The State of Black
Salons... The search for Clientele:
A number of black-owned stylists across the East Coast and
throughout the country have experienced a significant decrease in clientele.
According to the Professional Consultants & Resources, the
salon and hair care industry is a 75.38 billion dollar business. This is an increase of 4.1% over the comp
year. However, a piece of this billion dollar pie has been diminishing for
African American salons. This is
attributed primarily to four factors which are;
·
the increase of Dominican salons.
·
the trend or choice to transition from chemicals
to natural hair
·
the lack of respect of a black woman’s time and
absence of customer service in majority of salons.
·
Failure to use and retail good hair products specifically
designed for Black hair care.
·
The lack of incentives and redirection to retain
and consistently make the hair experience a necessity instead of a choice or
want.
Dominican salons evolved in record numbers during the early
1980’s primarily on the East Coast in places like New York (Wall Street Journal, May 2012). African American women primarily visited them
due to the fact that they had efficient processes that resulted in less time
being spent in the salon.. Dominican
salons use an assembly line approach that
moved the customer along rapidly. The end result of this process was soft silky
hair at often less expensive prices than traditional salons.
Despite the prevalence of Dominican salons, there have been
a number of complaints. Specifically,
African-American customers have complained of hair loss due to the excessive use of heat from the blow dryer
during styling. As a result, black hair would
break and snap as a result of these
processes being applied to our hair. Although the Dominicans have taken some market share, they cannot
be totally blamed for the state of the
traditional Black salon.
Transitioning from chemicals to natural hair has become a popular
trend and considered a healthier alternative to chemicals for African-American
women. Moreover, natural hair requires
less maintenance and is often a better alternative for someone who does not
have a great deal of time to spend on hair.
Black hair stylists often fail to service customers with naturals
because the hair can be difficult to detangle. However, there are great
products such as the Diva By Cindy Leave-In
infused with B vitamins to help solve this problem. Stylists who
eliminate natural hair services from their menu, claiming it's time-consuming
can increase their clientele by using a detangler to minimize the time it takes
to wash and style naturals. Thereby, making
the experience much more comfortable for
their clients.
Black hair salons do not always give great customer service.
. Unfortunately, customers often experience,
- long wait times, (sometimes up to 4 hours or longer to receive services),
- use of mobile devices while Hair is being styled,
- lack of attention to detail (for example cutting off too much of a person's hair or not giving them the right color)
- Failure to use and retail good hair products is another problem or common complaint of clients.
Despite these negatives, stylists can do a number of things
to improve client satisfaction and increase the willingness of clients to
return to salons.
Just as you don't
leave the doctors office without a prescription, a stylist should not allow their
clients to leave their chair without a prescribed or recommended plan of hair care
follow-up after leaving the salon.
Failure to do so leaves clients with only a couple of options; to peruse the Internet for follow-up hair care
products or to go to the neighborhood drugstore or beauty supply store and
figure out what they need. Unfortunately, this does not produce loyalty to their stylist.
Failure to implement customer loyalty programs another
reason why women are not visiting black hair care salons. Salons can increase their clientele by offering
the following: 1)customer loyalty card programs such as coupons 2) free retail
products for spending a given amount at the salon, 3) birthday cards with
coupons and other well-thought-out
loyalty programs, will help clients return to salons more often
The advent of Salon Suites have also taken away the salon experience.
Gone are the days we would walk in a salon and have women sharing, bonding, and
connecting in an open space. As a result, without the necessary foot traffic to
some of the Suites, stylists sit and wait and wonder where and when the next
clients are going to arrive. Without aggressive marketing and Salon incentives
mentioned above, there will continue to be a decline in the numbers of clients
for the stylist. Stylists will have no option but to work part-time to supplement their
income).
