C A P I TA L A DV I C E
Anya Dellicompagni, Director of Hairdressing, Francesco Group, shares the brand’s approach to social media. What are your favourite social media platforms and why? Facebook is great for interacting and engaging with clients as well as showing them what we’re up to. We share before and after images of clients that have visited Anya Dellicompagni the salon, as well as competitions, salon announcements and team announcements. Twitter is the platform we use to engage with journalists, bloggers and influencers. As you only have 140 characters, it allows you to be straight to the point, quickly. We’ve found this influences the younger clients on deciding to visit the salons. Instagram is something we use and are continually working on. We use images not only from the salons but also from our creative team’s travels. What do you define as a successful social media post? Personally, we deem a successful social media post as something that has created engagement and conversation with our followers. Do you have a social media manager or does a member of staff do the posting? This is dealt with in-house.
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How important is the tone of voice across your platforms? Very. You need to make sure that the tone is friendly and engaging, and that clients are welcomed by that tone. Nothing too formal, but keep it professional. We are lucky that we have developed quite a distinctive tone.
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KEEPING THE RIGHT STAFF WITH YOU So you’ve found the perfect team – now, how do you keep them? Gemma Hensman of Hensmans shares her thoughts.
Staff retention is first and foremost about listening and creating a partnership and package that is personal to the individual. At Gemma Hensman Hensmans we have regular management meetings, team coaching sessions and bi-annual team days where the group gets together to discuss new ideas, the salon’s current focus and up and seasonal trends. We have an open-door policy to discuss anything that may come up or ideas that team members have that can enrich the development of the business. With team members that are now celebrating 25 and 27 years with us there is always a /40
development strategy for each individual to go through the company with a journey that suits them. Whether that means following an artistic direction or management, or sometimes both, we believe that as long as a package is developed to suit both parties then it helps to create a harmonious working relationship, and a solid work life balance. We also appreciate that people have other personal goals in life; we have members of staff that have gone travelling and come back to work in the salon after six months and team members that come back from maternity leave so we we make the effort to devise a good package for them, one that doesn’t involve working weekends or late evenings if they don’t want to – as long as they can maintain their financial targets in the hours they choose.
Leah Inwood has been with us with in Northampton for 25 years and became an Associate Director this year, along with Carol Straughan who heads up the Milton Keynes Salon. We believe it is vital to reward loyalty and dedication. Both Leah and Carol started off in our training Academy where we teach City and Guilds hairdressing apprenticeships in house – this gives us freedom to educate them to a high level and offer constant onthe-job training which also gives them a good foundation to achieve the career they want. With all that said, we truly value and respect team members when they want to move on to open their own salons or work as session stylists around the globe. Their honesty is vital in securing a smooth exit, to minimise disruption.