Keeping you up to date around town

Bracknell's retailers reveal secrets to their success - Headlines

21/08/06

Each month we will profile a successful local retailer in Bracknell town centre, taking a sneak peek behind the scenes to learn the secrets of their success.

A Cut Above The Rest

This month we look at Headlines, a successful homegrown hair and beauty salon right in the centre of town. Style consultants, colour specialists, treatment and beauty centre and nail bar, Headlines offers a haven of pampering and relaxation for all its valued customers. So how do owners Alan and Lorraine Farmery stay at the cutting edge of the beauty industry?

You are about to open a new exclusive nail bar concept on Broadway. To what do you attribute your success and expansion?

Dedication, imagination and forward planning. We opened Headlines 12 years ago from a tiny unit in Service Yard A, and now we have a hair salon on Crossway and are expanding into a second unit – it feels as if all the hard work and planning is paying off!

We have both been very hands on with Headlines, I (Lorraine) train and work with the stylists and Alan manages the business and property. We both work together on marketing – One Christmas we had the idea of inviting customers who had bought hair straightening products to the salon for canapés and drinks and a demonstration on how to get the most out of their straighteners. This is what we mean about offering customers something extra.

We have been focused on the goal of being the No. 1 hair salon in Bracknell and so when the plans for regeneration first started we made a decision that we would grow with the town. With the nail bar concept gaining popularity and our customer base growing, we turned to Bracknell Regeneration Partnership give us the tools and advice to expand the business. They found us this new space Broadway, which allows us to dedicate the salon to hair and beauty while offering an efficient and professional nail salon business.

At the BRP OSCAs gala evening in June, you won an award for Outstanding Service to Customers. What is so different about the service you offer your clients?

There is no secret to this. We believe that we offer a personal, professional and honest service to our customers. We take the time to listen to our customers and offer style advice that they truly want, finding the right style to reflect their personality and needs. We are not a “production line” and never will be!

A hairdressing salon is a place for relaxation and pampering, and we take the time to make sure that our customers get the most out of their visit.

We are also very strict about the standard of our customer service and the entire team sits down fortnightly for service quality refreshers, reminding everyone of the importance of cleanliness, politeness and responsiveness. We all forget our Ps & Qs sometimes, but in an industry that relies on word of mouth and repeat business, we cannot afford to forget the little things that make a difference to a customer.

What is the one business lesson you have learnt?

The one business lesson I have learnt is that your staff are the most important component of a successful service driven business. In order to keep your staff motivated, you have to invest in them and provide a fun and relaxed environment for them to work in. This has proven to work very well for us, and most of our stylists started with us as Saturday girls and have trained and grown with us over the years.

As an accredited City & Guild training centre, we fully support the stylists with monthly one to one sessions and daily on the job training. The stylists are encouraged to take ownership and control of their own professional development from day one.

We have a programme of monthly product training and fortnightly customer service refresher discussions. Regular product training ensures that the stylists are up to date with all the fashionable trends and products that are available, while our fortnightly team meetings are a reminder of the quality and standards of customer service that we expect the team to maintain, from offering customers a hot beverage to how we answer the telephone.

The working environment is relaxed, fun and encouraging, and we believe this has contributed to our high staff retention over the years. The team works as hard at maintaining harmonious and friendly relationships with each other and we try to lead by example, being professional and honest with all of the team.

That is where we add value to our staff.

Can we look forward to seeing more of Headlines in the future?

Yes! We are busy preparing for the opening of our new dedicated nail bar on Broadway, which will be clean, minimal and more efficient. We are also making plans to freshen up our salon on Crossway to make it an even more relaxing environment, with more style stations and consultation space. We have also introduced a barber to the salon offer, Alex, who specialises in hair tattoo and specialist men’s styles.