A friend of mine started a unisex saloon about a year ago. It went well at first but ended up a flop later on. Her problem was that she did not  know how to handle her staff and customers. She was always changing staff's until the place was closed down. We want to reopen the place, the problem now is that other saloon's have sprung up. I need ideas on how to make the place attract people. She has a good shop with AC and DSTV.

Change the outlook of the saloon, create a buzz around the Neighborhood where the saloon is located and try giving out freebie to customers when they come in to experience your service. In fact give them a reason to come back again!

Where is the location? Mayb i can be of help cos am into branding.

Hi you can advertise for free at the Nigerian Trade Centre


     http://www.nigeriantradecentre.com  and you can have your mini website

@yicob.I am in minna niger state.

The staff you employ must know what customer service is all about. Customers respond more to a friendly staff.
Make sure the staff is equipped with knowledge on the latest hair styles and equipments.
Check out for defects in the other salons where you are situated and try to excel in those areas.
Make your salon more attractive than the others. Use beautiful colors and lighting. It works.
Be clean.

Print out some leaflets and distribute it.

www.moneysaversforum.com

make sure you employ well mannered and frienly staff. Thats very important. More important thaan any other thing in a salon. I never go to salons that their staff are not well mannered no matter how good they are

customer service1 custoer service and more customer service. plus do a buy 2 get a third free promotion i.e pay for 2 treatment and get 3rd free

Tank's a lot.I will work with what u've all said.

in addition 2 all theyv said,if ure a christain,pay ur tithe regularly,n put God 2 test,

As a business solutions consultant, i have ideas that will produce the results in less than two weeks. if you are interested email me at motonyvator@yahoo.com.

kokorunna:

Print out some leaflets and distribute it.

www.moneysaversforum.com

Wats the point if those customers come back to see that is thesame saloon they deserted.That will work only if you have done your homework well.

u can reach me on my email address, pamboogie@gmail.com. there i'll give you my phone nos. i live in minna, niger state and i run an ad agency. i might have just the secret recipe u need. u and ur friend sound like u need crazy branding strategies. i'm ur go to girl. expecting ur mail

@poster

just try and get well mannered and good hair stylists
then you will see how it works

Customer service , atmosphere , flyer's and publicity are great. But the key to a great salon is at least one great stylist. Have you wondered about the phenomena of several girls crowded in a hole in the wall salon. Its because word of mouth has spread about the great work done there. Get yourself a really great stylist who will be your second in command , He/she should create a signature look that will help you get word of mouth publicity  required.

Most importantly treat this person very well if possible make them a bizness partner. I have seen a lot of salons fail because they failed to keep their chief stylist happy and they leave . In addition set your salon up so that your chief  stylists are training their successors so that you are also not overly dependent on one person. Lastly , not my call but I don't like the biz model where stylist operate independently in a shop and are jack of all trades . No i think all stylists should be controlled my an office manger and should have a speciality , i.e color, cut or weave. That stops the unnecessary competition and ensures that one stylist is not hugging all the customers and not able to provide the required level of service you prefer for your clientele. Make sure that you stylists don't over book and have a sufficient number of assistants to keep things going. I am sure that there are several websites that can help on running a professional salon. Please ignore all the people calling you to come and develop a  brand with them  . You have to develop a service before you brand it.

In my opinion,i think you should employ staff that know how to do the work well,not just that they should also have manners and good character,make the place always clean,good music or movies playing,distribute fliers,pray to God for the best(give tithe)and also inspect and take notice of what happens in the salon, good luck!

Employ pretty stylists and your salon will be full every hour.

add,add,add and promotionssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

invest more on advert and promotions are very important e.g special offer

get your business a unique selling point, e.g think of something that will make ur service or salon better than others.many more ideas ahead

I hope you can handle this truth.

1. Employ a stylist who has gone to a school to learn it, I don't mean University to run the saloon for you while you stay back and watch as an entrepreneur ensuring excellence and fulfilment of your business plan if you have one.

2. Create a system of customers data collection, I mean you create a receipt for payment of your services and in that receipt make provision for data collection like e-mail, phone, and address and once in a while call your customers or send them an e-mail if there is a latest style in town let it be they heard it from you first and if there are little hair services you can give them at home if they don't mind leverage on the opportunity.

3. What kind of music do you like as a person? play it for them

4. Subcribe to DSTV channels that talks about women and fashion. This will engage them and they will always want to have the experiance over and over again.

5. Monitor trend and watch your competitors closely leave your environment once in a while visit other city saloon in Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos to steal what in town in terms of fashion.

6. Operate it as if it is your ministry or calling to make women more beautiful because that is what they want not need.

7. Employ staffs who are sanquine in nature and always allow you stylist manager to do the picking.

8. If you want your staffs to smile, treat customers well and be nice. Let it start from you.

9. Your book keeping and accounting, Don't joke with it. once in a while hire an accountant to go through your books and audit it.

10. Believe, Obey, Have faith and Hope in GOD

Finally Be Happy

Andy Ochumba
Greenhope

. . . . . . . . advertising maybe. . . , . . .

It's salon.
Saloon is something else

sa·loon /səˈlun/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[suh-loon] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. a place for the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks.
2. a room or place for general use for a specific purpose: a dining saloon on a ship.
3. a large cabin for the common use of passengers on a passenger vessel.
4. British. a. (in a tavern or pub) a section of a bar or barroom separated from the public bar and often having more comfortable furnishings and a quieter atmosphere.
b. saloon car.

5. a drawing room or reception room

sa·lon /səˈlɒn; Fr. saˈlɔ̃/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[suh-lon; Fr. sa-lawn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun, plural -lons /-ˈlɒnz; Fr. -ˈlɔ̃/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[-lonz; Fr. -lawn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation. 1. a drawing room or reception room in a large house.
2. an assembly of guests in such a room, esp. an assembly, common during the 17th and 18th centuries, consisting of the leaders in society, art, politics, etc.
3. a hall or place used for the exhibition of works of art.
4. a shop, business, or department of a store offering a specific product or service, esp. one catering to a fashionable clientele: a dress salon; a hair salon.
5. (initial capital letter) (in France) a. the Salon, an annual exhibition of works of art by living artists, originally held at the Salon d'Apollon: it became, during the 19th century, the focal point of artistic controversy and was identified with academicism and official hostility to progress in art.
b. a national exhibition of works of art by living artists: Salon des Refusés; Salon des Indépendants

Not in any particular order;

Low prices, good customer service, discount vouchers for repeat custom, professional hair stylist, offer additional beauty related services, good aesthetics.

for people to be attracted to your saloon it has to have something others dnt have
u need to employ good lookin, hardworkin, polite and talented hair stylists
ur saloon has to be clean and comfortable
just pray to God sha, he;'s the weather man

get some big boobed babes with some serious cleavage!!!!!!!!!!!!

that will do it

@ Greenhope & Funkfaze

Nice one. I learnt from your comments

Nairalanders lets keep the ideas coming, you are all doing a good work.

Cheers

having gone over wat everyone has noted, i wld say u don't need an advert. Don't give d wrong treatment to a different diagnosis. U really need to check urself properly. Wat do u as a person really know as per salon?
The mistake most pple make is wen dey as individuals don't know much about the business dey r into, dey employ professionals in d field who know their bossess are dumb as per the business. This den results in a coalition and it brings about conflict, dats btwn d employer & d employee.

1. My best advice is dat u do a survey or go to other salons and see how they operate. Mind u, wat might work for A, might not be good for B.
2. Consider ur location, ur price and the type of clients/customers u are trying to attract. The beauty about a business is wen there is repeated patronage. Some salons are extremely on d high side but they treat u like a PRINCE & PRINCES.
3. Wat we lack in nigeria is GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE, yet we ave good EYE SERVICE

you need to put a touch of technology into woteva you do.
you could have a website of your salon,
you could also send personalizd sms to your clients to thank em for patronizin u or to folks in Minna telling them your salon is back and better.
you remind your clients that its time for them to re-touch their hair and dtuffs like that via personalizd sms etc.
you keep an e-file of your customers.send em gifts during their birthdai etc.

send an email to gbenga_tk@yahoo.ie

i could do all the mentioned for you.

1. Staff must be friendly
2. Hair stylists must be good
3. Freebies
4. Advertising
5. Location
6. Competitive and affordable prices