The holidays are the busiest, and most stressful, time of year for hairdressers, but you already know that. The good news is that you’re booked solid, which is great for the bottom line. Clients you didn’t even remember you had are banging down the door to get an appointment so they look good for both Christmas and New Year’s. The bad news is that you’re booked solid, which means you’re putting in lots of extra hours behind the chair, which doesn’t leave much time to check off items on your own to-do list, like shopping, wrapping, baking, and decorating. You get the idea. Not to mention that you need your own hair cut and color refreshed so you look good for both Christmas and New Year’s—good luck finding someone to do that for you since everyone you work with is just as busy as you are. So unfair, right?
Terri Adams, Director of Business Development for SureTint Technologies, has some ideas for relieving stress and freeing up some time for yourself.
- Make LaRu Your Personal AssistantLaRu is SureTint’s most advanced color management software. With its intuitive, easy-to-use user interface and added features, the Cloud-based app delivers a multitude of benefits, including reduced color waste, optimized inventory management, detailed client profiles and formulas, and exact color formula replication. It’s time to toss the index cards. We’ve got refrigerators that can order our groceries and Alexa for everything else—no hairdresser should still be recording client profiles and formulas on index cards in the 21st century, or giving those formulas to the receptionist so she can enter them into the computer. You can barely read your own handwriting, how do you expect her to? LaRu does it all quickly and efficiently so the correct formula is always at the ready. And LaRu never calls in sick or comes in with a hangover after having too much eggnog at the annual holiday party. LaRu is, well, LaRu is perfect. She’s the assistant you always wanted or never knew you needed. Okay, let’s just say you actually have someone at the salon to shampoo your clients and mix up color for you. You know, an actual assistant. LaRu can still save you lots of time, which is what you want, right? Instead of stopping to go over each formula with your assistant while the client’s sitting in your chair, all you have to do is give them the eyeball and they can scurry off to the dispensary where LaRu mixes that color right up. And if, God forbid, you’re training a new assistant during the holidays, well, you know that they’re going to be nervous. They’ll want to confirm the formula with you two or three times so they don’t make a mistake, and we all know that you can’t afford to make mistakes during the holidays because there’s no time to correct them. Again, you can’t make a mistake with LaRu, and neither can a nervous assistant because LaRu records each formula accurately and precisely each and every time.
- Shave Time Off Every ServiceWith LaRu, every color service is quicker and more efficient. Let’s say you have a new client coming in for color. You can get her (or his) formula into the system lickety-split because LaRu thinks exactly like you do. She’ll help you create a new client profile in seconds, quickly profiling the hair, seeing how much re-growth there is, checking the tone. Then she’ll ask you to choose a color service: retouch, foil, whatever. Then, choose the product you plan to use and hit DISPENSE. That’s all there is to it. Time-stamped and dated, that formula will stay put until you need it again.
- Make Someone Happy (and you will be happy, too) LaRu lets you take up to 10 photos of every client during a single visit. Think of each photo, which is date-stamped to match the formula you used that day, as a permanent record of each and every color service you provided throughout the year. Sharing their color history with your clients is a fun way to help them make New Year’s hair color resolutions. Show them where they’ve been and see if they’re receptive to trying something different in the New Year. Having an accurate hair color history can also be a lifesaver if a client asks you to make a radical change for the holidays. Let’s say you have a client who’s had mermaid hair all year but now she wants you to make her a brunette so her mother doesn’t freak out when she goes home for Christmas. Naturally, she’ll want to be a mermaid again in the New Year, and with LaRu you’ll know exactly what route to take to get her there. Remember: happy client = happy colorist. Happy holidays from SureTint Technologies and LaRu.
