Not Another Salon is the brainchild of award-winning hairdresser Sophia Hilton. Their success has been built on outstanding team education, first class colouring and 100% client satisfaction.

Bladon Moriarty is the salon manager for multi award-winning London hot spot. Here, Bladon discusses the key pillars that have made the salon a success.

Exceptional admin

It sounds simple, but automation in terms of communication has made a major difference to the client journey. The way it works is that a client will book in an appointment, and a week before their appointment they get an automated reminder. In that email we talk about the options available to them, such as a mirrorless service, silent service, their pronouns, and anything else they want to tell us to enhance their visit.  At this very early stage we are giving them choices and that is something clients love. If they are specifically coming in for a consultation, they will get another email that talks about Colourstart and the way we conduct our skin testing. Pre information is key to a great visit! It’s all automated and makes life so much easier.  Then a couple of weeks after their appointment they will get an automated message to remind them to rebook if they haven’t already. Every service has a customised automation depending on their service. It’s about the planning and procedures that go on in the background that make life so much easier.

Communication.

The way we communicate with our clients and being completely transparent is essential to our success. We have found that sharing everything with our clients from the very early stages is by far the most effective way of gaining satisfaction. We are completely transparent about everything from cost and giving them a full breakdown of each service, to being honest about what’s achievable with their colour. A client that is shocked when they receive their bill, or when they see the colour result is not quite what they expected, is never going to be as happy as a client who knew exactly what they were spending and understood the limitations of their colour before we started.  

Utilising tech

We are in a world where everything is integrated in your phone, so this is something we utilise, especially in terms of skin testing whereby everything is recorded and tracked on the Colourstart app. Colourstart has really helped us with the way we run our business and means that skin testing is not something we need to worry about. We simply point the client in the right direction and then everything is taken care of. It’s a significant reduction on our workload and means we can focus on running the business.

Choosing the right brand partners

All our brand partners are specifically curated by our owner, Sophia. They are trusted brands and offer us exactly what is required. We have been using these brands consistently for a long time and knowing that the quality is synonymous with ours is a major plus point and ensures consistency across the business. It’s consistency that is key to longevity.

Attention to detail

Think about the last time you had amazing service, I am sure it will be because of the little details rather than the big expensive gestures, that really made a difference. Details matter in the service industry and personalising a clients visit is what makes them leave delighted. Remembering their drink of choice, the name of their dog and their favourite sweet treat is the level of detail that we go to in the salon. It costs next to nothing to implement, but makes a major difference when it comes to client loyalty.