Getting your salon pricing right is crucial. But what salon pricing formula and strategy should you use?
We hope the salon service list ideas shared here will help you improve your salon profit margin.
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My: Hi guys, I’ve been looking through our price list or salon menu at the hair salon these past few days. And I discovered some really good things that I think we have to change because sometimes you get comfy in your own song. And also, John will be with me today to have some good tips.
Your Salon Prices are One of Your Most Essential Brand Signals and Marketing Tools
John: Your menu and your price list are super important Because in the end, what you’re selling is services. So your price list and your menu are really how you communicate and how you sell your core offer and your services.
I think it’s crucial to get that right. And to say a couple of things on that before, because I know you have prepared a few tips as well. Now a couple of things that are important to consider.
One thing is your pricing, and how you set your prices is one of your most essential brand signals.
If you price yourself too low, you will have a hard time attracting that high-spending client looking for the best quality. They don’t think you can do that if your pricing is not matching with their expectations.
So it’s not only about lowering your prices to get more, but the pricing you use is a strong signal of your brand and your position as a salon.
So that will be one. It’s really like a marketing tool. It’s a brand tool.
Use a Strategic Price List to Increase the Profits of Your Salon Business
Number two is also having a strategic price list. This is also what will allow you to improve your margins and increase the profitability of your business. On the one side, make sure that the services you offer and the prices cover your costs.
But also that you’re offering an opportunity for those who want to spend more with you to do so. That you’d not only have your introductory offer but maybe offer something more like your premium offer, or perhaps you can have add-on services and packages.
Use your menu strategically so that clients who want to spend more with you can do so. Yeah, it’s super important.
It’s very like, and it needs to be strategic, right? They cannot just be something we look at, whatever the salon next door is doing, and then we copy. But that we make it strategic.
Make Your Salon Menu Personal and Short
My: I think one of my tips is that you can make your price list very personal and reflective of your brand.
Suppose you’re a modern type of salon. You can use funny names on the different treatments instead of just a men’s haircut or a women’s haircut. You can use words more or less that are appropriate to your brand.
John: I think that’s awesome because I think your price list is for sure one of those things that people actually will see and want to read. Like they will see your logo, your name, and one of the next things they will see is your menu. So it’s a great way to communicate the character of your brand as well.
My: Like the feeling that you want your salon to match. And also, I think it’s important to keep it relatively short. So maybe if you have different coloring treatments, for example, don’t make too many.
Because a lot of treatments are like, it takes the same time. If you have a foil or balayage, it’s usually quite the same time. What’s more, the time depends more on the change that the customer wants.
If you have them in different categories, you can narrow it down to one category, but we have one that’s called new color. If you want to change the color of your hair, this is what you book. Or if it’s a balayage or foils, what type of coloring it’s the same. So they don’t have to pick the technique you’re using because you should choose the technique, not the client.
So that you narrow it down, then it’s much easier for the clients to know. Okay. I just booked this.
Communicate the Benefits vs the Features
John: A general principle in marketing overall is to communicate the benefits versus the features. So if you take something out of our industry if you go to an app, and a website or something like that, you’re going to buy an iPhone and use that silly example because everybody has one.
But they don’t talk about whatever, all the different features as they do, you can find that in the details, but where they start, it’s like the benefit that you’re getting, like the best photographs and they’re showing how stunning they are. Similar, how we think when we communicate the services is really what’s the benefit.
Like you said, as new color, what’s the benefit that you’re giving? That’s what we want to communicate. And then later down, if you want some photo explanation, we can talk about the features.
My: You can have an info button or something that I can scroll down, and then they can see more of what is included and what type of add-ons they can do.
We also put down some add-ons that were like this. You don’t have to book extra time. If you want them, you can tell them to us in the chair. And this will cost this extra.
Use Add-Ons to Increase the Value of Each Appointment
John: And I’ve been working with add-ons, I think in a super-smart way. To increase the value of each appointment, to have someone coming in for one of your standard services, but to add those in and increase the value of each appointment. If you do that consistently over time, that can make a big difference. Because typically, also your add-ons are almost only profit, right?
Because it doesn’t require more time, it’s just adding more profits from a margin point of view and a profitability point of view, like working smarter.
My: And I also think if we’re going to talk about price, a lot of the salons have one from price, from 2,100 for example, I believe that is a bit dangerous because I think as a customer, you expect that price.
Yeah. So we added a top price. So it’s between. Two thousand one hundred and two thousand nine hundred. So the customer knows it will be somewhere in between there. And if they want to like a more accurate price, they will ask you. Yeah. Because some clients are not aware of that. It can cost you like, yeah.
John: That’s an important point. And I think the challenge that I often hear, like from salon owners as well. It’s like a struggle to charge your worth. And at the end of the appointment, when you come to the checkout, then you’re going to pay like the last thing you want is an awkward discussion where expectations were different on the pricing and so on.
Then it doesn’t matter how satisfied the client is with the hair. If they thought they would pay 2,100 and they’re going to pay 2,900, they will be disappointed. They will think, oh, the hair wasn’t that good?
My: You will not feel comfortable taking that price either. But if you know that it’s set between those on the website and that the client had read, it will be easier for you to charge more.
And avoid that awkward conversation where it’s like expectations were set wrong. That’s one of the most significant changes, and it’s one of those I got a lot of good feedback from my staff.
Make the Price List Simple for the Salon Customer
John: Yeah. And so you had a final point as well, right?
I have one final point that I mentioned a bit earlier, but I want to push it because I keep it very simple. I do not use too many hairdresser words.
So you make it simple for the customer, so they cannot book wrong. Because it’s clear for us as hairdressers, but you have to think that the client maybe worked with computers all day. They don’t know all the specific hairstyling terms. Yeah. So that’s important.
I think that goes for any salon or spa, right? Being clear on what it is that they are booking.
John: Awesome. So that was the price list. And as I said earlier the price, should be something that you work with strategically to drive up the value of each appointment.
And to use your brand so that you’re going to position your salon in the suitable space where you want to be. To ultimately improve the profitability and growth of your business.
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