Salon management best practices – What salon owners and managers must know

As a salon manager or owner you’ve figured out just how crucial it is to run a well-managed operation. Not just for your guests, but for your salon sales, service, staff, and quite frankly, for your sanity!

The key to consistently delivering high-quality services is to ensure that your beauty salon management is like a well-oiled machine. If you have key systems and processes in place that run efficiently and effectively, your salon is set for success – not just financial success but guest retention and satisfaction, employee productivity, and optimization – everything is likely to improve.

So, what are the key aspects of salon management, and which should you implement?  

With years of experience easing salon management for our clients, we have collected several best practices. The following select few can help ensure your salon is well-managed and becomes your pride and joy. 

Related Reading: Your Ultimate How-To Guide for Salon Success

Building and managing a strong salon team

While this one’s obvious, it’s also not the easiest to get right. The importance of a strong and cohesive team cannot be overstated. 

Building and managing a strong salon team is a fine blend of several elements, including strategic hiring, a positive work culture, and optimal work scheduling.

A well-managed team ensures high-quality service, delivered in a healthy work environment. This in turn leads to increased guest satisfaction, retention, and employee loyalty. The best part: Once you get it right, you can focus your time and effort on the strategic aspects of beauty salon management, while the team handles day-to-day operations efficiently.

Let’s look at the key elements in more detail:

Hire the right people

When you recruit staff for your salon, remember you’re looking to build a cohesive team. So, while technical skills and experience are the entry points, don’t stop at just that. It’s equally important to gauge if they are a good fit for your salon’s values and culture.

Soft skills like communication, empathy, and accountability are important qualities to watch out for. Consciously hiring a diverse and inclusive team can add a healthy mix of new ideas, innovation, and creativity to your salon.

Related Article: How to recruit top beauty and wellness talent and foster career growth – from the experts

Encourage a positive work culture

A key factor in ensuring your team is happy, motivated, and consistently performs at their best is to encourage transparency and open lines of communication. Foster a culture of mutual respect where every team member feels supported and heard.

Mentorship is a great way to create a supportive and motivating environment. More experienced employees can team up with newer employees and provide guidance.

Recognition and appreciation are also great morale boosters. Whether it’s a particular team or an individual, make sure good work is always acknowledged.

Best practices for scheduling employees effectively

Aiming for smooth operations, staff satisfaction, and an excellent customer experience? Start by scheduling salon employees effectively. Here are some best practices:

• Understand peak hours and busy seasons – Identify peak times when your salon is usually the busiest. These could be certain days of the week, certain times of the day, or certain seasons, like the year-end holidays, wedding season, or summer break. A good understanding of the trends will allow you to rightsize your team. 

• Use scheduling software – Automated scheduling allows you to easily designate shifts, manage employee availability, and track bookings. Scheduling software platforms like Zenoti provide real-time updates and allow employees to request time off or swap shifts easily. They also eliminate scheduling errors such as double bookings or overstaffing during slow periods. 

• Regularly monitor and adjust – Periodically assess how your scheduling system is working. Better still, get regular feedback from your employees about their work-life balance, shift preferences, job satisfaction, and whether they feel over or underutilized. 

Based on these inputs, continuously tweak your scheduling software to make it more efficient, equitable, and adaptable to changes in demand or staffing needs.

Managing salon inventory and products 

As a salon manager or owner, you’re always looking for ways to smooth operations, reduce waste, and ensure you and your team are always ready for your guests. With efficient salon inventory management, you can achieve all these goals. Here are some best practices to help you manage salon inventory effectively:

Inventory management systems

The latest salon software platforms, like Zenoti, are advanced and come loaded with inventory tracking features that help automate stock tracking, send alerts when items are low, and provide detailed reports on product usage.

Inventory management systems now allow for barcode scanning too, which makes checking in new products and tracking usage much easier.

Related Post: The secret to easier inventory management at salons and spas

If your salon operates from multiple locations or multiple employees are expected to use the system, switching to a cloud-based system is a good idea. This ensures your data is always up to date, irrespective of location or number of employees. 

Conduct regular stock audits

‍You probably still love and trust the good old physical inventory counts but as your salon grows with more employees, locations, and services, the traditional stock audit may not be adequately accurate. Switching to software that simplifies physical counting and tracks and automates purchases ensures your system is aligned with the actual stock you have on hand.

Apart from regular stock audits, do spot checks, to catch any discrepancies and identify potential issues like theft or waste.

Create an efficient ordering process

Tracking usage trends helps you stay on top of your inventory. It helps you identify which products are used most frequently and during what periods. This helps greatly in forecasting when you need to restock, especially for seasonal products.

It’s essential to set minimum stock levels for each product based on usage trends. When the stock falls below the designated levels, understand that it’s time to reorder, and ensure the request is sent.

Finally, spend time and effort in building strong vendor relationships. They’ll come in handy when you need to restock fast. These vendors may even give you better pricing, provide flexibility in ordering, and give you great customer service.

Master your salon’s financial management

Effectively managing finances t is crucial for the success and longevity of a salon. Here are some best practices to ensure your salon thrives financially:

Keep an eye on all income and expenses

Don’t watch only the macro financials; be vigilant about every small financial detail. Maintain meticulous records, using accounting software or salon management software to track daily, weekly, and monthly transactions.

Categorize your expenses into fixed costs (for instance, rent, salaries, and utilities) and variable costs (such as product purchases, marketing, and supplies). Doing so helps you understand where your money is going.

Ensure your budget and forecast regularly. Create a realistic budget based on your income and expenses and revisit it periodically to adjust as required. Anticipate future income and expenses to prevent cash flow issues.

Price your services correctly, manage payroll efficiently, and control costs

Be on top of your pricing strategy. Your pricing should factor in the value you provide, the local market rate, and your costs. Periodically review your pricing to ensure it's competitive while allowing for profitability. You can even consider offering different service tiers (for example, basic vs. premium options) to appeal to a broader range of clients.

While pricing, remember to pay attention to managing payroll efficiently too. In salon management, payroll is usually one of the highest expenses. Track working hours and commission percentages so you don’t go over budget. It’s a proven strategy to incentivize performance-based activities but always set clear compensation structures. Whether it’s commission-based, hourly, or salary, the compensation plan should be clear and transparent.

Keep a tight rein on costs. Track product usage and prevent wastage or over-ordering. Negotiate better terms or bulk discounts with suppliers.

Use financial tools and software

Apart from scheduling, payments, client management, and inventory management, modern-day salon management software includes financial tracking tools. This data helps monitor profit margins on your services and retail products, and analyze which items add to your salon's profitability and which may need to be revisited. You can also measure the average revenue per client to identify trends and areas for improvement.

Optimize your offerings with Zenoti's free salon pricing calculator

Automating your salon’s invoicing, payroll, and payment processing can greatly reduce administrative work and ensure you never miss a payment or deadline. You will also have a perfect record of all financial transactions for your salon.

By implementing these best practices, you can build a strong financial foundation for your salon. This ensures you're not only providing excellent services to your clients but also managing your beauty salon business for sustainable growth and profitability.

Harness the power of technology to streamline salon operations

We’ve mentioned the many benefits of using software and automation to streamline key aspects of salon operations. Technology is transforming the way various industries function, and the salon industry is no different. By integrating the right tools and systems, salons can enhance their customer service and significantly improve their operational efficiency.

Here are some ways technology can streamline salon management and make your salon a more profitable business.

Appointment scheduling and management

The benefits of automating appointment scheduling are many – no more jotting appointments on paper, in books, or even on a spreadsheet! With salon management software, guests can easily book appointments online, choose their preferred stylist, and even receive reminders.

From the salon’s perspective, appointment scheduling using software can help reduce no-shows, free up the receptionist’s time, and allow clients to schedule visits at their convenience, even outside of business hours. Additionally, digital booking systems can optimize appointment times, avoiding overbooking or under-booking, which increases overall efficiency.

Point-of-sale (POS) systems and inventory management

Modern POS systems not only process payments but also integrate with inventory management systems, track sales data, and offer detailed reporting. This is pure gold to salon owners – they can easily monitor cash flow in real-time, even remotely, with just a few clicks.

The system also helps to identify top-selling products or services and manage inventory more effectively. These digital payment options, including mobile wallets, streamline the payment process and reduce the time spent at the checkout counter. 

With automated systems, salon owners and managers can get real-time updates on stock levels, place orders, and forecast product needs based on customer demand patterns. This not only saves time but also ensures the salon always has the necessary supplies on hand without excess inventory that could lead to financial loss.

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM software helps to build stronger relationships with clients. It gives detailed profiles that include preferences, past services, and product purchases. Using this data, salons can personalize marketing efforts, send targeted promotions, or offer loyalty programs that encourage repeat business.

Additionally, automated reminders for upcoming appointments or special offers can increase client retention and ensure a consistent flow of business.

Employee scheduling and payroll

Salon owners and managers can use employee scheduling software to simplify several processes such as managing shifts, time off, and payroll. The software creates optimized schedules, in tandem with employee availability, peak business hours, and individual performance. This helps prevent scheduling conflicts and ensures the salon is staffed appropriately, which improves overall service delivery.

While efficient salon management is an ongoing and endless effort, we have touched upon four of the most important aspects to help make your salon successful for parameters that matter, including customer service, profitability, and employee satisfaction. 

Remember, it all starts with building a strong and motivated team, managing the salon’s inventory efficiently, keeping tight control of finances, and harnessing the power of technology to maximize your salon’s potential. 

Learn how Zenoti’s salon management software can help your salon business. Ask for a demo.