Business

Beyond BUSY

From rebooking rates to utilisation targets, Eve Oxberry explores how salon owners are using KPIs to move beyond full diaries and build truly profitable businesses

Underpricing and inconsistent performance are often blamed for poor profitability in salons, but many beauty business owners are still not tracking the numbers that actually drive profit. A full diary may feel reassuring, but without understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) such as rebooking, utilisation and average spend, it’s difficult to know whether the business is truly sustainable.

At Professional Beauty’s Growth Summits, salon and spa operators shared the specific metrics they rely on to improve performance and, crucially, the actions that they’ve taken to shift them.

KPIs that actually drive profit

Before deciding what to track, salon owners need to be clear on what KPIs actually mean in a salon context. At their simplest, they are the numbers that show how efficiently the business is turning time, clients and services into profit.

For most beauty businesses, this comes down to a small group of core metrics: total revenue, net profit, rebooking rate, average client spend and utilisation. Together, these indicate how much money is coming in, how much is being retained, how stable future bookings are and how effectively time is being used.

Jessica White, founder of Blanc Studios in Leeds, keeps her focus tight. “There are so many analytics you can look at, but it’s better to pick four or five that are most important and stay consistent with them,” she says. “For me, profit and rebooking are the big ones because they tell you very quickly whether the business is healthy.”

For multi-site operator Lilac Miller, those numbers also need to be visible and understood across the team. Miller, salon director of seven-strong salon group Sleeping Beauty, tracks KPIs across all seven locations and uses them to guide daily decisions. “We look at them daily and weekly, and the team knows exactly what they’re aiming for,” she says. “If you don’t know your numbers, you can’t improve them.”

Michael Van Clarke, owner of Michael Van Clarke salon in London, agrees that simplicity is key. “We focus on four KPIs: revenue, rebooking, retail and new client requests. If those are not meeting targets, then we can drill down further but those key ones tell us 95% of what we need to know,” he says. “If one drops, we know exactly where to look.”

Securing future revenue

Rebooking rate measures how many clients leave the salon with their next appointment booked, and it is one of the clearest indicators of future income. “If clients are coming back, you know you’re doing something right,” says White. “If they’re not, that’s where you need to look.”

Improving rebooking starts with making it part of the service, not an afterthought. White ensures her team treats it as a natural next step in the client journey, while Miller builds it into team targets so performance is consistent across her salon locations.

Van Clarke has taken a structured approach, increasing his salon’s rebooking rate from around 50–60% to 75%, with a target of 80%. “That creates stability,” he says. The change came from two key actions: raising awareness in consultations and introducing a financial incentive.

“At the start of the appointment, we ask when their hair stopped looking good. That tells you when they need to come back,” he explains. “Then rebooking becomes expected.” He also introduced two price points – one for clients who rebook before leaving and a higher one for those who don’t – creating a clear reason to commit.

Increasing average spend

Average client spend tracks how much each client spends per visit to the salon, and increasing it is often more effective than trying to see more clients.

“Sometimes you think the answer is getting more people through the door,” says White. “But actually, it can be more effective to increase what your existing clients spend.”

In practice, this means shifting from single-service visits to a more complete treatment experience. White identified that many clients were only booking one service, so her team focused on introducing additional treatments and retail during appointments. “We worked on how to bring it into conversation naturally,” she says.

This doesn’t require hard selling, but better recommendations based on client needs. Over time, even small increases in spend per visit can significantly improve overall revenue.

Van Clarke has seen the long-term impact of this approach. By expanding services around core appointments, his salon has significantly increased client spend. “One client now spends nearly twice as much as they did before,” he says.

Track utilisation to manage time

Utilisation measures how much of your available appointment time is filled, and while it’s a key performance indicator, higher is not always better.

“If you are more than 80% utilised, you’re running the risk of burnout,” says Lorenzo Colangelo, managing director of The Gallery salon in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

In beauty and spa environments, this needs to be balanced with service quality. Gillian McGraffin, spa director at Cameron House, stresses that utilisation should reflect the full client journey. “It’s not just the treatment, you have to allow time for consultation and aftercare,” she says.

For salon owners, this means building realistic timings into services rather than trying to maximise every minute. A slightly lower utilisation rate with higher-value appointments and better client experience can be more profitable in the long term.

“We focus on four KPIs: revenue, rebooking, retail and new client requests. If those are not meeting targets, then we can drill down further but those key ones tell us 95% of what we need to know”

Improve team performance

KPIs are not just business metrics, they can also be used to manage and develop teams. Miller uses them to create accountability across her seven salons. “We look at targets regularly and reward the team when they hit them,” she says. This keeps performance visible and gives team members a clear understanding of what is expected.

Brian McCallum, creative director of Roar Hair & Beauty in Glasgow, uses KPIs as a coaching tool. “If someone’s rebooking numbers drop, we look at why,” he says. “It’s not used as a stick to beat them with, it’s about supporting them to improve.”

Tracking individual performance, such as retention, rebooking and average spend, allows salon owners to identify where additional training or support is needed, rather than relying on guesswork.

Uncover missed opportunities

One of the biggest advantages of tracking KPIs is the ability to identify gaps in performance that might otherwise go unnoticed. Colangelo recalls discovering that his salon’s new client return rate was below 50%. “That didn’t sit right with me,” he says, prompting changes in how new clients were introduced to the salon and encouraged to return.

White experienced a similar insight when reviewing her data. “We realised clients were coming in for one service and not exploring the rest of the salon,” she says. Addressing this through team training helped increase both engagement and revenue.

Make KPIs easy to track

For KPIs to influence behaviour, they need to be simple and accessible. White relies on her booking system to track performance, using built-in reports rather than adding complexity. “All the data is already there, you just need to use it,” she says.

Van Clarke simplifies data visually to make it easier for his team to understand. “We turn spreadsheets into colour bar charts,” he says. “It’s much easier to quickly see what’s going up or down.”

Sharing KPIs regularly helps teams stay focused and understand how their actions affect overall performance.

Review regularly, but focus on trends

KPIs are most useful when they are tracked consistently over time. Colangelo recommends checking them at different intervals depending on the purpose. Daily tracking builds awareness, while weekly and monthly reviews allow for performance management and decision-making.

“You don’t change direction based on one bad day,” he says. Instead, the focus should be on identifying patterns and trends that indicate whether the business is improving or starting to slip.

Define success first

Ultimately, KPIs only have value if they are linked to a clear goal. “A lot of people track numbers without knowing what they’re working towards,” says Colangelo. “You need to know what success looks like first.”

Van Clarke agrees, emphasising that KPIs are about understanding direction. “What you’re trying to see is the momentum of the business,” he says. “Is it growing, or is it starting to slow down?”

By focusing on a small number of meaningful metrics, and using them consistently, salon owners can move beyond simply being busy and start building businesses that are stable and, ultimately, more profitable.

Want to learn more about mastering KPIs? The topic will be covered in our panel “Stop Chasing Busy: The KPIs That Make Salons Truly Profitable” at the upcoming Regional Growth Summit in Leeds on June 8. Find out more and register for free to join us at professionalbeauty.co.uk/leeds