The Toner Principle
A common way to demonstrate how color tracking can impact pricing to improve salon profits, stylist income, and overall salon business health is to dig deeper into what Vish CEO Joshua Howard calls The Toner Principle.
According to Joshua, many salons don’t realize how much revenue and personal income stylists give away when adding extra toner or gloss. He says toners are a common—and expensive—culprit. This happens when well-intentioned service providers or salon owners do one of the following things.
1) Forgetting to charge for the toner
Workdays can get hectic and with a full appointment list and a busy salon, sometimes that toner or gloss charge can get lost in the process. Before you know it, the day is done and you realize you forgot to let the front desk know about the toner you used to get your client to that perfect cool, summer blonde. Those unaccounted-for services not only affect profits but also affect proper inventory management control, too.
2) Deciding to “gift” the toner to a loyal client
Gifting toners to a client who has been with you for years is a thoughtful sentiment, but unfortunately, one that is going to cost you. The cost of toner can range from $8 – $25+, meaning that when you gift a toner here and there, it quickly adds up and eats away at your profit margins of services that have been charged for.
3) Assigning a low flat fee for the toner
It’s no secret that toners are pricey, and coming in as one of the most expensive color products, charging a low flat fee leaves little to no profit margin. With supply chain issues and increasing color costs, it’s imperative that toners are a profitable service for your salon. If you’re finding that your profit margins for toners are low, it might be time to reevaluate your pricing structure for this service.
4) Building the price of the toner into another service
When you decide to build the price of the toner into another service (say highlights, for example) you end up cannibalizing your potential profits for the toner service as it’s grouped within a service that has a much lower average product cost. When you build that out separately and charge for the amount that is used rather than an ambiguous predetermined price, you’ll reap the rewards.
Protect Service Revenue
So you may be thinking “these tips sound great, but where do I begin?” Fortunately, there’s a simple fix. Vish’s effective color management system gives salon owners the needed information to protect margins and provide the stylists with a drama-free way to charge accurately for each and every service.
Promote Toner Transparency
Ensuring that you’re capturing all of your color revenue, especially toners, not only safeguards your revenue but promotes full transparency with your clients by ensuring that they know that they’re paying for the exact services that they received, each and every time. With the help of Vish, every service rendered and gram of product weighed at the Color Bar is automatically sent to Vish Front Desk for checkout. The front desk team will convey the bill to your clients with an itemized receipt. No more surprises at follow-up appointments due to pricing discrepancies from the past. And that’s just the beginning of what Vish can do for you.
Don’t let toner tarnish your color revenue. Learn more about what Vish can do for you.
