Poppys Hair Salon, East Yorkshire

Janice Auton installed i-salon at Poppys in 2003 to gain more control over stock, utilisation, and other key areas in her Stockton salon which she knew were hard to track without being computerised.

A head for numbers

“I enjoy looking at Key Performance Indicators like; our average bill, the number of clients in a week and retail sales per client. Without i-salon we wouldn’t know half as much about how we are performing. Our average bill is increasing because we’re always looking for ways that we can improve services and pricing. We tightened up our offers, increasing our birthday offers to £10 but only sending them to female clients who visit the salon more than 3 times a year, so we’re rewarding the most loyal clients. Without a doubt we have become more profitable without affecting client retention.”

Marketing savvy

“We use text messages and mailers to send out these promotions, it’s easy in i-salon. All of the marketing searches are stored, so our receptionist is able to access them quickly and easily. Retail sales are also up, especially this year. We use global alerts which remind our receptionist to offer clients products at the till – it’s a simple system to put in place which guarantees results.”

Secret to success

Poppys has very loyal clients – and loyal staff too – with many of the team having been with Poppys from the very start. “The secret to the positive vibe at Poppy’s is definitely empowering the staff to take control of their own careers. We give them confidence by setting targets in i-salon and reviewing their performance regularly. Once they achieve a certain point with their request rates and care factors, they know they will get promoted; we call
it the ‘Poppys Path’.”

The only way is up

In 2007, Janice won the North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, thanks to her organisation and team motivation which i-salon makes possible. Poppys is continuing to grow, and with the help of i-salon, the sky is
the limit.