Ways to tackle the busy season in your lash salon

The silly season will be here before you know it; have you and your business made preparations?

Suppose you work in the beauty industry, whether as a lash artist, a salon owner, or in any other capacity. You are well aware that we are about to enter the year’s busiest period. To put it mildly, the weeks leading up to the holiday season are pure madhouses in every way.

It seems as though Christmas is approaching ever more quickly, and most of the main retail centers have already decorated their establishments for the holiday. November and December are the busiest times for businesses in the beauty industry. Everyone wants to appear their absolute best when attending family reunions, traveling on holidays, going to a company Christmas party, etc.

In addition to that, it’s not simply your imagination. The findings of a study indicate that December contributes an additional 107 percent to the overall revenue that beauty salons produce throughout the year. If you feel like you’re ripping out your hair trying to keep track of client bookings, you’re not the only one.

In this piece, we will go over all the techniques you need for the busiest period of the year in the lash business.

You may have a stress-free and happy holiday season by immediately putting these helpful suggestions into action. There is no need to get worked up or go around frantically.

How to navigate during the busiest season of the year?

In this piece, we will go over all of the techniques you need for the busiest period of the year in the lash business, which is often between December and February. Have a look at them down below.

Utilize pre-booking

There is one thing that all of us in the beauty industry, whether we are nail techs, hair stylists, lash artists, or any other type of expert, has in common: our services are built on client retention. In the field that we work in, there is no such thing as a “one-and-done” service. We rely on their continued business to keep our clients in good shape. Pre-booking is necessary to ensure your business’s seamless operation, whether it focuses on lashes, hair, or nails. It is a company technique that assists you in better maintaining relationships with your existing customers.

• Provide a favorable experience

This is of the utmost significance! After all, individuals need to have the desire to continue their visit. Customers invest a significant amount of money in lashes and should be thrilled with themselves for doing so. Always ensure your customers have a positive experience when they do business with you. Clients must have a pleasant and relaxing experience at your salon.

• Suggest appointment dates

Take a look at the calendar before their appointment so that you can choose which day would be best to suggest for their next appointment. Please explain why you think they should go on that date and how it will benefit them. For instance, if a customer waits more than four weeks to have their lash extensions filled, there is a good probability that she will have to pay for an additional full set, which is inefficient financially.

• Exude an air of authority

Show your customers that you are worthy of their business by becoming the top of the best in your field. Create a reputation for yourself as an expert in your area. Maintain your expertise while also being open to offer to advise and suggestions. Use your knowledge to demonstrate to them just what they require, as well as how frequently they should return.

If you carry out each of these actions with self-assurance, you will ensure that your agenda is always packed. Don’t let customers leave without scheduling their next appointment before they leave the building. Remember that they are most likely searching for direction, and they will be grateful for your advice regarding when they should book again. If they still appear uncertain, proceed to step 2. To ensure that everyone is on the same page, you should not neglect to send out appointment reminders and be extremely explicit about the policy regarding cancellations.

Utilize strategic scheduling

One more possibility is to utilize strategic timing. In this stage, you employ clever techniques to make the most out of each day and move closer to achieving your objective. You could either try to organize your day in such a way as to take advantage of the time of day when your body can work at its highest level (which for most people is about mid-morning), or you could utilize time blocking.

Take care of yourself.

Be sure not to wear yourself out at this particularly hectic time of year. Practice self-care. When you’re not at work, here are some things you can do to retain your calmness:

• Do some reading.
• Pilates or yoga
• Stay away from your social media accounts for a little period.
• Be sure to eat often throughout the day to keep your diet well-balanced, and don’t skip meals!
• Get a good amount of sleep.
• Spend time in the fresh air.

Maintain an advantage in terms of your scheduling.

In the days leading up to Christmas, you will have a lot going on, and if you get behind on your scheduling, that might make things much more stressful.

To maintain your lead in the race against the clock:

• Examine your list of tasks and ask yourself if you are devoting an appropriate amount of time to each of your customers.
• You should get your workout in before you go to work rather than putting it off until after you get home when you might not have enough time.
• Make a plan for the day before you leave the house, and ask yourself if you can accommodate all of your customers.
• Make productive use of your downtime by attending to other important responsibilities, such as attending staff meetings, filing invoices, and paying taxes.

A straightforward checklist to help you and your lash business be ready for the high-volume season:

• Analyze the information from the prior year again.

To prepare for the future, you should review the sales data and bookings from the previous year. Provide an overview of the sales that were made over the previous Christmas and peak times. What challenges did you confront, and which services and items were more successful? Which marketing strategies did you employ, and to what extent were they successful? Were you able to meet your customers’ needs with the help of a sufficient number of employees and enough quantity of goods? Remember the number of cancellations compared to the number of bookings; perhaps for this year, you will need to specify clear parameters for cancellation fees, waiting list restrictions, and follow-up services to minimize disruptions or losses. To grow and get ready for this year, it is essential that you comprehend the strategies you used for administration, marketing, and sales from the previous year.

• Be sure to check all of the available stock.

It is essential to ensure that you have sufficient stock for the busy holiday season to satisfy all of your customers. This should be done in preparation for the busy holiday season. In your best interest, conduct a stock check to determine what items are getting low or if you require additional supplies. Have you made sure that you have sufficient lash trays to last you for the next two months? Acquire a few premade fan trays or promenade trays to assist you in working more quickly with customers and to have them on hand as a safety net in case of unexpected complications. Ensure you have the appropriate glue for the settings you will be working in. Because the conditions in the salon can vary so rapidly, it is beneficial to have a variety of glues available so that you can choose the one that will work best in each setting.

Because shopping online is now so popular, you must not overlook the importance of placing your order with your vendors at this time. Just like you, they will be quite busy with their work and the distribution of orders. The number of packages that need to be sent all across the world will overwhelm the postal service. It may take up to a week (or even longer) for packages to arrive than the originally anticipated delivery time. It is preferable to have an excess of stock rather than insufficient stock.

• Now is the time to make your plans.

When organizing and planning a calendar for your company, you mustn’t forget to factor in time for yourself during this process. Schedule some time for yourself every week, for a few hours or a day. Do you still need to buy presents for Christmas? Attend the final performances of the school year for the children. Or do you have any upcoming holidays? Put a hold on certain times right now so that you can make other arrangements around them.

Determine whether you like to get up early in the morning or stay up late at night to complete your tasks. Don’t try to do both—you won’t be able to keep up with either one for very long. For the following two months, you’ll need adequate rest to stay going, including taking breaks during the day to eat food that is good for you. Stretch when you have a break between customers, make sure your wrists don’t hurt, and take a stroll around the neighborhood to get your circulation pumping. The state of one’s mind is equally as vital as one’s physical health.

• Encourage your regular customers to book infills as soon as possible, so they don’t miss out.

Notify your frequent customers that your appointment schedule will fill up rapidly and there may not be many openings available later. Instruct them to plan their infills till the end of the year and encourage them to do so. Because they are your most devoted returning customers, you should prioritize them when making selections.

• Increase the intensity of your marketing strategies.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, you should not ease up on your marketing efforts or social media posts; on the contrary, you should step them up. The easiest method to ensure that you make the most of the busy period is to get a head start on your Christmas marketing activity as soon as possible.

Send out newsletters and emails, and use your social media pages and SMS for marketing your services. These communications encourage customers to schedule their appointments in plenty of time before the holiday season begins so that they don’t miss out on the special offers. You can get your customers in the spirit of the holiday season by providing special offers and discounts. You could even send personalized holiday cards to your customers and clients to give a more personal touch. Remember that the sooner you start creating buzz about anything, the more people you will reach.

• Make a plan and a timetable for marketing.

Ensure that you have a strategy in place for your marketing. Utilize a social media scheduling techniques such as Hootsuite, Agorapulse, or SocialOomph to ensure that your emails and social media postings are distributed across different channels on the appropriate days. Because of this, you won’t have to worry about fitting it in over your lunch break or at a time when you’re not working during these hectic months. Maintain order and ensure everything is in working order before turning the laborious tasks to the program.

• If you don’t already, start taking deposits when people make reservations.

If you haven’t started doing so, you should begin requiring deposits for every session. This will guarantee that customers show up for their scheduled service and do not cancel at the last minute or attempt to reschedule on a day when you are already available for appointments. Register for an account on a scheduling platform such as Fresha or Appointy, which will require either a deposit to secure the appointment or the whole amount in advance. Because time is money, set your rates appropriately. Since this is the busiest time of the year, you simply cannot afford to have any gaps in your day that you cannot fill at the very last minute.

• Prepare for the upcoming busy months by cleaning the place thoroughly in November.

You should complete the bulk of your spring cleaning now, in November. Do not attempt to perform a thorough cleaning task when you have no customers or on the nights after you have served your final customer. After such a long day, you should probably expect to feel exhausted, but you still have to get ready for the next day. Maintain the same level of cleanliness that you do every day with your lash tools, etc. If you are clean as you go, you won’t have as much to clean up at the end of the day, saving you time.

• Give a present to your customers.

Since Christmas is a time for giving, why not do something nice for your customers at this joyous time of year? Demonstrate how much you value their choice to receive beauty treatments from you. It does not need to be a significant amount, such as a bar of chocolate, a deluxe care package for their lashes, or even something special you are sure they would enjoy. It’s not just about the gift itself but also about how it’s given and what it represents.

Let’s not overlook the importance of having enough stock to sell things directly to customers as well! You can save some money by purchasing foaming lash cleansers and crystal mascara wands in bulk, and you will also have enough stock for the upcoming season. Put them together in cute small gift sets so that other people’s loved ones can give them to themselves as a self-care gift.

• Christmas décor: Put up some decorations to get in the holiday spirit.

Do not overlook the importance of sprucing up the salon in preparation for the holiday! What would Christmas be without a little bit of commotion? Spread some holiday cheer by stringing up some festoons, turning on the lights on the Christmas tree, and stuffing some stockings. Although we might be exaggerating here, you get a general idea. You don’t have to go all out with the decorations, but making your workplace feel like it’s decorated for the holidays is a great idea for your company and will lift the spirits of your employees. Make festive Christmas music to play in the background, or even better, require your personnel to dress in holiday-appropriate attire. Whatever it is, it will make your customers feel joyful, jolly, and bright when they come to get their lashes done at your salon.

It is not necessary to have a real Christmas pine tree with all the tinsel and ornaments; instead, all that is required is a little tree that can be placed on the desk and some tinsel that can be hung on the windows of the salon. It will feel like you’re living in a gingerbread house if you let the scents of vanilla and ginger penetrate the air after lighting a candle with a festive scent and letting it burn for a while.

If you use these best practices to prepare yourself and your company for the busy season, you’ll be so well-prepared that you won’t ever have to dread it again, even if it comes around every year.

• Make sure your team is ready.

Your business is only as successful as the people working for you. Plan out your team’s lineup before the madness of the season begins. In order to avoid any heated confrontations or unexpected shortages of employees at the last minute, you should ensure that your team is aware of the opening and closing hours of your salon. Instruct them to take their annual leave either before or after the period in which there will be the most work.

Because of the increased amount of work that needs to be done during the holiday season, you must keep your staff motivated by developing schedules that include adequate breaks between appointments. Make it a point to check that their extra work hours are being compensated for per the labor rules in your state. You could even want to think about the likelihood that you will require additional staff due to the increasing volume of traffic. The pressure to complete the basic but necessary tasks, such as cleaning up the salon, taking appointments, and taking and making phone calls, will be alleviated if you hire additional help.

Take care of the health and happiness of your employees, as reaching your goals may prove difficult without a driven team effort. Acknowledge the hard work they’ve put in and provide them with rewards and incentives to motivate them to work independently while simultaneously helping your company achieve its objectives.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Efforts During the Holiday Season?

These holiday promos can not only help your lash business bring in more money at the end of the year, but they will also help keep your business active after the holidays are over:

Offer Adorable Presents for the Holidays

Many women would love it if they could cross another thing off their Christmas to-do list while getting their lashes done over the holiday season by simultaneously picking up some cute gifts. Gifts that come well-packaged with skin care products lash care tools, or festive candles are always well received. Collaborate with a neighborhood artisan soap and skincare shop to sell each other’s products in your shop and split the earnings.

Provide Customers with Custom Gift Cards

Gift cards with a seasonal theme and your company’s logo printed are other options for businesses looking to increase their holiday retail sales. Your customers would love to gift lash extensions to some of their friends or family members who have been interested in trying them out but haven’t gotten around to them yet. You not only get money from the sale of the gift card but there is also a possibility that you will win new future business.

Send Out Season’s Greetings Cards

You know that when a new customer registers for your services, they must fill out your new customer information page, including their mailing address, right? Suppose you have already entered this information into a database. In that case, it will be really simple for you to print all of the addresses on mailing labels and distribute amusing Christmas cards to your customers. They will be appreciative of the gesture, and customers who haven’t been in a while will recall how much they cherished having their lash extensions done.

Think About Buying and Giving Out Gifts

It may not be possible to offer gifts to all of your customers, but it is a great gesture to give a few of your most loyal customers a considerate and affordable present. Even after the hectic Christmas season is gone, you can show your customers that you value their business and give them a friendly reminder to rebook by sending them a thank-you note.

Make gift certificates available

A stunning set of eyelash extensions would make an incredible present. You may either make the gift certificates on your own or locate a template online and then you can print them out and arrange them in a lovely display in your salon. Keeping these items in stock is a fantastic method to market your company because your customers might wish to purchase them as gifts for their friends and family.

Expand the reach of your company’s offerings to more people

After you have developed your gift certificates, you should begin marketing them to other groups of people. Men shopping for their daughters, spouses, moms, or girlfriends during this time of year are an excellent audience to target as potential customers. To assist in the spread of the information, you might think about placing some advertisements on social media platforms directed toward men or posting flyers in public areas.

Promote the Sale of Lashes and Related Products

When it comes to the holidays, beauty items are excellent options for gifts. By developing displays that appeal to the eye all over your salon, you may encourage customers to acquire things (either for themselves or the people they care about).

Take into consideration the possibility of a partnership

If you offer lash extensions as your primary service, you might want to collaborate with a hair or beauty professional specializing in a different field. Sharing one other’s content on your respective social media accounts is an excellent method to get in front of an entirely new group of people. You can even provide combined holiday packages to assist your customers in getting ready for the next holiday season.

Final Thoughts

Christmas is a joyful time filled with celebrations, but it is also a time of year that can be extremely hectic. Keeping on top of normal business operations during the hectic holiday season can feel like climbing an impossibly high mountain. 

If you capitalize on the opportunities that the holiday season has for your lash extension business, you may be able to increase your clientele and your revenue just in time for the new year. You’ll be able to make time for yourself and contribute to your company’s success if you follow these suggestions.