The Gentry Grooming Co

What do you see as the cutting trends for 2007?
Textured, layered looks with a sharp grooming edge using products such as wax or pomade for a groomed finish and moulding putty for a textured finish.

What personally influences your views on cutting?
What influences my views on cutting are that the techniques that I was trained with are universal and timeless. By using the stylists own discretion to devise or create the latest trends keeps me at the forefront of my profession but by using the classic techniques with a modern twist.

What are the main style requests you get from clients? (Including celeb styles)
Growth and length giving the client the opportunity to create or manipulate shapes according to there own personal mood i.e. textured (for a night out) or a sleek Gentry’s own groomed finish for every day wear. Flexibility with styles is a key request from clients at the moment.

What have been the main factors behind your success?
Our simple approach to Male Grooming has been key to our success. Keeping the environment masculine yet inviting. Our strategic alliances and handle on the operational side of the business has also been fundamental and this has been made easier by using Shortcuts. Our staff has also contributed immensely in the success story. We firmly believe that attitude is just as important as aptitude all staff are aware of this when they start with us as part of our ‘Gentry Values’ training programme.

How do your stylists keep ahead of the trends?
Our stylists keep ahead of the trends by having regular model sessions and keeping abreast with all the latest salon publications and news. Our stylists also attend regular Education sessions on the latest trends and cutting/colouring techniques in order to stay ahead in this area of continual development.

How much does Shortcuts contribute to your business?
Shortcuts contribute to our success massively. It provides us with complete transparency and enables us to run our business effectively. It will be a major benefit when we upgrade to the Enterprise edition next year once our Franchise of The Gentry is launched.

To what extent do retail sales play a part in your business strategy?
Retail sales are something we recognise as a huge growth area but this area is still under developed by most salon owners due to poor merchandising or lack of knowledge of the products. We tackle this head on and train the staff in all areas of selling products and hold regular merchandising training. It is still an area that we want to develop further as sales in this area still represent only 10% of turnover.

What’s the single biggest thing that Shortcuts contributes to your salon?
Control and efficiency

How do your staff get on with Shortcuts?
Our staff enjoys working with Shortcuts as it is so simple to follow and very user friendly. No complaints here!

What is your rebooking rate? How do you manage it?
We have a good re-booking rate but our clients tend to want to call us to re-book due to their busy schedules. Therefore it is difficult to get a true reflection of this from the records. Shortcuts is great though as it reminds you at the end of each client visit to rebook them. Luckily, we have excellent client retention and this is something we consider very important.

Do you use the 2-way texting? How effective do you think it is?
Yes we use the Text service every month for promotional activities and this technology is just priceless. Clients comment on it in a positive way and we always get an upturn in business following our promotional text messages. We also use the appointment confirmation text messages and this is also a great feature as it stops clients forgetting their appointment!!

Do your clients comment about the computer system?
Yes they do sometimes comment on it in a positive way. The most commented feature is the Text message feature.

What’s the biggest growth area in your salon?
Shave and beauty treatments for men.

How do you see the cross-over between hair and beauty? Would you consider a spa section to your hair salon?
There are many cross overs between hair and beauty and we take full advantage of this as we offer both services to our male only clientele base. A spa section we would not consider at the moment due to the fact that we don’t want to over-complicate our brand concept due to the fact that franchising is our next business move and we need to keep it as simple as possible for this reason.

All our hair and beauty treatments are done ‘in the chair’ that fully reclines in the salon at the moment.

Why did we choose Shortcuts?
We decided to go with Shortcuts following extensive market research on software products for salons. Shortcuts were the only software provider that offered a ‘one stop shop’. We also knew from the demonstration that was provided to us that we could grow with Shortcuts due to their continual investment in technology and software development. The bolt on products that Shortcuts can provide such as the enterprise version and the Spa version was also something that appealed to us.