Front Desk Productivity

Editor's Notes

• #3: Introduce yourself.
• #4: All attendees will be placed on “Listen Only” mode, that way we can get through all of the content in the time allotted. However, I strongly encourage all of you to send us any questions you may have in the questions box. We will have a designated Q&A portion at the end of today’s presentation to go over those questions. Finally, I want to also encourage you all to review today’s presentation by filling out the survey that will be sent to you at the end of the webinar. As always, we value your feedback and always take it into consideration when developing educational content for you! With that being stated, let’s discuss front desk productivity!
• #5: So what’s in store for today? Well… First, we’re going to take a step back and analyze your business, establishing if your FD is either a cost center or a profit center. Next, we’ll cover changes you can make today, in effort to shift your front desk from cost center to profit center. Lastly, we’ll discuss some long term solutions to setting your business up for success and sustaining your profit center. Let’s go ahead and begin!
• #6: Before we dive into making changes, let’s discuss what changes need to be made. We’re going to do this by analyzing your business.
• #7: I want you to take a moment and ask yourself: Is my business a cost center or a profit center? Let’s review both to find out that answer!
• #8: A cost center is defined as a department that does not directly add to profit, but costs an organization money to operate. This is characterized by passive duties, not focused on optimizing revenue, including answering phones, booking appts, ringing up appointments, and maintaining the cleanliness of shelves and work areas.
• #9: On the opposite end of the spectrum, a profit center is a department that actively contributes to profitability through its actions. This includes upselling & cross selling services & products, suggesting promotions and prepaids to guests, and creating a second to none experience that keeps guests feeling valued and more inclined to spend money.
• #10: Now that we’ve established the difference between a cost center and a profit center and have a better understanding of which best represents your business, let’s focus on how we can make the necessary changes to shift your front desk to become the ideal profit center for your business!
• #11: We can make changes today by: A: building brand ambassadors B: making the first impression count and C: growing revenue simply by following up Let’s take a closer look at all 3 to improve our understanding!
• #12: Build Brand Ambassadors! I cannot stress to you how important this is for your business. Your team should be nothing short of well-versed on your business’ services, products, & promotions. I’m sure you’re asking yourself: How can I expect, my perhaps already overwhelmed front desk to know every little thing? Fear not. There are many ways we can address this concern with our trustworthy friend, also known as Millennium, to help us along the way.
• #13: Let’s start out by first discussing services. Is your front desk educated on the many services your business offers? Do they know the ideal FOV for these services or even what FOV stands for? Do they know the significance of upselling, cross selling, and promoting add-ons? Let’s see how Millennium can answer these questions for us.
• #14: We’ll address FOV first. FOV, the abbreviation for Frequency of Visit, refers to the # of times a guest visits your business, per year. One of the main goals of a successful business is ensuring guests continuously come back. But how do we encourage that they do, indeed return? Pre-booking is the key, here. In order to ensure clients return to your business, your front desk should be pre-booking their next service before the client even pays for the one they received that day! In the Appointment tab displayed here, you will notice a field where you can enter the average FOV for each service. This field is crucial to prebooking, because once enabled, your front desk will receive a prompt at the time of checkout, reminding them to prebook the client’s next service, and better yet, book their next service without having to leave the register window itself! This will streamline the transition between ring-up and booking the guest’s next appointment, while simultaneously improving the likeliness the client will return!
• #15: To improve your staff’s knowledge of your business’ services, you can utilize the Catalog tab shown here. Not only does this screen allow you to enter in details for what’s included in each of your services, which will display on your Online Booking site, it can act as a helpful knowledge base for you and your staff. If a client inquires about what a specific service includes & the employee is unsure, they can right-click on the service while booking it & quickly view the important details there. This will promote professionalism and consistency at your business, thus improving the level of trust clients invest in your business.
• #16: Another crucial thing your FD staff should know, is which services pair well with others & even act as upgrades to enhance a client’s experience! These are respectively known as cross-selling & upselling. An upsell can be considered an upgrade to a clients service. For example a client might book an appt for a 60 minute massage, but it can be upgraded to a 90 minute massage. For those in the salon industry, a client might book an appointment for partial highlights, but it can be upgraded to full highlights. Not only will the guest receive a more enhanced service, upgraded services are more expensive, thus bringing in more revenue for your business. But how do I expect my staff to know every upsell opportunity? Fortunately enough, in the Upsell tab displayed here, you can define upsell services, which will then notify your staff in the appointment editor, when an upsell opportunity arises! That way, your staff doesn’t have to remember every single upsell opportunity & they can easily make the upsell pitch, to show guests their main focus is for them to have a more enhance experienced, rather than focusing on the monetary gain it will result in.
• #17: You can do the same when it comes to cross-selling. While an upsell is considered an upgrade, a cross sell is best defined as an addition to a service. For example, a client may only book an appointment for a haircut, however, your staff can then make the recommendation to perhaps get some highlights and an eyebrow wax, to further frame the face & highlight their features. For those in the massage industry, a client may book a massage, but you can also recommend they get a facial in addition to that. Again, this is a win-win for your guest & your business, because the client will receive a more enhanced experience, and you will be making more money on that sale. You can set up potential cross sell services in the cross sell tab shown here. This will act similarly to the upsell prompt the staff will receive & they will be reminded of any cross sell opportunities to offer the guest & boost the overall average ticket.
• #18: Now that we know the different ways Millennium can help your staff keep tabs on services offered at your business, let’s shift our focus to what your front desk should be doing to remain knowledgeable of and push retail! To assist your staff with promoting retail sales, Millennium has a number of features to help!
• #19: In the Product Definition screen in Millennium, you will notice, at the bottom of that window a field labeled Lasts # of Weeks. Here, we recommend that you enter in how many weeks, on average that product should last a client. For example, if a guest purchases clarifying facial wipes that come in a pack of 28, you know that this should last the client 4 weeks, if used daily. Though there is a lot to factor in, such as how often the client will use the product as well as figuring out how long each product should last, you can reference the shelf life on the product label when deciding what to enter in here. This field is especially crucial to promoting retail sales. When a client is being rung-up, your front desk staff will receive a prompt, notifying them if the client is running low on the product. This will push them to have a conversation with that guest to replenish the item OR perhaps recommend something different if the client wasn’t too crazy about it. If the client is interested in purchasing a similar item OR another product that goes well with one they’ve already purchased, we can account for that in the Notes window.
• #20: By clicking on the Notes icon in the product definition screen, you are able to add notes of your choice. This will again act as a knowledge-base for you and your staff to stay informed on all of your retail in effort to better educate your clients & eventually close the sale on products that will directly benefit them. For example, in this field, you can record products that pair well with this item, such as a primer, eyeliner, or mascara and even record the names of comparable products, if the client wants multiple options to choose from. You can then opt to have these notes appear in the register screen.
• #21: If the notes are enabled to display in the Register window, it will appear just like this. That way, whoever is ringing up the client, can discuss with the guest perhaps other products they might be interested in. As a result, this will push even more product off your shelves, thus increasing the average retail ticket of your business, and ultimately boosting your annual revenue exponentially.
• #22: While we’re on the topic of being well-versed, you must also ask yourself if your staff is well educated on your business’ promotions. Do they know exactly what types of memberships, packages, and series you offer and can they recommend the best ones for your clients? Luckily enough, again, Millennium can come to the rescue to address this!
• #23: In the Catalog Description tab of the package/series window, you will see a tab labeled Catalog Description. You can use this tab to enter in a description of the package or series as it would appear in a Catalog for your business to outline what the client receives when they purchase the prepaid and make it appealing to your guests! In my experience of working with clients who use Millennium, I’ve noticed that this tab is often underutilized. I want to strongly recommend you use this. It is an extremely helpful resource for both you and your staff, that way everyone will be on the same page regarding what they should tell clients if the package or series is inquired about.
• #24: This description will show in the Register window, when you insert the package or series from a list when selling it to a client! This will better inform your staff, leading them to be more confident when pitching the prepaid to clients, closing the sale, and guaranteeing that client returns to your business. Remember: the beauty of packages and series is that it’s a guarantee the client will return to your business. They already paid for their services, so they have to come in at some point eventually to redeem them, thus improving frequency of visit and retention, 2 extremely important growth indicators of your business! Furthermore, even though this is already paid for, your FD can upsell/cross-sell/ and add-on to that client’s ticket when they come in for their pre-paid services, thus again, increasing that avg ticket and generating more income for your business!
• #25: So while we’re on the topic of promotions, I want to make it a key point for you to have your staff try them out!! This can work to your advantage for various reasons! Speaking from experience as someone who has specialized in beauty industry sales, the absolute BEST way you can sell a product or a service is if you have tried it yourself! Clients love to hear that you have tried products and services that your business offers. It allows you and your staff to get personal with them and speak from experience. People rely on reviews and word of mouth when it comes to making buying decisions. When they see that staff can recommend services/products, they themselves have tried, they are more trusting and willing to spend their money on those things. Furthermore, you can use your staff to advertise services you offer. For example, if a client sees how amazing your staffs’ hair, skin, and even nails are, they are going to be inclined to ask about those services & your staff can recommend the service provider right for the job, so that the client can get a similar, fabulous look! Your staff will be informed and your clients will be extremely happy, and more likely to spend more at your business.
• #26: Now that we’ve discussed the various ways we can make your staff brand ambassadors of your business, let’s direct our attention to how we can make the first impression a lasting one. Contrary to popular belief, a client’s experience with your business does not start or end AT your business. As a matter of fact, your guest’s experience begins the moment they call, which is why that initial phone conversation sets the tone for a client’s buying relationship. With that being stated, ask yourself: is my front desk staff using proper phone etiquette? If a client has a less than amazing experience on the phone with your staff, that can affect the amount of money they spend at your business. Think of it this way: If a client feels that your staff isn’t investing in their needs, they’re not going to feel inclined to invest money in your business. So how do we make sure your staff makes a lasting first impression?
• #27: The answer to that question is to use a front desk script. Though it may seem a bit impersonal to use a script when conversing with a client, scripts are ideal as they leave minimal to no room for error and establish none other than consistency for a guests experience. In fact, one of the main reasons clients stop returning to businesses, is because consistency is lacking. You want to make sure your clients always have positive experiences with your business, whether they are physically there or not. Not only do these scripts promote consistency, they lead to creating a culture focused on retaining clients and maintaining growth. Attached to the documents section of this webinar, you will find a Front Desk Dialogue pdf attachment you can reference and even implement at your business!
• #28: The final section we are going to cover is how we can boost revenue by simply following up. Believe it or not, it doesn’t always have to cost a fortune to create one. Let’s discuss some cost-effective action items your front desk should be doing to get clients back through your door and spend!
• #29: The AQ070: Appointment Recall Listing report is ideal because it will display a list of clients who are due in for services, but don’t have future appointments booked. Use this to have your staff reach out and encourage clients to come back. You can even consider setting up a We Miss You campaign, your staff can send via email/text to encourage clients to come back.
• #30: Consider running a Client Selection in Millennium, to find clients who’ve had appointments during a specific date range and have your staff check-in on them, inquiring how their experiences were & encouraging them to book their next appt to get them back through your door.
• #31: To address clients who didn’t come in at all, you can run the AQ230 to find out why they clients canceled and the AQ050 to view those who didn’t show up, without canceling first. Your staff can use these reports to reach out to those guests, inquiring if everything is alright and making an active effort to accommodate them as soon as possible.
• #32: To thank those loyal guests who refers new ones to your business, run the DC030: Client Referrals report. Your staff can then create & send out thank you emails/cards/text messages OR call guests to offer your gratitude. Again, this will make the guest feel appreciated & more inclined to refer new clients and return to your business.
• #33: Another effort your staff can take is to run the MR126: Liabilities About to Expire report and reach out to clients that have gift certificates, packages, series, and reward points that are due to expire during a specific date range Though these are liabilities, and you have already received payment for these, once the client comes in, your staff can perhaps upsell, cross-sell, and add on additional services & products, to + your average ticket, & generate more revenue. All of these follow-up efforts are bound to make your client feel appreciated by your business, garnering their loyalty we are constantly striving for, and encouraging them to return, spend more money, and ultimately contribute to increasing your business’ revenue.
• #34: Now that we’ve discussed making the first impression count and the significance of following, let’s go over long term solutions to sustaining front desk productivity.
• #35: Since we’ve reviewed many, many ways to keep your FD busy during the day and operate like a profit center, you may have asked yourself “what happens if my front desk gets too busy?” Fear not- again, there are solutions to this concern. If you see your front desk is getting overwhelmed with the volume of work they’re taking on & you want to lessen that workload, I highly suggest that you consider offering Online Booking. This will give your clients the freedom to book their own appointments, so your FD can focus on other things such as reaching out to clients, upselling/cross-selling/etc. I would also like you to consider doing automated confirmations/reminders, to diminish that responsibility from your FD, as well. Another vital factor to consider is establishing a FD career path. One of the main reasons FD staff turnover may be high is because many view that position with limited growth. Employees are only going to stay long-term if they can grow professionally. To retain your FD and sustain their productivity, consider developing this as a career path they can grow with as industry professionals. Let them know you want to see them improve and show you trust them. You can do this by giving them more responsibility & mold them to eventually earn a more managerial role @ your business. Incentives are also a great idea. Especially during days during the year business may be slow. This will motivate them to perform better and show them how much of an impact they can make on the client experience and overall revenue of your business.
• #36: Now that we’ve gone over some long-term solutions for FD productivity. Let’s recap what we learned today. In this webinar we learned the difference between a cost center and a profit center, and how we always want our FD to be the latter. We also know how Millennium can assist staff to promote retail/service sales, how staff can increase revenue by simply taking the courtesy of following up, and better yet, how long-term solutions, such as developing a career path and offering incentives, can ultimately sustain FD productivity.
• #37: I would now like to take the remainder of our time together today to address your questions. I cannot thank you enough for joining me today for this webinar. I hope you all took something away from it and wish you success is turning your FD from a cost center to a profit center and maintaining productivity. As always, if you have any questions at all about this presentation, please do not hesitate to contact us at education@millenniumsi.com Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone!