Just about every beauty and wellness business has them: A superstar service provider or two that are constantly in demand. They’re likely both highly skilled and ambitious and can prove a great resource to your business beyond customer loyalty. As a business owner or manager, you have the power to convert the popularity of your top performers into actual revenue growth. With the right technology in place, you can maximize the money high achievers can bring to your brand – and help them raise their bar (and tips) even higher. You can also utilize their knowledge and best practices to give your juniors a path to greatness. Overall, your revenue grows, as does your providers’ loyalty to your business.
Below we cover three empowering strategies that will support your top providers and bottom line – without being mistaken for favoritism.
Dynamic pricing: Higher revenue and utilization
When you have a stylist or other provider in high demand, clients are more willing to pay more for their services – whether that demand comes from outstanding craft, great interpersonal skills, a clever marketing strategy, or a combination of these. This is an earning opportunity for you and your providers.
Most salon and spa management software will let you specify different pricing options for services and providers, but there’s an easier and better way: Zenoti takes the guesswork out of service provider pricing. The system automatically and intelligently updates service prices to charge more for in-demand timeslots and providers.
The benefits are twofold: Customers prepared to pay a premium will increase your revenue. Budget-conscious clients can be directed to low-demand slots and days, keeping the booking and improving your utilization across the week.
Split-service appointments: Narrowed provider focus, greater number of available slots
There’s a well-known guideline in healthcare delivery that says each professional should deliver care “to their top of their license” – meaning they should spend time at their highest level of skill and knowledge and assign other work to other providers. The same is true in beauty and wellness. If your star provider excels at their craft, they should spend as much time as possible doing just that. When an appointment combines lower- and higher-skilled service needs, you ideally want to split the time up and ask a junior staff member to perform the easier tasks.
For a hair service, that might mean the junior staff member greets the client, washes their hair, and offers them a drink. The senior provider comes in when it’s time for the cut. Most important: This needs to be reflected accurately in the appointment system so the senior stylist can book other time up until they’re needed.
This strategy offers two benefits: First, it creates more capacity for your top provider to perform high-skill, high-value services. Second, it creates more opportunities for collaboration and communication between junior and senior providers. A bright junior employee could learn valuable lessons at the start of their career.
Some beauty and wellness businesses already employ this type of setup, but Zenoti makes it easy: The system lets you split appointments directly in the schedule and allocate tasks to different staff. This helps set correct expectations for timings, which allows for more streamlined services, less wait time for clients, and more time for top providers to apply their skills.
Performance reviews: Understand provider goals, improve their wellbeing
Regular performance reviews and long-term career planning are crucial for any employee, but perhaps even more so for high achievers. While ambition and hard work can lead to success, burnout is still a very real issue in our industry.
Stay close to your team. Invest ample time in understanding their wants and needs. Just because a top-talent provider can be fully booked six days a week doesn’t mean they want to. As a provider gets older, they might prefer to work less and have more time for family, enjoy more flexible hours, or pivot towards teaching or management. If one of your top performers appears to have ‘peaked’, ask them about their next goal and how you can support them – the answer might surprise you.
Conclusion
Your providers will have varying degrees of ambition, and that’s okay. There’s space in our industry for incredible craftsmanship, unofficial therapists, social media stars, and everything in between.
But your high-achieving providers set the stage for business growth based on their demand, and can be an excellent resource for your business in more ways than one. With the right support, they can help your brand – and their colleagues – grow and evolve.
Zenoti is the most complete beauty and wellness software specifically designed to help grow your revenue and your business.
