Walk into any successful business, and you won’t travel far before you see and feel what productivity looks like. It’s in the air—it’s contagious! The business vision, mission and core values play the most critical role in cultivating a culture of productivity and happiness.
The critical measurements
What does productivity look like in your business? You must first find out where you stand in regard to metrics in order to create specific goals for your business’s direction. Working with your team members to explore and create new systems will dramatically increase your efficiency and boost team morale. Set objectives and think outside of the box using the following three critical productivity measurements.
1. One product per person (PPP). Rather than focusing on total sales percentage, staff members may find selling just one PPP is a more manageable goal. Determine your team’s current status; if your retail-to-total-sales percentage is 10%, equaling five products sold for every 10 clients, just imagine where you’ll land when you reach one PPP. Another way to increase your PPP is to take into consideration how many people your clients share products with at home—add value for your client’s spouses, children and roommates. Creating incentives and bundling products will result in easily achieving more than one PPP. When it comes to increasing your productivity and gross margin, one PPP can pay immense dividends.
2. Reward client rebooking. What is rewarded is repeated. Add incentives for clients who prebook their next appointments. Your team will most likely be on board because prebooking multiple appointments helps secure future sales. You may even find that certain clients prefer the convenience of prebooking all of their appointments. Create a buzz by offering any client who prebooks their next three appointments or more a chance to win a free gift each week. Announcing the weekly winner on Facebook is also a great way to increase fans talking about your brand. Your free gift may be a product you’re launching or a service with a new team member. Strategically rewarding your clients will efficiently increase productivity.
3. Keep an 85% busy rate. Ask owners and team members how busy they prefer to stay when working with clients and the answer you’ll most likely hear is 100%. The problem with having a 100% busy rate is that you become overly immersed in your business, which means you’re not taking time to work at your business.
It is tricky to balance your time, but when you put more time into strategically building relationships with existing and new clients, you will achieve greater long-term productivity. Consider writing personal thank-you notes to every client who came through your doors last week. That’s impossible, right? Wrong. If you set aside time for building client relationships, you will meet that goal and create raving fans along the way.
Creating a plan that adds value, creativity and focuses on what’s in the client’s best interest will always trump being busy 100% of the time. It will also continue to provide you with a fresh business perspective.
Strategically rewarding your clients will boost productivity in your business.
Vito Mazza is the president of Vito Mazza Salon & Spa in Woodbridge, NJ, which has been family owned and operated since 1967. He has more than 20 years of experience in the beauty industry and is a business coach specializing in spa and salon growth and balance.
He can be contacted at [email protected].