Sunburst

What do employees do at your front desk?

Sit or Stand? Why?

sunrisetan

Stand. If they were allowed to sit, too easy to do nothing else, plus I think it looks bad when client comes in and begins conversation to employee seated. If they are only allowed to stand, they take the initiative to go do projects moreso.

mmurra

Stand - they sit on breaks only.

DH

It's rude to sit while you talk to someone else in business. You should always stand while talking to anyone in the workplace including clients. This shows respect for the person you're talking to.

Sitting is for a relaxed environment like a break area not the face of your business. You put a chair out there and they will sit in it their whole shift.

sunrisetan

Like.

KeisterTanning

We allow them to sit while we are slow. Ten hours a day will take a toll if you're standing the whole time. Especially when you're as slow as we are. Usually 20-40 customers a day on the tanning side.

__________________
"Tanning one Keister at a time!"

DH

So.........you work your people 10 hour shifts? we're open 12 hours a day and split it into two-six hours shifts. Six hours isn't too long for someone to stand on their feet and if they actually move while cleaning it goes quicker.

Steve Underhill

Oddly enough this is a burning question. When you leave a decision up to your employee, they will always choose the point of least resistance. Sit if you want or if it is not busy will always encourage your staff to sit.

When you are seated you are relaxed and unmotivated. Getting out of that relaxed state takes more time than it takes to simply stand up. The importance of being alert and ready to communicate and engage the tanner will lead to improved sales and creating a more positive tanning experience.

If an employee is seated they are probably reading a magazine, surfing the net or face book, texting or focusing on something unrelated to salon operations or creating a great experience for the tanner.

The fix is hard because so many of you only have one employee at a time and you have such long shifts. The result of this is terrible sales.

Communicating with each and every tanner beyond saying sign here and go to room 2 is what will increase sales. without communication there will be no sales. Being ready to engage the tanner is important.

I do not want to write an explanation so long that it is too much to read but this is a very important topic that is actually much more than should your staff be allowed to sit behind the desk.

Policy, sales training, communication, these are all things that are neglected and it shows in your sales. You may be surprised at how many salons do not have monthly sales meetings.

This is a major topic of discussion with my clients. All part of creating a buying environment. Employees sitting down when a tanner comes in is not creating a buying environment. There are soft solutions to this problem and there are hard fast solutions to this problem.

The rule and solution is based on your salon. Salon owners that sit behind the desk, can't expect to not sit. We lead by example. You get out of your salon what you put in.

__________________
Stephen Underhill
Consultant
steve@smuconsulting.com

KeisterTanning

DH,
Yes, it actually works well for us. We only have two employees on the tanning side along with myself (I work the cell phone business that is with the tanning salon). The girls would rather work a day, be off a day, and switch out days than do half days. So much easier to enjoy a full day off than a half day, ha!

__________________
"Tanning one Keister at a time!"

SunseraWarman

You run a cellphone business through your tanning salon? Talk about diversifying...