Q3 2019

29 | Q3 2019 Jul19141 For The Perfect Salon Experience… Established in 2011 by Karen and her husband Rob, Silk Hair Boutique (SILK) has seen extraordinary success through a rather simple premise: to provide truly expert service with a ‘best in class’ customer experience. Moreover, having started as a salon junior herself, Karen understands the importance of hard work, and the importance of excelling in an industry where the end result is paramount to securing enduring success. Combining a modern, chic and stylish interior with traditional values has been a key distinguisher for SILK as it looks to mark itself as, fundamentally, different in a sphere that has always been incredibly competitive – as Karen explains. “SILK prides itself on providing a professional and creative environment while still retaining a friendly and relaxing salon ambience. SILK provide cutting, colouring and styling for an incredibly varied client base, from young to old, male and female.” More than anything, SILK was created out of a need to make the customer feel ‘at home’ – relaxed, with a warm welcome from the ‘front of house’ staff at the salon. “After visiting many hairdressers before opening our own, we became acutely aware of how daunting an experience it was just entering a hair salon from the street. This was often down to a lukewarm welcome and aloof attitude of some of the staff. To back up our research, our L'Oreal representative also told us that findings have shown that 70% of women feel anxious entering a new salon and even regular clients can be put off by a poor or unenthusiastic welcome. “With all this in mind, it was essential to SILK that we created a warm and friendly atmosphere and a welcoming entrance experience so that potential customers were not intimidated when they came through the door.” This founding ethos carries over across the entirety of SILK’s operations, with significant efforts made to ensure that every member of staff act as ambassadors to Karen and Rob’s core vision. Karen takes a moment to discuss this in more detail. “SILK recognises how important our staff are in enhancing the customer experience and acknowledge how much the salon team contributes to the success of the business. When we have a newly recruited member of the team, they always work on reception for the first couple of weeks to get to know the clients as much as possible. We believe that this enables our salon to be different because when clients enter, they feel entirely at ease, even if their familiar stylist is busy or not in attendance.” “Fundamentally, the core mission of the salon is to create a relaxed, friendly and welcoming environment, which we hope is enjoyable for not only our customers but also our staff.” Perhaps unusually, as Karen moves on to explain, new staff are not sought out solely on their experience and talent: “Essentially, SILK is aware that so many hair salons rely on their hairdressing ability to keep clients returning. While we appreciate that this is very important, we believe that the way the client is treated by salon staff is also vital to the success of the business. “Therefore, we never recruit staff based purely on what they can do as a hairdresser - To us, their character, integrity and personality are equally as important. One of our mottos is that ‘you can take a good person and turn them into a great hairdresser, but you cannot always take a great hairdresser and turn them into a good person’. By doing this, we hope to create a strong team who work well together, which in turn hopefully helps to achieve the salon’s goal of providing a relaxed, friendly and welcoming atmosphere.” Finally, Karen speaks about SILK’s future as they look to capitalise on their remarkable success over the last eight years. “It is early days, but we know that we would like to open an academy to offer training to the local hair industry in general and not just train in-house staff. We would, therefore, require an agreement as to what curriculum and qualifications to offer, as well as obtaining suitable assessing staff, space and students. Primarily, for SILK, an academy would help to provide a more reliable and consistent trained workforce that would benefit not only our salon but also others in the area.” Company: Silk Hair Boutique Name: Karen Truscott Address: 9 Commercial Square, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 1DW Web Address: www.silkhairboutique.co.uk Telephone Number: 01444 450243 Awards: Hair Salon of the Year 2019 - West Sussex & Leading Providers of Bridal Hair Services 2019