don't get that nurturing touch from someone, or even if they're not a hugger, you're still being able to touch their head when you shampoo just take that time to really embrace that and give them that. gifts as well, and it doesn't have to be a big thing. It can be a little card or just a little like something that you can give them. Even snacks and drinks can sometimes feel like a treat for them. And then you have an ability to make somebody feel beautiful and confident and just voice that. Tell them, let them know, like you look amazing. I love you. I love our time together. Just affirming words to let them know that you appreciate them. And don't overthink it. It can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. people want to know you care. And if you're really stuck on something, just think about, like we did earlier notice things that make you feel good, and then just do that. And it could be one thing, it could be a few things. But if you are still not sure, just ask. So ask your clients what they value. Ask them what makes them feel good, what they enjoy. I did a poll on Instagram just in preparation for this presentation. I was really surprised by a lot of the things that my clients said. Usually the options get more interaction, but the type in answers were actually really good that I got. So I'm just going to share a couple. And it was more about, I love getting to talk to you, getting to catch up on live, having a good time together. Somebody said in the chat, it stands out that you remembered what we talked about last time. And you checked in with me, followed up with me and having the options to customize my experience makes me feel at ease when I'm coming in knowing that you're going to take care of me. So I was really surprised by that because I do a lot to elevate the experience and the most meaningful things to them were these things like it really touched my heart as well. And so I want to challenge you guys this week. To try something so if you haven't done anything or you're nervous Here's a few ideas that I wanted to give you that you can start doing like right away tomorrow If you wanted to you don't really have to spend anything Just wanted to check in see how you're doing How's your hair feeling today? That really goes a long way because it gives your client an option to say it's great or I was nervous to let you know something happened, but thank you for checking in. It just feels like you're going the extra mile to make sure that they're okay. Unexpected surprise. You can choose someone and bring them Starbucks in the morning, or I had a cool idea about picking up a bouquet of roses from Trader Joe's and just giving it to them when they come in or when they leave. Just one flower. It's a small thing, but it's oh, I wasn't expecting that. And it's something that they may feel like was an added special touch. I showed you my name board. I put up a welcome board with my client's name. I got mine on Amazon. It's super cheap, but if you don't have one, you can use like a dry erase marker or a lipstick. I think Kimber does this with her clients that like you do a lipstick heart on their mirror or something when they're new, but it's just like a little something fun when they walk in and see that and Oh my gosh. They acknowledge me coming in. Or you can do a client shout on Instagram, feature, somebody tell a story about something that you really love about them to show that you appreciate them as a client and that you're highlighting that for them. And it makes me feel special and I'm, tagged in someone's photo even though it's a small thing. It's ugh, they noticed me. So those are a couple things I wanna follow up in the Marco Polo to see how it's going. So try something and I just really wanna hear. The responses of what your clients, how they react to you doing something different in your salon experience for them. So I'm going to be checking you guys. make sure, pick something, let's do it. And then if you upgrade to the VIP, if you want to, I have a masterclass that goes into like my exact client experience, step by step about how I personalize the guest experience. I have like text verbiage, different links to things and like an entire PDF handbook that takes you through the process of what to do with ideas. And then like Space to brainstorm your ideas. So that is something that I cover in my masterclass. If you wanna upgrade to the VIP you can always reach out to me as well in the Marco Polo Group or on Instagram. When Russell is talking about his eating ice cream with his dad and they're talking about I like to count the blue cars and the red cars. And he says, it might sound boring, but I think it's the boring stuff that I remember the most. And so I just wanted to leave you with that little quote so that you can remember that it's the little things that are really important and that stick out and leave that lasting memorable moment for your client. So thank you for this presentation. Those are exciting for me to do. And let's just keep the chat going. Let's get in the Marco Polo group. If you want to reach out to me on Instagram, this is my info right here. But this is just something I'm really passionate about. So I could talk about it forever and ever. So please reach out if you have questions and let them follow up. Let me know how you're doing with Be with trying some other stuff. So that we're at one 48. We're doing fantastic. I love, okay. I'm going to share it during the tech chapter during one of our articles that she was going to put the quote in and then Autumn was like I'm going to copy you and do a quote too. And those have been like my two. I have two favorite quotes of the resource fair so far. So I feel like moving forward, future resource fairs, we need to tie it up because they really were so meaningful and you guys are just absolutely blowing me away. Okay. So we have some questions. We're going to save those. Okay, so we are doing fantastic on time. I'd say we can probably just roll straight into Afton. Afton, are you ready? Yes, I am ready. All right, go ahead and share your screen and let's get straight into it. My name is Afton. I've been a hairstylist for 21 years. I have owned my own suite slash boutique for three years now. My clients have really enjoyed the fact that I've brought a boutique into my salon and that I have started creating events around that. It's something that's worked really well for me. I do two events a year, but they get talked about basically year round. It's always something that comes up in conversation. So I'm excited to share this information with you. Hopefully you find it useful. Having a boutique in the salon definitely offers an enhanced experience for your client. It's convenient. It's a nice way to give them something to do while their color processes, instead of just looking at their phone or their magazine. A lot of times my clients like to shop around they'll come in early for their appointments and shop. Sometimes they'll want to stay after and look at different items. So it's like a two for one. They get to do a little multitasking while they get their hair done. And it's a great way to offer unique items curating your boutique with items that align with your salon's aesthetic and your target market makes it. A more enjoyable experience for your clients. Just think if you're in a space that's totally customized to you, the target market, that just makes you feel different and in a good way. So that's something that's nice to do for clients to have that. You are able to offer them personalized recommendations. You can offer personalized gift ideas or. Just personalize anything for if clients have needs, you can recommend something for them, not just with hair care items, but with different items that you have in the boutique, and you can offer exclusive access to items, making them feel. More special and like they're having a personalized shopping experience. The boutique is great at building relationships. It helps clients stay more loyal to you. The more that they shop with you, I found not with just hair care items, but with boutique items the more they're going to come back and shop in between appointments, which is just great for retention. And it's good for client insights. Observing your client's boutique preferences can provide insights into their taste and lifestyle, allowing for more personalized service and engagement. But it's interesting to see what boutique items people are drawn to. And I feel like it takes you just like a little bit further into knowing your target market a little bit better. That's been fun to do. There is added value with having a boutique selling products or items that compliment your services. For example, like satin pillowcases, heatless curling. Rod things, different fashion accessories, hair clips, that type of thing that can enhance the overall value and the results of the service you provide for clients. If you need to teach them how to put in A Bobby pin a certain way you have that. And it gives you the opportunity to sound like an expert in more than one realm of things. You're already the hairstylist, the hair expert but having different items in the boutique that you know about and different things to offer like that gives you the option to be a trusted source and makes you a one stop shop for the clients in different ways. There is increased revenue streams, which is always a good thing. Diversified income, the boutique adds a secondary stream, which is always nice. And it is a great way to implement impulse purchases. Attractive displays of unique items can lead to impulse buys, increasing your overall sales. Just changing out the little display I have by my little checkout station. Anytime I change it out, I get so many sales in one day from that alone. So just moving your products around and rearranging things keeps things new and looking fresh and keeps it exciting for the clients. So it's not just the same every time. And then it is great for events and social interactions with clients. Hosting events. Can create a sense of community and give clients additional reasons to visit your salon and boutique the social media engagement you can get around an event is really great. They're likely to share their boutique finds on there. So you're just getting more engagement, more views and a broader audience there. So open house events are something I've done. Since I've opened, I've done two a year and it is something my clients have loved. And it has been a really great way to build community within my clientele. I'm just a one chair salon. And I don't double book clients. So my clients don't usually see each other. So it's really fun to see my clients come together and interact at events like this. They get to chat with each other meet each other. So that's always fun to see. And it's a great way to build community by bringing other businesses in. I've done more of an open house slash market event where I bring in other vendors. I've had up to eight other vendors out in the parking lot. And so having those eight other people promoting the event gets more eyes on your. On your space on your items. It's just a great way to connect with people and foster the relationships with your clients. And it's really nice to be able to interact with your clients at these events where you're still obviously going to be professional, but it's just a little more relaxed than when they're getting their hair done, you can just be, I don't know, a little bit more yourself in a different setting. So that's always fun. It's a great way to enhance exclusive, give clients exclusive access to items. You can do special offers at these events and open houses. So offering them a special promotion can help them encourage them to come in, incentivize purchases. That they might make at the events and it's a way to also give back to the client at the same time with client appreciation expressing gratitude and open house is a great opportunity to thank your clients for being loyal and showing support and it helps reinforce their positive feelings about your salon. It's a great opportunity to offer complimentary samples for different products, have goodie bags, or raffle prizes as ways to show and add excitement to the event, creating memories at the event. I always like to decorate for the event have treats at the event. Offer different things that I don't necessarily always have all the time in the salon. So like with the balloon arch for my anniversary celebration, I left that up for, I think two weeks after my open house and people are like, Oh my gosh, what are the balloons for? And so that was a nice way to build some FOMO for my next event. People were excited to see that. The salon was changed up. The boutique was changed up, something special was going on. So just keeping that new and exciting for them and same with the treats and refreshments. It's a fun opportunity. You can collaborate with someone else, another business in town and do something. You could make them yourself, but just a fun way to give back to clients that way. And you can encourage clients to take photos at these events and share their experience on social media. And if you have other staff members, it's a chance for everybody to interact with more of the clientele than maybe they're used to just interacting with. It is a great way when you have events to attract new clients. This is from one of the outdoor markets I've done in the parking lot. I've had eight different vendors and a food truck. I've had local floral shop do a pop up floral bouquet making thing that people can come into the salon and make a bouquet with. So it's just a really great way to collaborate with other businesses and really spread awareness about your business. At the same time, and it's good for community growth hosting a well publicized open house can raise your salon's profile and the local community, attracting new guests, whether it be. For behind the chair or just for boutique shopping. My location is tucked back into a little neighborhood. And when I've done the outdoor markets, it's been really fun to have people from the neighborhood come over and chat with everybody. I saw that you were here, but I've never been in here before. This is really cool. So it's just a nice way to open the door for people to come into your space in a different way. They might not be looking for a new hairstylist, but they could be looking for a new place to shop. So that's a nice option to have that. If you are interested in possibly carrying items. I recommend sitting down and doing some deep thinking and asking yourself if carrying any items align with you and if they align with your salon. Does that feel right to you? It might not be right for everybody and that is totally okay. When you do feel like it aligns with you. And you find an item or you find a brand that you like ask yourself, does this item align with your target market? And does it align with your brand? A popular. Easy item brand to start out with is kitsch. It's hair care adjacent, so it's easy to piggyback on top of your already on top of product sales already. You can just add in kitsch tools. It's a women owned business. It's eco friendly. I feel like all of those things align with brands pretty easily. So that's a nice way to start. And if you do decide to carry items, I recommend starting small. Hair care accessories, tools self care items are very popular. And it's a nice way to use some of those self care items on your client. Like I have a relaxing pillow mist spray that I spray on the warm towels for clients. So when I wrap their head with it at the end, it has the lavender and sage scent in it. And then it's they're getting to try the product before they may be possibly buy it. So that's a way to expose different clients to things that you have. If you are interested in carrying items, my VIP masterclass goes into where I source all of my products from, and just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen today. Hopefully got your wheels spinning and a few more ideas for you on what you can possibly carry. I am happy to answer any questions and help in any way that I can. Feel free to reach out however you're comfortable. Instagram, Facebook, Marco Polo, anything like that. And then there were some questions about the online store too. And obviously just, how I feel with you being in the intensive and bringing that to life. I'm excited to go into Q and A. So you finished a little bit early and I was just thinking, I'm going through some questions right now. But honestly, I'd say let's move on to Lurie. And even if Lurie wraps up early, let's go to the Q& A because I have, Afton, I think so far more questions for you than any panelist yet. So it's almost good that you finished early because people have a lot of follow up questions. Kelsey said event planning is intimidating. Would love more information on that. Okay, so we'll get into that in Q& A. Lurie, are you ready to share your screen? Let me stop. Okay, Afton stopped her screen share. Go ahead and try to share your screen. Awesome. That'll make that full page. Beautiful. Can everybody see the race? Screen. Yep. Looks good. All right, Lurie. I'd say you are good to take it away, friend. Hey, I'm Lurie. I'm here today mainly my goal is just going to be able to teach you a little bit about nurturing your salon guests, but to actually building lasting relationships by creating exceptional guest experiences. Some of the tribe members already. I've already been speaking about this Paloma and I do a lot of things that are very similar. I'm Lurie. I am a swan owner out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I've been behind the chair for almost two decades, which is crazy. I do own a full service salon and spa and boutique as well. I do have 11 employees, one of them, which is my husband. We have in the last five years been awarded the best salon in our area. We win numerous awards throughout the year just in what we do. One of the biggest things in our world that we do talk about a lot. Lisa wanted me to share, but, we say money talk is dirty. And for me, it is very hard. But last year I did almost 250, 000 behind the chair. That was just me alone. And that was mainly only in service dollars. I was able to put almost like 45, 000 into my husband and I's 401k. I travel a lot. So you guys, if you follow me on Instagram, I'm always taking my niece and nephew somewhere. So I do that. My point of saying all of this to you though, is mainly because it's the loyalty, the trust and the relationships that I have built with my guests that have made all of it completely possible. If I didn't have that and I haven't nurtured. The clientele wouldn't be there. So that's why I wanted to shoot that. Let me ask this question and Lisa, you're going to have to read me the answers because I don't know how to read the chat, but tell me what's the purpose of nurturing? What do you think? That's even for why do we nurture? Why is it important? No, right or wrong answers. But the 1st thing that comes into your head into the chat. All right, Becky said guest retention, client loyalty, creating trust and relationships. Kelsey said she loves hearing your numbers and it's very inspiring. Thank you for sharing. Make our clients feel special. Welcome care, cared for loyalty, retention, loyalty. I love caring for women. So many elsewhere to help people be seen and cared for building connection. That's what we got in the chat. Awesome. So for me, like I always say guest nurturing is really important. That's exactly right. It builds your loyalty. Happy guests are going to. Come back, happy guests are gonna talk to their friends. So it's the word of mouth that we use. They are gonna tell everybody else about it. I have this happen all the time. Certain things that I do, my clients will be out to dinner with their friends. We send a day before an appointment. form, and they get it, and they're like does your hairstylist ask you what you want to drink? Does your hairstylist ask you if they want a snack? So those are the kinds of things that come up that totally work. They're gonna tell their friends and their family about it. Obviously then, ultimately, that's gonna bring the loyal guests. They're gonna contribute to your consistent revenue. The business is gonna grow from there. Next thing. So understanding your guests. This one is really important to me because I like everything to be super personal. And sometimes it's very overwhelming as a stylist. As I told you, I work five days behind the chair and run my business of 11 employees. If I can do it, I swear everybody can do it. It's all about being organized. But knowing your guests is huge. If you learn their preferences, their style, their needs, that's how you can get personalized. You can personalize their services, whether that be, every single guest is different. So some of those things are going to come from, I don't know if it's because they have different pain points. Maybe they have dry hair. Maybe they're having a scalp issue. Hair loss issue. I have an add on for that. Maybe they're just having a bad day. And again, I like to know these things. We all are going to hear about them regardless. But sometimes you're like, you know what? Let me throw that extra. Thank you. No, just for coming. Let me know. You're special to me, too. So one of the ways that I do that is I do guest profiles. Everybody does have their guest profiles. You can do that basically on an intake form. You can use Vegaro. You can use your booking system. Most of them have some kind of an intake. You can do them by hand if you don't have that. You can also do a jot form. There's so many ways. Collect them by email. Mine, I like to do it by also by doing a guest survey. These are things that I'm asking them. That are more like what's your favorite color. Do you like to read? What kind of books are you looking for? Do you listen to podcasts? Where's someone you like to eat? All of those things help me that if I'm someone's having a special birthday or an anniversary or something like that, I have ways that I can actually go into that survey and get them something super, super personal. My other thing that I love to do is I share these surveys. I do them twice a year and I share them with their friends and family members that also come to me. Because then it gives them awesome ideas for gifts for holiday or birthdays or things like that. One of the things that I like to start with is by saying, our new guests. are our first impression and as we all know, first impression really matters. We always want to make sure that we're doing a really beautiful warm welcome. greeting that guest with a warm welcome is so important and I know we all know it, I'm just reiterating it. Clean, inviting space. Always wiping down your space before you're bringing that new guest back. They don't care that you just had five haircuts. It's disgusting and none of us like it. One of the things that I always tell my staff is sit in the chair as if you're the guest, and then you're going to see what they see. It's a completely different world from that seat. So I do encourage you to do that because you will see all the dust bunnies and it's gross. We do a welcome email. If you are a new guest to us, We're going to send out a welcome email before your first appointment. That email is going to say here's who we are. Here's how we do things. Here's some things to expect. And then also here's the kind of payments that we take. Here's where you can park all of those kinds of things. We do greet you with a welcome bag. We do welcome with a welcome bag. You'll see a photo of that in one of my other slides. It's just a beautiful welcome bag. It has a couple little sample products in it. I also like to put some restaurants that are in the areas or other like local businesses that we recommend as a team. Things like that are really fun. The day of arrival form. You heard Paloma also talk about that. And also you heard about the post appointment check in. I do both of those things as well. Snacks and refreshments are always a really good touch. You never know if someone's coming from work or running around. It's such a beautiful thing and it's so easy to do so for your existing guests. I gather all of the information. I organize the information, I store it and then the only part that no one ever wants to do is I use it So with that being said, the best way to do it is you're gonna have to figure out a way that you gathering the information works for you and your business. I'm gathering information for a staff of 10 stylists and spa professionals. Bogaro helps me with that. A lot because everything is right on the client's profile. I can run a report whose birthdays are in June. What I do at the beginning of the year is I run a report by month per stylist. They get all their birthdays for every single month for the year. And then we organize it and they send out their birthday cards and they have it for the beginning of the month. We send out those whole entire stack of cards. So that's just one way that you can do that. So for me, it's all about celebrating all the things. All the things are super important to me, whether it's something really small or really big. And also are special for that person, but birthdays, holidays, new home new baby, marriage loss is huge. We all lose, people that we love or pets that we love. And sometimes it goes without acknowledgement or they're in your chair and they're really upset and you're comforting them then, but to let them know later that you also, are thinking of them after they've left the chair is really important. Obviously retirement is a big one. Their kids birthdays. I like to send birthday cards to the kids as well. Things like that. So those are just some things that I like to do in certain things that I celebrate. Now some of the things clients are in your chair and they start to tell you something that's happening in their life, I do take a mental note and then I at least send a card. One of the ways that I organize our cards are on Amazon they have a card organizing box. My birthday cards I get on Amazon in bulk by 150, 200 at a time. But I have all these cards in these little compartments and I literally will, that client will leave and I'll go up and be like, retirement card and sign it and put it in the mail right away. So I don't forget. And it's just those little touches that makes such a big difference to people. I do like to celebrate birthdays really big. As you can see in the photo there, we do a little scratch off ticket. It just gives them a little 5 off for their birthday. I give them chocolate. Some people I do candles. Also, the flowers are always a nice touch. And those are just the 399 little bouquet that you can get at Trader Joe's. So those are some fun things that we can celebrate. Personal touches. I will say it over and over, but details are so important. Recalling birthdays and their favorite things, all of that is going to come from their surveys. You listening, you taking good notes, any of those things. I had a guest recently. her father had passed away. And instead of sending something to the funeral home, because I do honestly try to make it to a lot of my guests parents passings funerals. It's important to me, but her and her dad went to the movies every single week. So instead I made a donation to buy kids in need movie tickets. And she was so it because she's really big in charity. So those are the things I mean by making it personal. Customizing the experience again, personalized recommendations and services. If they're telling you they have dry hair, we can offer all 15 of our out on services. They probably don't even know that we use again. They have a problem. We fix it. That's customizing the experience. client appreciation. I send thank you notes randomly all the time, but if someone's having a bad day and I've, they've been in my chair and they all say to me, Oh, Lurie, thank you so much for my therapy session today. Send a card. Just want you to know, I'm really thinking about you and I hope your day's got better. Just little things like that are going to make a huge difference. On my slides, I have a few different pictures of things. Obviously we love to do little custom copies. We change it up. It's seasonal. The picture that you see of the Pinterest boards. I have Pinterest boards specifically for each one of my clients so that when they're ready to make a change, I can pull it up and be like, girl, I was thinking about you. Here's what I really want to do. How do you feel? I'm a Disney freak too when my clients take their kids to Disney, I make Disney ears cause I'm crazy and I love it so much. So much. And I always find out even when my clients are adults and they're going, I love to make them the ears. And sometimes whenever they're taking their sons, I make autograph books with their name on them on my cricket. They love it. And it's just fun. We also have all of our little serene treats menus. Those are on our stations. Just again, personalizing things, making it convenient and just showing appreciation is going to be huge. Loyalty rewards programs are different for everybody. This is just an idea. We do have a rewards program. I have it on like a little shelf talker. It's front and back. It's really easy. I put it in the welcome bag. And then after a few months of seeing people, I remind them that I also do it. We do a point for every dollar they spend and then they can cash in the points for dollars off. Most people are usually used to referral program of some sort, but this is how we do ours, and it's easy to talk about because we can give it to them, and it sits at our front desk as well. It always, you can do exclusive offers for those people. I know some people do private Facebook groups for their loyalty members, and then they can do incentives in that group and things like that, too, makes it just so much easier. This is my team some of them but the consistency is super crucial reliable. Service is going to mean that consistent. It's going to define that it's high quality standards. They need to be high in order to maintain all aspects of your business is also a high standard. Your guest trust is going to you're going to build and you're going to maintain by keeping things consistent, meaning my entire team needs to be on the same page. If not, they say to me like, Oh my friend goes to Darla and she didn't get a birthday card, but I always get a birthday card. If the consistency is not there, it's not gonna really mesh with your brand, if that's what you're going for. So I have a call to action and it is, I want you to come up with three ways that you can start to celebrate your guests in your own space. maybe it is just a birthday card or maybe it is just starting to acknowledge, when someone's having a bad day, whatever that is, I want you guys to put it into the Marco Polo group and we'll talk about it this week. Thank you guys so much for coming and thanks for honestly being here. This means the world to me that I got to be a part of it. It's really awesome, but please stick around for the Q& A. I know that's next and we should have fun with that. And as Lisa always says, at the end of every single tribe call, let's keep the conversation going on Marco Polo. And if you need to upgrade the VIP to be a part of it, you need to do that. So thank you so much. Okay, to no surprise, we're blown away by Lurie, which I knew was gonna happen. That's what's happening now. And I'm gonna say right back to you, Lurie. Thank you for after feeding the homeless this morning, coming to do the resource fair. And I don't say that as a joke. She actually sent out 130 homeless people this Morning and agreed to be part of the resource fair. So a lot of those initial question of Lurie, do you sleep? that is definitely the kickoff starting point. But I also want to say, Lurie, I'm just amazed by you and I know Lurie sometimes feels a little bit like the odd one out for how love she is with her business. I will never forget her first onboarding call into soul tribe. She was like, I don't want people to make me feel bad for the amount that I work. Every time I share the money that I make, the next question is, but how much did you work? And this is her life. She doesn't have children. This is what she loves. And this is her day in and day out. So yeah, we're all so inspired and so excited. Okay. I have a ton of questions for all three of you. I am gonna just start, I was putting some in a, in the text, I was putting some written down. I'm gonna start with the ones that I have over here. Question one, and then you guys also feel free to use the hand raise feature. Question one is Paloma. How do you still make your clients feel special during their appointment, but you need to walk away, for example, eat food, wash bowls, need a moment for yourself, et cetera. So like Philemon, do you have thoughts on that? We just choose to walk away, to dissociate for a little bit. Cause we've been socializing all day and then there's times that we have to, and that's the balance that we need. So what are your thoughts on that? Oh yeah, I totally get that and definitely need it. Not every client's love language is quality time. So you know which ones they're going to want to talk to you during that time to like anticipate. But usually if I do need to do that, I'll ask them like, are you comfortable? Do you need anything? Can I get you something? And if they say no, then I'm like, okay, if you don't mind, I'm just going to run to the back and have my lunch for a minute. Let me know if you need anything. And then I just go back there and I'll check on them maybe in 15, 20 minutes. Okay, I had a question written down about love languages too, so that's fascinating. Because honestly, there's some people that probably don't want you to sit there and stare at them either. the DOA form tells you, do they want to chat, do they want to be quiet. The love language tells you, do they want quality time, do they not need that. So it's deeper than just doing that for every single client. Next question is for Kimber. From Kimber. It's for Afton. Sorry, I was like, Kimber doesn't have a boutique. From Kimber for Afton. Does your boutique have its own business entity? Does it have the same hours as your salon space? Afton, do you want to chime in on that? It does not have its own business entity. It is the same as Kimber. And the retail tax ID is the same as selling retail products. Yep. Fun fact, my retail tax ID for merch is the same as selling products behind the chair. So you, legally, you really can get behind a lot of those things. Yeah, and this, what was the second part of the question, sorry? The debt of hours, yes. Technically, yes. I, Don't have a ton of people that come in and shop because they don't want to interrupt during other clients services. They feel like they'll be interrupting. So they tend to just come to their appointments a little bit earlier, or they definitely show up for all the events that I have. I have an open on, In the past on Sundays when I don't work and I will do that again for like holiday hours staff. Yeah. So for holiday hours, I'll have extra shopping time. And also I'm starting in doing like online boutique shopping, that type of thing. So I have unlimited hours while working the same hours. Okay. So this is also a lot of questions at once. I'm just going to read it off and then we can go one by one How do you decide what to carry? Do you have multiple suppliers online store question mark drop ship or you ship lots of questions? Lol, do you buy wholesale? What do you do with these things that may not sell are they locally produced? So let's start all the way up at how do you decide what to carry? I go by things I like and then I'll go, will my target market like this, does this item align with my brand, that type of thing. But I'm a little, I get a little bit loose with it sometimes. I have, I live in Nebraska, so I have a Nebraska tic tac toe game that has like an era of porn and the state of Nebraska for the things. So that's not like incredibly target markety, but. It is a little bit because we all live in Nebraska. So vary with what I carry and on how I decide to do it. I do buy the items wholesale. I do have multiple suppliers. I purchase. Most of my things off of fair. I talk about that a lot in my masterclass and how to use fair. They have it. So you can search for certain values. You can put, I want something that's women owned. I want something that gives back, community. I want something that's eco friendly. You can search for different brands that way. And then you can search within those brands to see if they have items that you want. On fair, almost all of the brands have an order minimum that you have to make. Sometimes it's as low as a hundred dollars. Sometimes it's very small ones have a 50 minimum order. And then it just varies from brand to brand on there. The other thing they have is item. minimums. So say you wanted to buy a lip balm. If you want this flavor, you have to buy at least five of it. And then same for the others. There's different minimums as well. I go into that on my VIP masterclass as well. Yep. So definitely check that out if you guys are interested. Okay. I'm just making sure I got all those drop ship or you ship? She ships. I'm shipping. Yes. And I will just tell you guys as well, I've been doing my own shipping too, as much as I wish drop shipping was working. And we, I just personally haven't found the perfect flow for that. It seems daunting at first, but it's actually fun once you start doing it. And I remember that's when I convinced Afton to do the intensive. I'm like, you can just have a shipping station set up with your boxes and your tissue paper and your cards and all the things. And once you get everything you need, the. Thermal printer, all the supplies that you need. It's really not that bad. What do you do with things that may not sell? I think you should lead into the boxes with that just cause you didn't share that. Yeah. I am starting to offer gift boxes where I have pre set items in the gift box that are sold at a slightly discounted price. And the first one I did was a ministry box. Okay Lurie, here's a question for you. Do you double check those stats each month as new guests are added to the database? I'm assuming so, but just curious. And I know there's been conversation in the chat about just Giving all of this information from people. Some people asked if they could see your survey. And I also am just curious, remind me what the survey questions are. Because they were very niche and very specific. Podcasts you listen to. There's a, I have a ton, I have a ton of questions. I have put it into our Facebook group before, and it may be linked to my masterclass. If not, I'll send it to you and you can put it on my masterclass. I've sent it to my tribe a lot. Yeah, it's definitely, there's so many things. One thing you can do too, is there's a, I did one for my staff off of Canva. It was like for a Secret Santa this year. We put them all in a hat and everyone picked. There was a billion questions on there that were like even just silly things, but yeah, I have a staff survey as well. It's different because it's, for donors. Maybe it's both in the Facebook group, the free Facebook group. I don't know if you can find that for VIP people or if you send it to me, I can put it in there, but yeah. I would love to see anything you've got that you're willing to share. Cause sometimes just coming up with those random questions are hard too. Absolutely. Yeah. It took me a long time to come up with really good ones. But yeah both of the surveys I can share, but they are pretty detailed but you can always add things to them or take things away. do you double check those stats each month as new guests are added to the database? Yeah, so I have monthly meetings with my staff in general. So what I do is I run them at the end of the month before the next month. And so if there's anyone they need to add to the birthday card list, they will. No, there wasn't for you, Lurie. My team, is really bad about making sure all of this is collected They say they don't want to sound overbearing despite my reassurance. for me, it's different because I am in a state where everybody is an employee, so I collect everything for them. Yeah, so for me, you can't make an appointment without doing an intake form. So it's put right back onto the client, not necessarily the stylist. My stylist really don't have to do anything other than make sure that they fill them out. And I do keep up with them and I will like, we do have monthly meetings, so it'll come up at a monthly meeting, but it is part of our like their KPIs. So if they don't do it, it's, They can't get their raises and things like that. Nurturing is a huge part of who we are, and so it has become part of our KPIs. Love it. Paloma, so the challenge for me was when I was four. Challenge for me when I was four, saying that I wanted to get any bookings. Tell me more, Paloma. Let's see if we can troubleshoot that. When I used to require the intake form before they could book an appointment, like people just dropped off all the time. Yeah. We have forms, but our experience survey said it was keeping people from booking appointments because it made the process more difficult. Loree, do your people have to book it before they can see? Okay. I am in agreeance. If what data is telling you people aren't booking, I think it's an automation immediately after they book. That's what I was going to say. Can you set it up as an immediate, once the client has booked, send them this form. You could absolutely do it that way, but I don't, yeah, we don't have that problem. at least we haven't come across that issue. Yeah. And today broke, don't fix it. And for the people that it wasn't their performance, I'm sure if it was for Lurie, she'd tweak it. But yeah, I would just say that you send it right after, and then if they don't fill it out, which sometimes people don't, I would say the QR code we were talking about once they get there, just have them fill it. It's almost for example, I took my dog to the vet last week, and they sent me the form three times. I didn't fill it out. I remembered the moment I got there, and I gotta sit and fill out a keyboard, The hell? Clipboard. I had to fill out a clipboard, and my dog was, I was like, damn, I should have filled this out ahead of time. But if you don't fill it out, they just know that when they get there, they have to fill it out. I saw in the chat, Kimber, my question is, do you guys, do you do a can you put the information maybe on like my day of arrival form goes out the night before and they do put their birth date on it so that every single day when my girls or my staff comes in and they see their DOA, they see a birth date, if nothing else, so they can know to celebrate their birthday when they're coming in. Does that make sense? That's a question on my DOA. It's month and day. The client has to put in it. So we've got to start there. How do you send the form the day before? I use Vegaro, so I just have it set up. It sends at 6 p. m. It is a jot form, so it's just a text and it goes out with a link. Lovely. I love that it's automated, too, because going back to the question of do you sleep, that clarifies it's automated. Kimber said, to be honest, my staff really sucks at this. Kimber, of all people, I think you can get them on board. You definitely can. Question from Paloma, or for Paloma would love to hear you talk about your process in the Q& A with a check in text. Do you? Do this after every client's appointment every time or every few times? Also, do you automate this or do you have a few minutes at the beginning of the day that you keep reserved for this? I don't automate it. So it's usually like an Instagram or something. I'll just message them when I think about it. So I don't have a set aside time. It's usually just, and I fell off for a little bit, to be honest. I got back on it more recently. Just, Hey, how's it going? How's your hair doing? It's really quick. And usually they're like, it's great. I love it. Like most of the time that's in my cool. Great. I'm glad to hear that. And that's it. And you know what I call that? Rather than it being like a system and a process, I would call that surprise and delight, which I think should be worked in and I have trouble adding high level nurturing things out of the fear of when I get overwhelmed, can I retain this? Can I keep this up? Can I keep doing this? Or is it going to fall off and then I'm going to disappoint people? So when that happens, I think of things as surprise and delight. They don't expect it every single time, which makes it extra special when it does happen. Almost going back to the daymaker jar in the morning. During the vision casting workshop, if you just do it very random and drop in and almost has even more effect, I think, than every single time I noticed it because like my facial girl will do that every time I go. And sometimes I'm like, I don't need you to do that every time, but it was, nice once in a while. She sends follow up email too. So it's cool. Yeah. And you can tell it's automated so you don't feel as bad, not responding, and that's what I said, this is what always holds me back too. So I think we should all breathe a sigh of relief that I personally would almost recommend having it be very much more surprise and delight and at random, I think it lands. stronger and then you're not setting yourself up where you later feel like you're slacking on business practices because, you can't. So I think a lesson for all of us could be maybe take a piece of paper, draw a line on it and say, what are my consistence? What are my maintenance for nurturing? And what are the extra like active things that I can do? The surprise and the delight, the little surprise. Sprinkles I can add into my business and then stay consistent with your regular things and then choose when to, do the other things, even intuitively when it feels right. I have some more questions on my piece of paper. Afton, how big is your boutique space and do you have any feedback for anybody who's in a very small space and they were super inspired by this and wanted to take on even a baby portion of it? Yeah, my space is about 400 square feet. And that's for the whole salon and boutique everything. And if you have a very small space or not a lot of space at all, you could just think about bringing stuff in for the holidays, or even think about doing like gift boxes, just have a set number of things where. You could have the gift box on display for a month or two and let people pre order it and then they can pick it up at a certain day. That way you don't have to keep all of the items and all of the stock in your space. You can keep it at your house instead or somewhere. Love that. Yeah. Kimber said maybe I'll start on holiday. And I think that almost, they talk about like sales triggers and scarcity is a sales trigger. So even if you guys just want to implement this for a period of time, knowing that it's a very limited quantity and when it's gone could even give a little cash injection into your business as well. I got a couple more questions for Lurie, and I'm getting to the end of my questions. If you guys have any more, feel free to use the hand raise or put it in the chat. Lurie, someone wants to know what was on that new guest tray where there's like the beautiful teapot. Yeah, so I usually, whenever someone wants tea instead of just getting them a teacup, I have a variety of teas. And then on the tray, a teapot that's actually from Target. It was like five and they're like three or 5 a little bin. I have a few of those. So we put the teapot, the cup, we have these cute little golds spoons. And then we have honey, their honey spoons or honey sticks, depending on what we have at the time. So I put all that on the tray. Incredible. That would make me feel like I was in a spa. It would make me feel like that. Having all the options, all the things. I love it. And then. I had, how do you track the loyalty rewards was asked when you were chatting. Again, I use Vegaro, so it tracks everything for me. This is a good little Vegaro plug. I got to get them to sponsor the next resource fair. But yeah, it tracks everything right to their account. So you can assign every single thing that they're like you're, you have to set it up, but then it does it all for you after that. Cool. Love it. Question for Afton, event planning is intimidating. Would love more info and tips on that. yes, it's scary. Let's see, tips on how to do it. Because it's intimidating, where do you start? Because it's intimidating. Honestly, just what you've been saying all day, Lisa, is you just, after doing the first one I had, I think I had about a hundred people show up and I had a line the whole time. I didn't have anybody helping me. And so I had this whole line of my clients, you're intimidated for a reason. Yeah. And Just after doing it once, it does get a little bit easier, but it is still scary. So just try to be organized. It's also fun and like that feeling afterwards and it, you had such good feedback from it that it's worth it. So what would you say if someone wants to start planning something right now? What are like the couple steps too, like actually pulling it up, like what should they think about first, second, third, or something like that? Are they thinking about planning an event just for them or are they wanting to have other? Let's start off with just for them. If they're intimidated, let's do what you did, the smaller version first, and then if they become in love with it like you do, they can go further. Okay. Yeah. Figure out a date that works with you, for you. I recommend not working behind the chair that day. I tend to do my events on Sundays. That way you can have the morning to, Finalize any setups or anything, just maybe give yourself some time. Don't work behind the chair the day of your event. And then I always try to plan like a theme. So for my two year anniversary, I did T for two and I had like teapots with flowers and it's the decor and stuff like that. So think about what you might want to do to decorate and make the space look a little bit different for that. And then the only other thing I would probably line up would be the snacks, because those are always important to me to have something fun for clients to snack on. And then Just one more is are you doing a sale? Are you doing a promotion? Are you doing a raffle? What's going to be the thing to draw clients in other than the fact that you're just having an event? Very good feedback. So date theme refreshments, accommodations like that. And then promotion. Super actionable. Love it. Okay, we host a holiday party every year for our community and guests, and after six years I still wing it. Guys, I'm still winging the retreats every year and it's a lot of pressure, so that's just what I have. I'm winging this. That's just how it goes. You just do things that are scary, and then you're really proud of yourself after, and it's such a high after that you're addicted, you need to start planning the next one. I can tell you what. Can we talk about marketing the event tips on that? Yeah. You want to talk about that a little bit? Yeah. I think the thing that has gotten the most traction is if I create an event on Facebook for the market or whatever I'm going to do. I've ran a couple ads on that and that has gotten a lot of eyes on the event as well. But the other thing with marketing, if you are collabing with other people, just make sure they're tagging you, tag everybody in what you're doing. And that just really gets it seen more. And I just blast it all over social media all the time. Paloma said, I think this is for Lurie, do you pay for the high end of Vegaro or is it included in the normal version? I don't use Vegaro, so just curious. Square has it available, but it's the high paid version. That's it. Yeah, I did respond to that, but it is the regular version if you're talking about tracking the points, but like for my forms and texting and stuff, that's an upgrade. Awesome. Everyone's invited for espresso martinis at Tone Salon on December 2nd. We'll be there. Question for Paloma and Lurie. What would you suggest for someone who doesn't do a lot of these extra special things for their clients now, but you want to start? Worried about if clients will enjoy these new changes or if they won't get what I'm trying to do? I would just say start with one thing. Usually their name on something is a big one. Like just seeing their names, come in is the easiest thing and it makes a really big impact. And just start doing it. I would say if you're like a little bit nervous, like it just makes it weird when you're like, I just wanna let you know that I'm gonna start doing this. Yeah, I think it's just like fun to do something extra and then if they comment on it. Is that okay? Like it's something like that. Yeah, just do it Don't make it a big thing. Just start doing it and if they're like, oh my god, what's gotten into you? Just be like I wanted to you know, serve you extra well today you pour into my business and I appreciate it If you guys have any questions, anyone want to unmute, chime in? Or are we all feeling very served and very good? Okay, good. Thanks, Caitlin. Alright, I would say we can maybe wrap up and take a little bit of extra time, a little extra 15 minutes, then we will be back here at 3. 30, my time, to just wrap up. It has been great, and I'm blown away. I knew you guys were all gonna do good, but let me just say, I gave them very little feedback on what to do. You guys are such freakin overachievers so above and beyond, so much juicy info, so incredible, so I'm very grateful. I will see you guys all in about 45 minutes. We'll keep the conversation flowing over on Marco Polo. Michelle, any other VIP, Laura, any other VIP members that are not on Marco Polo yet? I would love to see your faces, so don't be shy. Download Marco Polo. Get over there. Cause that is where all the conversation is going to be happening. Bye friends.