MY SPA wish list

Sometimes it can be hard to find salon products and spa solutions that fit your exact needs. Hellen Ward asks, do we need to improve communication with suppliers?

If you ask most successful entrepreneurs how they came up with the idea for their company, you’re likely to discover that it was because there was a need they discovered wasn’t being filled by any existing product or service.

Take Spanx, for example. Sara Blakely invented shapewear because she was selling fax machines door to door in the Florida heat and had to wear tights, a dress code her employer enforced. Hating the lines and seams tights gave her, she made her own and the rest is history. She believes that every person in their life has a milliondollar idea, but the only difference between success or failure is whether they take action on it.

I’m sure, like me, that you get sent a lot of products to try. But many companies simply don’t bother to come back to you and ask for feedback. Blakely famously lugged her prototype shapewear around all the top US department stores and listened to the buyers’ observations and criticisms, taking them on board where she could see they had a point and refining her product.

The customer remains king, and every observation and critique is gold dust. Yet some fledgling brands don’t bother to ask, let alone listen, to the end-user.

Meeting our needs

Running a salon/day spa, it occurred to me that I have found many niches and gaps in the market that I would exploit if I had the time or the money to do so. So, what is missing for me? Well, there is one area which I have managed to fill and a few that remain outstanding.

Let’s start with what I struggle to find:

1. A capsule, professional make-up range

I’ve asked all my favourite brands whether they’d supply me with products to use for professional services and to retail, but there are two issues: many won’t sell to salons and are consumer retail only, and if they can, the range is far too extensive for a salon to stock.

I need a small capsule offering with just a few stock keeping units to ensure we always have availability. It’s no good if there are dozens of colour choices per product as our make-up sales are minimal and come mainly from bridal or evening make-up applications – and I don’t want my clients going online if we don’t have a colour.

Many ranges that start professional-only choose not to remain so, but I really don’t want to lose any sales to the Space NK in Sloane Square if I don’t have stock of a colour, so keep it pro please. You can’t have your cake and eat it, as they say.

2. Great functioning uniforms

No therapist or nail tech wants to wear polyester – itchy, scratchy, hot and unbreathable. Our team wear their uniforms all day, every day, so it amazes me how little choice there is in good working uniforms with enough stretch to massage in and enough Lycra to stay in shape.

I’m sure some of the uniform companies have never tried to raise both their arms and open them out in some of their designs… nobody wants something that rises up or doesn’t allow you to flex. We need to move around the couch like an octopus at times, please remember that.

Zara does great Lycra non-iron black trousers that must be a wardrobe staple of every young working woman. You can wash them every day and they still look fresh and fantastic several months later. Can’t we get the same fabric and make some comfortable, professional-looking trousers and tabards in it please?

3. Practical gowns and robes

For me, this has literally felt like looking for rocking horse poo. Ditto the uniforms, but these need to be even more hardwearing. Big enough for the tallest guy and small enough for the most petite client, we need them washable, unstainable and durable.

They need to dry ultra-quick too as we need them clean for every client. Oh, and the hairdressers will sometimes accidentally snip their gowns while cutting the nape, so they’d better be tough. And please put our logo on while you’re at it.

But here’s one thing I have found:

4. Organic facial and body treatments and aftercare

It’s funny how things work out. One of our longest serving and most loyal team members, Fiona, was cutting my hair and I was telling her how clients were increasingly looking for pure organic skincare.

She’d sourced some products on her trip to India and hey presto, she’s launched her range at the salon. Khuba is 100% organic and the results are superb. Serum, eye cream, body cream (we don’t want dozens of SKUs), isn’t that all we need as a starting point to retail and create a great treatment with?

Listen carefully

My point is that many companies are so busy talking to (or is it at?) their customers that they forget to do any listening. What do their customers want? I’ve never understood why they don’t bother to ask, when most salons I know are forever asking their customers for feedback. We constantly do and pick up on every comment and suggestion.

So, are your suppliers asking you? Are they finding out what they are doing really well, what you would buy more of if they offered it and what you are buying from someone else because they don’t supply it?

Even some of the largest brands simply don’t bother to regularly track this critical information. But they’re running a terrible risk by failing to do so, because if they’re not, somebody else will jump into that gap in the market and clean up. Maybe even with their own million-pound idea.

Hellen Ward is managing director of Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa in London and a beauty ambassador for the National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF).