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The Messy Hairstylist
Whether you are a mess literally OR figuratively we are here to help you take imperfect action to find your success as a hairstylist. Each week we deep dive in to tough topics to address the struggles we face in our industry. We push the boundaries, break the stereotypes and go hard against the "norms" that make us feel inferior.
The Messy Hairstylist
What Starbucks Just Did & Why Hairstylists Should Take Notes!
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Starbucks just made some bold changes—trimming their menu, reimagining the customer experience, and bringing back small but impactful touches. But what does this have to do with hairstylists? A LOT. In this episode, We are breaking down how these shifts apply to your salon business, from simplifying your services to creating a client experience that keeps people coming back. If Starbucks is making moves, we should be paying attention! Tune in for some major business takeaways you can implement today.
Follow Abby on Instagram and TikTok at @theabbywarther
Follow Kelsey on Instagram at @kelseymorrishair
Welcome to the Messy Hairstylist Podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Kelsey Morris and I'm Abbey Warther. Whether you are a mess, literally or figuratively, we are here to help you take imperfect action to find your success as a hairstylist. Well, I'm going to grace you today with actually starting a podcast. Oh, and you should enjoy it, because I don't know when I will again next. But I am really excited about this topic because something came out into the news this week. You know, I love when, like, a news story comes out and then I get on board with it.
Speaker 2:There was two different articles in the news this week about this certain company and I found it really interesting and I also thought, wow, this is correlating exactly to hairstylist. But you might not think so right off the bat. So, to kick it off, I just want you to know that Starbucks has made some huge changes, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, all right. Oh, is it a good changes or bad?
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see, but what it is is, yes, it's Starbucks, and I know people who know me. I absolutely love coffee. This is, besides the point. But one thing about Starbucks. If anybody doesn't know, starbucks is a company, for as many years as it's been around, has been known for that company that used to be the third place. Have you heard that term? No, okay, so there's this whole concept and there's I think there's even some books written about it, and it gears towards business owners, and it's something that I think hairstylists should really pay attention to is that Starbucks, before the pandemic, was always considered the third place, which means every they say every single person has three places that they typically are spending their time, and it is home work. And then Starbucks was becoming this third place for people. They would, it was, it was built into their daily, weekly. Think about that. Whether you're a Starbucks person or a different coffee place, a local place, a Dunkin' or whatever you probably I know you do You're a regular right.
Speaker 1:Yes, I am.
Speaker 2:So it becomes your third place. Is it the place that's down the street from you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's called Coffeeology. I need to send them a letter and be like by the way, you're my third place, okay, and don't you feel you get that right?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. And don't you feel you get that right? Okay, okay. So that's how Starbucks always was. Well, starbucks has made some huge changes, and my little tagline is this this isn't just about your caffeine fix. This is a wake up call for hairstylists too. So I know, chat to you.
Speaker 1:I mean that's okay and so you got to stop giving those things away, why can't you? Just?
Speaker 2:you got to like let yourself be the smart one, Because I'm super transparent because it helps with everything and I want everyone to use it anyways, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's get into it. I'm going to talk to you about what the changes are at Starbucks and what it actually means for hairstylists.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And before I get into the specifics, the reason why I look at things like this is I don't care if you are a hairstylist, a salon owner, independent commission, whatever business is business right. And so if you are someone who is working on growing your business, having a healthy business, wanting a longevity in your business, we need to look at how other businesses are running and doing things and, you know, with the economy and trends and all that, to see, you know, what can we be doing as hairstylists. And so this one hit really, really hard for me with the changes that they're making that are like go hand in hand with the things that I believe that we need to be doing as hairstylists today. Are you excited?
Speaker 1:I think this is exciting, yeah, I mean I can't wait to see how you can correlate the two.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's going to slap you in the face, okay. I can't wait so the first change that Starbucks. I'm only listing three. There are a lot, and this was all announced this week. We're recording this the very last week in January right now. It was all announced this week, so it's all very, very new. The first change that they have announced is that less is more and they are simplifying their menu. They are actually removing 30% off of their menu between food and drink going forward. Okay.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know how. Let me just say this they removed my favorite syrup. Yes, and I have since not gone back to Starbucks. So that's one of my points. Okay, so can you? Can you see where I'm going with this on?
Speaker 2:how this might correlate to hairstylist. My points, okay. So can you see where I'm going with this on how this might correlate to hairstylist. Okay, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:Okay, first thought is well, we have actually talked about this in a previous episode with Hunter, about how, like our service menus can be like overcomplicated and when a guest goes to like book their appointment or figure out what they're doing, like an overcomplicated menu can just like stir it, steer them in the wrong direction, like oh, nevermind, I don't, this is too much for me and it should just be like very streamlined and easy for them to navigate. So I think that's where you're correlating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, okay, so that's exactly what it is so like on the Starbucks side.
Speaker 2:What they've done is they've removed 30% of their menu items, which is pissing some people off, which is a point that I want to make as well. Um, correlating to hairstylists, and the reason why they were doing it is quote unquote it was overly complex, and that's something I hear all the time with hairstylists and you do too is that they feel like their menu doesn't make sense and their clients are confused on what to book, and so they're either going to be losing business or they're not going to be maximizing business, and they're also spending extra time in the pre-appointment, in the actual, before the appointment even happens. That was something Hunter was talking about, and wasting time talking with people trying to figure out what they should even book before they come in and pay for that service, and that's exactly why Starbucks has done this. What they were finding is that baristas were saying that they're making the drinks was overly complex and taking them way too long, and so what this was resulting in is insane lines at Starbucks, so people were not getting their drinks quickly.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. I mean, think about how many jokes there are like when someone's like I'll have a double whip, no cream, low fat, low fat, skin, extra shot of blah, blah, blah. That's like the coffee list is like. The tag is so long. So yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:And people. They're not taking away that ability for people to customize their drinks, but they're reducing the menu, so there's not so many drinks to choose from all these different flavors and things like that, and so one of the things that you said is that, well, wait a second.
Speaker 2:When they took away one of my syrups, I didn't go back Right, and so that's something that stylists worry about, like when they go to simplify their menu, maybe modernize their menu and make it less complex, they're worried Well, what if somebody wants this service? And now I've taken it off, yeah, right worried.
Speaker 1:Well, what if somebody wants this service? And now I've taken it off, yeah Well, but I think the difference in what we're saying about simplifying your menu is not necessarily taking things off per se. I think it's more about how you format your service menu and build it in like you know. Like make it more simplified, not necessarily taking service away. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, for sure. I totally agree with that. It's like you're taking away all the fluff and just putting things on there that you know you can do really well, right, things that are in your wheelhouse that you want to offer, and I think that's what Starbucks is doing too. Let's take away all this fluff and give them the really good coffee that they think they have and focus on that. So I think that that was really interesting that Starbucks their sales have been declining.
Speaker 2:We're five years past COVID and now people, companies, businesses and hairstylists are getting big wake up calls and I think we saw that a lot at the end of last year with, like I don't know how my books are doing, and so it's across the board and their sales are actually down. And so they realize like this is a big shake up when you have a big, huge international company like this to make changes like this. They always say, like a big company like this is like moving, turning a cruise ship right that takes a long time and slow turns, and a small little speedboat like a stylist. With our independent businesses we can make changes left and right. So if they can make a change like this on that scale, we can make little shifts in our business as well.
Speaker 2:So that's the first thing that starbucks is doing, that we also need to be doing as well okay the second thing, they are, um, really starting to uh, concentrate back on the vibe of the coffee house vibe.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Yes, I wonder how they're going to do that. Okay, give me. What are they saying?
Speaker 2:Here's how they're going to do that. What they're doing is they're bringing back condiment bars. So, like before COVID, you used to be able to get like your coffee and go there'd be creamers and sugars and all that stuff. Off to the side. That all that stuff went away apparently. And so now they're bringing back the condiment bars. And um? So now they're bringing back the condiment bars, they're bringing back handwriting your name and little messages on the cups. Do you remember?
Speaker 1:yeah, it was a sharpie.
Speaker 2:They'd ask you your name, they'd write it. It'd be a joke that they'd get your name wrong or something. Now they just print off this computerized thing and stick it on there with your order on there. So they're bringing that back. And then they're also bringing back their stay in, like actually be able to sit down. A lot of places have taken away so many tables.
Speaker 1:There's just like nothing there. It's just like I'm thinking of the Starbucks right by my house and it's like this gigantic open space and there's nowhere to sit. There's like maybe four tables and it's like what are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's bothersome. Starbucks never used to be like that. They had different little pockets of seating. They'd have like games and cards around.
Speaker 1:I don't, that's so funny Community yeah. And it's been since COVID. They shifted. Well yeah, and I get that.
Speaker 2:Every business did that, but they kept doing it.
Speaker 1:They kept doing it instead of shifting back right.
Speaker 2:Instead of bringing it back. They probably waited too long. So what does that correlate? Is there any correlation you can think of for salons?
Speaker 1:Well, yes, I think what we have been saying this last year is so much about economy and how we've seen a shift in the way people are spending their money and what are our books doing? Why are we slower? And we've talked a lot. Remember we did an episode about how it's more important to value your clients and not necessarily always be looking for new clients yes, always be looking for new clients. And I think where this correlates is it's going back to what we've been saying about making your clients feel like they're having a personal experience. It's about not just the transformation you can provide, but the experience that they're getting in the salon. They want to feel like they're a part of something, and I've heard that feedback so much lately after opening my new salon and so many people now are like getting used to my new space because you know it opened in October 1st and they're like how are you liking it? Do you feel like you're settling in?
Speaker 1:And I think I've told you we've added all these like little shifts, like these little personal things that I've always wanted to do never had the time to do it, but simple things like we have these really cool, they're crate and barrel dupe cups that we got from Amazon. They're just bougie little glass cups that we serve hot tea, coffee, water. They all match. They have like a little lid and a cute little spoon.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't believe the amount of people who comment on the fact that they get a real glass cup and it's so cute and they love it that we have like this little lounge area for them that they can go and get snacks and they can help themselves to drinks and just hang around like little personal touches that I feel like we're at we've added that make it feel so much more of an elevated experience is going such a long way. So I 100% agree with that. Whereas, like our other space and I think you're right Now that I look back it's like after COVID, we all just kind of got in survival mode. We took out anything like that and never went back and it was just too small. There was not enough space where, like, get in, do your job, get out, go, and I think people feel that, whereas they're more willing to spend their money and their time in a place where they feel valued and they are in good company and they're relaxed and they're excited to be there.
Speaker 2:So I love that, yeah, and it's like, yes, it's those small little touches that can really add to the vibe. But is a hair salon going to be the third place? No, you're not going there every single day, but it can become part of that person's community, right? Right, it is a stop every four, six, eight, ten weeks that you're visiting, and I think a good goal is to make it a place of comfort for people.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, like you're coming in and look, and so many clients look forward to their appointments. So how can we enhance that a little bit? And I love that you said the glass cups, because guess what else Starbucks did? They have brought back mugs and glass cups.
Speaker 1:Tell me that that is one of my favorite things. When you go to a coffee shop my little coffee shop next door, my third place I normally have to get it to go, but when I can and I just want to sit down with a cute mug and there's something about the feeling of porcelain or glass against your lip, over like a cardboard. It is so personalized. I love that feeling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing I understand there's people who are worried about germs. How is that cup going to get washed? Well, that's okay. You can ask for a cardboard cup, because not everybody feels that way and there's options. So that is amazing that Starbucks is bringing that back. And same thing in my salon. It's like if someone's not comfortable with a glass cup which we've never had that we would be happy to offer them a cardboard cup or a plastic cup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, so, um, I think my closing thought on that one is uh, I do feel like sometimes you hear a lot in our industry from coaches like everybody gives snacks, everybody does this, like those amenities aren't special anymore. Nope, I disagree.
Speaker 1:They're so special, I think that you should have them.
Speaker 2:You should change them out. You should try something new. You should always be giving a little extra judge and changing it up, and, and and. It does make a big impact. I totally agree.
Speaker 1:One more. I have one more thought. Here's a little salon owner hack. Number one Abby, if I send you the link to those glasses, can you link them in the podcast notes, cause they're very cute? We switched away from bottled water and Culligan water, so I have a 12 chair salon. The water prices were getting insane and I got to the point where, like, how do we like cut somewhere? So what we ended up doing was buying four Brita's, and so what we do is we have, like we have a refrigerator in the back for the stylist, we have our own Brita back there, and then we have our refrigerator for our clients and there's a Brita in there, and we always have backups going right, and then you fill up their cute little water glass with the Brita. I mean, I save hundreds.
Speaker 2:You do. Oh my God, what an incredible idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that is a really cool salon owner hack if you need to save a little bit of money and it just goes a long way. And, to be honest, not a single person has been like I wish I had a bottle of water. They love their cute little cup. They love it and it's cold because we keep it in the refrigerator and everybody's happy, so all.
Speaker 2:I have to do is buy filters. You're saving so much money. Yeah, that's a fun one. I love that, love that. Okay, so the next, the third one that I had. I just have three today. There's a lot more. So if you just like, if anybody Googles like new Starbucks changes, you can like read more about it and maybe get some more ideas for yourself, for your salons. But the third one is that they are along with having the glass cups, mugs or cups, whether it's a hot coffee or an iced coffee, and if you're drinking in coffee house, not taking it to go, they are bringing back free refills on in-house coffee.
Speaker 2:And so what this shows to me, like that's one. It's encouraging people to stay in so that they can start getting that third place back. So they want to get that third place back. So they're like how can we entice people stay in? Let's do free refills, and um, they used to only do free refills I was reading this for like their um high level, their gold status, rewards members. Now they're doing it for everybody. So for me, what this looks like as a salon owner is what we've talked about before showing our clients love.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:Showing some gratitude when they're in the salon. We talked about those little moments of happiness, or we called it something little sprinkle, little moments of joy for our clients in the salon to to say a thank you, like we're so happy you're here and choosing to be in our salon in our chair. And here's a little extra something for you as a surprise.
Speaker 1:And what would you do?
Speaker 2:Well, what I am doing for February and I'm gonna we're actually it's gonna be a good, really good podcast to scroll down and get the show notes, get all the links. So I'm going to we're actually it's going to be a good, really good podcast to scroll down and get the show notes, get all the links. Um, cause I'm going to share all these in there for February. I was just like I want to. You know, when you're a kid and you're in, you go to your Valentine's day party at school and you get Valentine's and it's such a fun time, um we don't get that as an adult, and so I was like I want to give my clients.
Speaker 2:Valentine's. Oh my gosh, you just blew my mind. I love this. And so I just went to Hobby Lobby and I got the cutest bulk thing of bags little little Ziploc heart bags. And then I I had an idea. I was like I don't want it to be high cost, I want it to be cost, you know, affordable. Um, but I also wanted to be something good, so I I did a lot of research and, um, I put together these bags that are $4 a piece that I'm gifting to each client, and so what I have in it are, um, these like gold eye masks, right, like those little under eye masks.
Speaker 2:I have a travel sample of Olaplex and I'll tell you how I got those, cause it's hard to get samples of products. I tried, I went to distributors?
Speaker 1:Are you going to tell us yes?
Speaker 2:I am. Um, it's hard to find samples that the companies used to give little sample packs all the time for us to give to clients. I can't get that anymore. Um, what else do I have in there? Some pink, some of these like my favorite hair ties that hold a lot of hair, Okay, Some chocolate and I think that's everything. So a good product eye masks, chocolate and some hair ties, and it's cute. It's cute.
Speaker 1:I'm making a list on my phone right now of you know, I told you my list that says you can do this list today and my I just said text rep about bulk samples, because that's something I want to. I want to do this, I'm going to implement this for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I couldn't get bulk samples. So and I'll share the links for what I got. But as far as like the eye masks and stuff, you can get those in bulk from Amazon, Right got everything in bulk, except for what kind of the Olaplex samples. So what I did is I went on to my distributor, one of them that carries Olaplex, which for us in Ohio it's Monaco Blue, and they have sample kits for Olaplex. So there were. You know Olaplex has eight pieces in in it and I don't remember the cost of the kit as it's set on its own, but I bought four of those kits just to start, and I'm breaking those up, and so I'm going to grab one of each thing and pop it in there.
Speaker 1:Do you know what's in the sample kits? Like what numbers one through eight?
Speaker 2:everything okay or zero. Zero one is, yeah, professional one, so it's zero two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, so you wouldn't. One is the professional one, so it's zero two, three, four five, six, seven, eight.
Speaker 1:So you wouldn't give them like the one, like the one, the professional one?
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't come with that, because it's a retail sample. That's what I'm asking Got it yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's so cool and I'm just breaking it up and I bag Amazing. And so with all those things it's $4 a piece. And then what I did for my stylist that rent from me. I sent them a message and said hey, I'm doing this. If you wanted to give your clients some love, give me a head count. They have to give it to me by the end of the day tomorrow and they can buy them at the cost $4, but I will put it all together for them.
Speaker 1:That is what I just put on my list too. I'm like I'm going to send this out to my clients or my stylist, okay, but I would like to snowball off this. So I just had this idea when you were saying that of I love this idea of Valentine's, and I was trying to think of my daughter's Valentine's day box. I don't know if you guys have to make Valentine's day boxes. There was like big elaborate thing here.
Speaker 1:Last year, we made Taylor Swift's guitar life-sized guitar. Oh my God, it was ridiculous. It was a project. However, I had this idea of okay, what if we take it a step further and also allow our clients to give us Valentine's?
Speaker 1:And how we could do this is have a Valentine's Day box in the salon and so, with a bunch of different Valentines sitting out, that they can just write us a little note and put it a little love note and put it like you know every stylist they would have their, their name on the envelope and they put it in and then at the end of the month, anyone who leaves us a little love note, we'll draw one person out and like do a little gift card for them or something, and so that encourages them to also do it, and like win something, but like give us a little love at the same time.
Speaker 2:I am obsessed. I'm doing that too. That's so fun, so fun, and I think that doing things like that, like this the reason why I felt drawn to figure out something like this is like January and February suck so bad. There's nothing fun going on in the salons, People's books sometimes can be a little slower, and you know let's. So I did already just throw up a few decorations for Valentine's day. I never do that in the salon, I never decorate for Valentine's day and clients are walking in like, oh my gosh, this is so cute and it was just Hobby Lobby cheap stuff.
Speaker 1:Um so I'm going to get my Valentine's day stuff out. I haven't done that in a while and I'm going to do it. I have a whole thing of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I put mine out like two weeks ago too. I was like I don't care, it feels good because you have to think some clients that aren't coming in you know they might not be in February Now, the only people that are getting the little gratitude I'm calling it a gratitude bag the only clients that are getting the Valentine gratitude bag are the ones coming in in February. But I'll do something like this another time of year too and try to mix that up, or maybe I'll entice people to come in every February.
Speaker 1:Maybe this is what I think of February you know, Good idea.
Speaker 2:And so how this ties back to the Starbucks thing is they're really looking on how to say thank you to their people for coming in and spending time with them and they're just giving a free refill which costs them nothing time with them and they're just giving a free refill which costs them nothing. And we have so many ideas to go above and beyond with that. Just to say thank you and I appreciate you. And it also shows that we just love what we do and we're excited and it's that it helps it become that community stop for our clients that it's like, oh, they know, when they come in there might be a little something extra, a little hug you know when they come in.
Speaker 1:So you know you really got my brain working too. I know you've talked about you have like a very community open salon, a vibe where people just like want to come in and stay. And you've talked about you have like these different areas in your salon where, like people hang out. You know I have that second floor, that open space salon where, like people hang out. You know I have that second floor, that open space.
Speaker 1:And when you were talking I started to think like at one point we were very like before COVID people would just come in and hang out and then, you know, everybody got away from that. I'm like kind of thinking about transforming that upstairs space in time, where I'm not using it as like just a little hangout area and way to say like to the community, like hey, just come in and hang out and like spend some time here. And I really do feel like when you like you said we're never going to be their third place, we're never going to be that, but like it is a cool thing to really be a part of your community. And I think the salons and the owners and the stylists that are so successful are the ones that really put so much importance in that and try to draw the community in, because I am such a firm believer and you will hear me say this over and over again that people want to be a part of something, they want to support people that they believe in and businesses they believe in. And as we become more concerned and more what's the word I'm looking for aware of how we're spending our money, I'm telling you that people will spend their money in things that they believe in and it's easy to just be a salon that is all about numbers and all about turning people over and all about money and this, and that it's hard to be the salon that wants to be for the community.
Speaker 1:So I love this topic today. It was really cool, abby, you did slap me in the face. It really got my wheels turning and I think for anybody who is in this space where you're like, oh gosh, what can we do to set ourselves apart you know there's so many salons and everybody's dealing with the same struggles. This is such easy shifts and really figure out how to get yourself back in with your community, get involved and to personalize every client's experience.
