The beauty industry suffers from chronically high staff turnover, which is never good for business. Here's a few hints and tips on how to retain your staff and make your business run more smoothly.

Industry Turmoil over High Staff Turnover

Single salons constitute 93% of service providers in the UK whilst only 6% of salons are chains. The beauty industry is forecasted to be the fastest growing retail sector this year (UK Health and Beauty, Marketing Week, 23rd May, 2008), with new salons opening every week. This makes it difficult for customers to distinguish between competitors. With such similar offerings, salons need to be in a position to offer the best possible service to their customers. According to industry experts, word-of mouth is vital to the success of a business in the service industry, a happy customer will recommend you to a handful of friends, a dissatisfied customer will complain to many more. However, the beauty industry is well known to suffer from high staff turnover, which can make it difficult to provide customers with a consistent service.



Staffing troubles

In a recent survey of salons, The Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Authority (HABIA) found that salon managers reported staff turnover levels averaged between 28-38% and all respondents expressed that they have difficulties in recruiting trained professionals. Furthermore, when questioned about future plans to train staff, there was an 11% decrease in training compared with past training exercises. When the first focus group was questioned about the findings of the study, they were in agreement that although there were enough recruits they were not appropriate for employment: they were too young, had poor personal attributes and lacked the necessary skills. The second focus group were also in agreement but suggested that the problem was that experienced professionals want to work in large salons, so smaller salons might find it harder to recruit more experienced staff. Whilst many professionals are keen to start up their own ventures, it was felt that this might be due to the low starting salary in salons. HABIA concluded from the findings that all sectors of the industry appeared to be booming, but that growth could “only be sustained if there was an adequate supply of suitably trained and competent staff” (HABIA, www.habia.org, 2004). Not only is high employee turnover bad for customer service but it is costly in terms of training and lost business.



What can you do to retain your staff?

The salon management system Studio Tracker can help you improve your internal marketing tactics by establishing employee incentives such as sales and up-selling incentives, performance rewards and commission tracking. In addition Studio Tracker allows you to store, monitor and communicate with customers in one easy-to-use integrated system, enabling you to improve your external marketing. You can use the pre-defined campaign templates or design your own campaigns and send them directly to selectively targeted customers either via post, email or SMS. Studio Tracker is priced less than half the price of leading competitors and includes a comprehensive after-sales service and if you’re not confident with computers we can even set it up for you! Get a free 30 day trial today at www.studiotracker.co.uk or contact lauren.mather@studiotracker.co.uk for more info.



By Lauren Mather, Business to Business Marketing Consultant, MA BSc (Hons)