How to Get Your Team On Board For Change
Implementing simple changes rarely leads to sudden boosts in monthly revenue. However, Kendall Drake knew introducing charges for extra colour at her CiNCO Hair Boutique in Margaret River, Western Australia, would increase salon revenue by $1,800 a month immediately. Her confidence wasn’t unfounded; it was based on two months of exact colour cost data from her new Vish Colour Management system and the capability of her team to make it happen.
Seizing the Opportunity
Kendall first heard about Vish from an owner in the east, and even though it was close to Christmas and just about to get super-busy in the salon, she was determined to book a walkthrough and learn more.
“I knew before I sat down with Vish that it was exactly what my salon needed,” says Kendall, who opened Cinco on her own just five years ago. Since then, with a team of 12 and a line in branded tools, she has proven her business acumen many times over.
”Vish makes it possible to reduce colour costs and to capture additional product charges, so it was too important to delay, especially with so much colour being mixed in December,” she continues. “My team is amazing, and, working in a sustainable salon, they care about lowering our impact on the planet as much as possible. But they still need to be able to do their jobs quickly and effectively, so Vish worked with me on making the transition as smooth as possible,” she adds. “Vish made it easy, even during Christmas.”
Embracing Change Together
Kendall kicked off the implementation with a comprehensive training session, with Vish providing remote support via Zoom. The training allowed the team to immerse themselves in the technology, learn through demonstrations, and practise using the scales and app. They immediately saw the value of reweighing their colour bowls to capture exactly how much color was left over, so that with the help of Vish, they could refine formulas and reduce quantities to optimise colour usage and minimise waste.
“The simplicity of the system became evident quickly,” Kendall notes. “Any initial concerns about stylists taking longer to complete services were dispelled. Reweighing a bowl is far more efficient than searching for client history notes or recalculating colour mixes. So I hid the old scales to remove temptation and went live with Vish.”
Vish is Like a Member of the Team
Kendall asked Annika, the salon receptionist, to be on hand in case anyone became overwhelmed, plus each stylist was linked up directly with Vish on the Cinco/Vish WhatsApp group. Vish’s customer success team is live almost 24 hours a day thanks to its international coverage so a stylist can ask for clarity at any time.
”We were really impressed by the on-tap advice we got from Vish and how quickly they responded to individual queries. They sent short films and demos to make it really clear how to proceed,” adds Kendall. “That alone helped build confidence in everyone, plus, as I said, it is so easy to use.”
At the end of the first 30 days, the team had reweighed 92% of their bowls and were quickly recalibrating clients’ formulas. Since then their reweigh average of bowls has never dropped below 90%.
“Vish educating us on how to use the Vish system, backed by ongoing support, made the transition easy, especially as our Vish educator, Kerry Simpson, was a hairdresser and understands the way a salon and its team work. But we also make it fun in-salon. We have competitions about who has the best reweigh or the lowest waste. Everyone likes a little bit of competition, and comparing our data on Vish has led to some fun banter.”
Ready For the Next Step
The consistently high reweigh standards of the team showed they adapted just as quickly as Kendal expected, and so within 10 weeks, she felt confident about customising her pricing to include extra charges for additional colour and length of service. She could also see from those 10 weeks of Vish data exactly how many clients had additional colour and the costs, allowing her to project forward a jump in revenue of more than $1,800. And she has not been disappointed.
