The way the salon industry is built today, there is one major way salons price hair color services – building hair color costs into the price of services and charging for extra bowls of color. While this is definitely simple for customers to understand, and it’s standard practice across the industry, salons often end up undercharging customers with long, thick hair and overcharging customers with short, thin hair. Stylists also often forget to charge for extra bowls used, and typically feel guilty and don’t want to charge for only “a little” extra color – but using a little extra at every service adds up to a lot of color not being charged for. All this combined with unpredictable margins can be hard for owners to manage.
The way the salon industry is built today, there is one major way salons price hair colour services – building hair colour costs into the price of services and charging for extra bowls of colour. While this is definitely simple for customers to understand, and it’s standard practise across the industry, salons often end up undercharging customers with long, thick hair and overcharging customers with short, thin hair. Stylists also often forget to charge for extra bowls used, and typically feel guilty and don’t want to charge for only “a little” extra colour – but using a little extra at every service adds up to a lot of colour not being charged for. All this combined with unpredictable margins can be hard for owners to manage.
Another pricing structure, not as widely used, is setting a minimum product allowance and charging per gram or ounce when additional product is used. While some salons use this pricing structure, Vish’s ability to perfect this pricing strategy and bring accuracy to salons has been key for success with this structure. This strategy ensures predictable profitability per service and takes into account different hair lengths – however it leads to little transparency for guests because pricing isn’t consistent from service to service.
Vish also allows salons to price on a per gram basis, bringing consistent profits to salons and being the most profitable pricing structure of the three, however it requires a change in pricing culture.
Separating Labor & Product
This pricing structure separates pricing into product costs and service costs, allowing salons to charge for service and color separately, providing more transparency to customers on how they are charged. It also allows salon owners to predict revenue based on inventory – as they’ll know how much each gram of colorcolour is charged. The only real downside of this pricing strategy is having to change the current structure and needing to revamp pricing menus and the website – but that’s a small downside compared to the benefits that this change will reap.
The way this works may seem complicated, but Vish is doing all the behind the scenes calculations so that you can get the most out of the system. The salon specifies how much each product costs and what their desired markup is, and combines it with the service costs. With Vish’s unique ability to track how much product is used to the tenth of a gram, the app communicates exactly how much of each product was used with Vish Front Desk and charges the client based on exact numbers, guaranteeing a profit on every service.
Do What’s Right for You
Separating product charges from the service cost and itemizing your receipt isn’t for everyone. Or, maybe you just don’t need any more change right now. Vish is hyper flexible, allowing you to call the shots but still doing all the hefty calculations in the background. Owners using Vish have the flexibility of setting thresholds in the system so it only charges for product if it’s in excess of the standard amount included in the service price. Those girls with the thick manes down to their tailbone will no longer get the free bowl of lightener and toner, but no major revamp of your pricing structure is required.
YOU set the rules. Vish does the rest.
