TECHNOLOGY
Social mediator When a fire devastated thriving Bournemouth salon Rage, owners Terry and Vicki Steventon turned to Facebook to keep clients informed and engaged.
It was hard to see it at the time, but in retrospect the fire we suffered in 2009 had a silver lining, in that it was the catalyst for us using social media to reach out to clients, something that has become increasingly important for the salon as time has gone on. I wouldn’t say we’re specifically a young person’s salon but our largest market is definitely at the younger end of the age spectrum, between16 to 35. We market ourselves as a high fashion, trendy salon, but also as somewhere friendly rather than intimidating. The fire was electrical and started in a fridge in the staff room. It was what is called a “smoulder fire” in that most of the damage was done from smoke rather than actual flames, but the whole salon was gutted. Terry Steventon has been a hairdresser for more than 30 years, including several years teaching at Bournemouth Hairdressing Academy. He opened Rage in 2003, which he runs with wife and salon manager Vicki. The salon has been a regional finalist in the L’Oréal Colour Trophy three years in a row, has won the L’Oréal Men’s Image Award twice, been a semi-finalist in the American Crew Face Off competition for men’s hairdressing and in 2010 won the NHF’s Icon trophy.
Relocated
At the time it was devastating. It was the beginning of December so we had all been geared up for our busiest time and, instead, suddenly had to relocate to a friend’s tiny barber’s shop. The main premises stayed shut for six months, primarily because the insurance company dragged its feet and, despite our best efforts, we could only service half our clientele because of being in a smaller premises, so it was a really challenging time When we reopened in June 2010 the question then was how to reach people, and
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using social media to help was very much a deliberate decision. Vicki already had a personal Facebook site so we started to use that more for the business, running competitions and prizes, putting up images and, in effect, using it as a blog to let people know what was going on, in particular our competition successes. From there it’s extended into a proper Rage Facebook page as well as, more recently, a Twitter feed. The emphasis was, and is, very much about keeping things upbeat, being fun and conversational rather than “corporate”. To me your website is your shop window online, where you “sell” the business, and so social media has to be different; it’s the place where you go to talk to and engage with clients. It’s almost like they’ve come into the salon for a conversation; think of it as an interactive extension to your website, so have a link from one to the other. One very important element has been connecting it to the physical side of the business. We have stickers on the windows and mirrors saying “follow us on Facebook and Twitter”. Most of our clients now have smart phones so when they are, say, having their colour done they can go on to the site and see what’s going on. We offer free “Wi-Fi” to clients to make this really easy.
may not be as much point, though, having said that, many older people are now active online. It is important to have a strategy, to decide what you want to use social media for, what you are going to put up there and who is going to manage it on a dayto-day basis. We encourage team members to post on the site, which both raises their profile and gives the site extra credibility. For us, the benefits have been immense. It helped us get back on to our feet, it has created a “buzz” and been important in raising our profile; it has helped us to re-establish and grow the relationships we have with our clients. We regularly get clients posting how much they love their colour or cut, which is just fantastic and means our clients are really engaged and, in effect, doing our advertising for us in a very powerful way.
Make time
It does take a time commitment. Vicki and I both post things regularly, often in the evenings. We’ve also given our senior stylist, Nat, the job of keeping the site busy and updated. As I’m 52 and Vicki’s 47 we reckon Nat has a much better idea of the sort of things young people want to read about! Hairdressing, like fashion, is a fastmoving industry and you’ve got to move with it; you’ve got to embrace these things as they come along and not be afraid of them. Of course, if your salon’s clientele are mostly aged 60-plus there
If you read nothing else read this… • Social media can be powerful but keep it fun and conversational • Have a strategy and decide in advance how you intend to use it • Recognise it will take a time commitment to ensure it is regularly updated • Promote it within the salon, get clients and the team engaged