Caution! Your Hair Supplier Could Make or Break your Business
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010The success of your hair salon rides on a lot of things: your expertise, your business know-how, your marketing and the competence of your hair suppliers. While you can control the things that are within your realm such as your ability to cut and style hair, your knowledge of running a business and your flair for marketing, the only thing you really are in control of when it comes to your vendors is the fact that you selected them. From there, your fate is in their hands.
It is best that you choose wisely.
Hair suppliers come a dime a dozen and not all of them are competent or have high quality products. Whether you are purchasing chairs and shampoo bowls or towels and hair foil, the quality of the product should be your primary concern. Poor quality products can make your salon look shoddy or low class. Worse, inferior products can actually cause damage and do harm. You just can’t take those kinds of chances. You need to select your hair suppliers with care and caution for they can make our break your business. A best practice is to judge potential vendors on a five point system.
1. Customer feedback and referrals. What are their customers saying about them? Ask for contact information for current and former customers so that you can get references for the vendor. If they won’t give you the information, something could be wrong and they may not me on the up and up. That should raise a red flag.
2. Better Business Bureau rating. Look up your hair suppliers on the Better Business Bureau website and check out their grade. This is a good indication of how solid a company is and the kind of service they give to their customers.
3. Customer service policies. Check out the websites for the hair suppliers. What are their customer service policies? Are they accessible? Do they have emergency contact information? Take a hard look at their policies and decide if they will work for you.
4. Company reputation. Many companies sell hair dressing equipment, so the best way to weed the good from the bad, the stellar from the lackadaisical, is to check out their reputation. You can do an internet search of the company and read customer reviews on many consumer sites. You can also check out consumer rating sites and see how the company was rated.
5. Representative knowledge of product and industry. If your hair supplier is trying to sell you products, but he doesn’t know the difference between a hair dryer, hair foils and a straightening iron, something is wrong. Your representative should have a working knowledge of the products that he or she is selling as well as the beauty industry as a whole. Don’t be afraid to quiz them.
You need the hair dressing equipment, but the wrong hair suppliers can tear your business apart. Take the time to do your homework. Research the companies first and find one that you can trust. Your business and your clients are riding on it.
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