Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit, just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up you guys, and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host Britt Seva. This is part two of my amazing interview with Cara Camiscioli and this week we’re talking about where her road in salon ownership really took an unexpected left turn.
This is a must listen for any salon owner, aspiring salon owner, or businessperson who wants to build a clientele fast because we are going to get hit on all three points.
This just goes to show as soon as you think you have it all figured out, there’s a curveball waiting right around the corner. Cara shares where her journey took a hard left and how she used the power of reviews to turn it all around in weeks, not months or years, and how she got her entire team on board in the process.
Cara, we’re ready for you to blow our minds yet again.
Cara Camiscioli: I had, I think, 40 plus employees at the time, and it was great. We were growing 20%. And now this is back where you came into the picture.
So I actually purchased the salon in 2006 and up until 2010, which remember ‘08 was when you got into the business, right? It’s when everything fell out and we were growing 20% a year. It was great. It was a lot of work, but I just kept pushing through it.
I did have business consultants. I had a lot of people behind me helping.
Britt: Were you still taking clients as well?
Cara: Oh yes. Oh yeah. I was still full day in and out. Actually, at that point, I feel like I was working until midnight.
Britt: I bet. When you were working at that pace, did you enjoy it or were you like, “Oh my gosh, this is crushing?” Do you remember the feeling?
Cara: I loved it. I’m a workaholic to a fault. I don’t want to say it, like I’m bragging, like, “Oh, I’m a workaholic.” I’m actually a workaholic to a fault.
Britt: I can relate. Yeah.
Cara: So how I felt, it was definitely turbulent. There were a lot of emotions going on within all of this time. During this time of even growing, the owner of the building decided to completely redo his building. It was a shopping center and basically he redid his building. In the meantime, my rent and CAM—if anybody doesn’t know what CAM is, it’s Common Area Maintenance charge. It’s that extra stuff—doubled.
Britt: Wow.
Cara: Yeah. I went from paying $17,000 to the following month when he reissued us. He wanted $27,000 a month.
Britt: Oh my gosh. You increase by like 30% overnight.
Cara: Yeah, ‘cause the CAM doubled, the real estate value went up, he redid the entire building. With that, he ended up billing every tenant a CAM bill, which essentially was the construction bill.
Britt: He was going to have to fund the project.
Cara: Yes, and since I had 11% of the shopping center, my bill was a half a million dollars.
Britt: Oh my God. I can’t imagine.
Cara: Yes. And so is when it became like running a business, it became stressful. I was trying to keep this all into myself. I couldn’t tell my employees. I couldn’t tell my clients. So then it became like that last year of running that business was just upside down.
Then this is where I tell everybody when sh*t hits the fan, make a plan.
Britt: That’s going to be my new motto: When sh*t hits the fan, make a plan. I’m going to have a tattooed on my arm. I like it.
Cara: Yes, and you need a few plans. Something like that that’s happening, and I think a lot of people today right now are feeling this because of the pandemic and being shut down and how everybody feels like if you sit there and you worry and you’re just running around in circles and worrying and worrying, it’s not going to get you anywhere.
Britt: That’s so true.
Cara: You have to make a plan and that’s what I did.
Britt: And so what was your plan? What happened next?
Cara: I had three plans.
Britt: We want to know all of them.
Cara: My first plan, I had been speaking to the landlord for two years prior about actually taking smaller space. And this way, when I knew where we were at, plus we were going through 2008 and the economy was diving and everything like that. And the way it increased, it’s just impossible.
Fortunately I had a company that was willing to back me in order to do a complete new build out for me. Sent him everything so one of my plans was to just cut off half of our space.
Then our second was to move within his building. And then unfortunately the third one was to have to claim bankruptcy.
Britt: Wow. But that was on the table. I mean, that was a real possibility.
Cara: Yes. It was a hundred percent on the table. So they were three different wide range plans.
Britt: Which plan came together?
Cara: Bankruptcy.
Britt: Really?
Cara: Yup. Yes.
Britt: Why did that end up being the option?
Cara: Basically he decided that he told me that he didn’t want any more mom and pop shops in his building and he wanted more franchises and he was not willing to let me out of my lease negotiation. I had a 10 year lease with him.
Britt: Unbelievable.
Cara: That was our final conversation. I called up my attorney and I’m like, it’s number three.
Britt: I didn’t think you were going to go that direction. I’m shocked.
Cara: I had no choice. My hands were tied at that point.
During his lawsuits, he also found out that he didn’t reconcile the CAM charges for the last four years. Even though I wasn’t an owner, even though I didn’t own the business, because I signed that lease, I was responsible for five years of extra CAM. So now my bill went to $700,000.
Britt: There’s absolutely no way.
Cara: I was just like, “All right, my hands are tied. I have no choice.” It was crushing because that was my baby. I mean, I was excited in that business, I was so excited for the bags I designed.
Britt: Yeah. Yeah.
Cara: I hope there’s other aspiring owners out there who remember that moment—where I was carrying around my bag that I designed and I was so proud of it, showing strangers and everybody, and “Look at this!” and it could fit a pair of shoes in it and so they’re going to reuse it. I made sure they could reuse this bag over and over again, you know? So it was pretty crushing to have to walk away from everything.
Britt: So you, I mean, essentially walk away, go through this totally unexpected bankruptcy, and then what does it look like as you’re coming out the other side? Do you rent a chair? What happens?
Cara: There was no way I was giving up on my dreams. There was just absolutely no way. I was still gonna do it, no matter what. We knew that there was going to come a time that he was going to serve me with a lawsuit. It was going to happen. Again, that was kind of part of the plan, knowing, and about a month prior to all of this, and remember, I’m kind of keeping it to myself, a client of mine came in who owned a lot of real estate property, and I just happened to ask, how was that place doing now? It was in another town. It wasn’t in my town.
I also actually secured space across the street from where I was currently.
Anyway, I asked him and he’s like, “Oh, it’s funny that they’re doing really well,” and so on and so forth. Again like a divine intervention happens when you’ve really put it out there.
I was stressed. I can’t say I was just like waiting for something to lay on my lap. So I was served my lawsuit papers on a Friday. Wednesday, I came back to work and there was a note on the desk that said, please call Debbie, and that was the wife of the landlord that I spoke to.
Britt: Oh my gosh.
Cara: Yes, and they called me and they said, “If you want to come look at this space, come now. It’s available for you.”
Britt: This is so the epitome of when one door closes, another door opens.
Cara: Yes, yes, yes.
Britt: You couldn’t have, when you’re in the thick of it in the moment, thought that this is a blessing, this is so amazing, but truly it’s what you said. Like, it, divine intervention, it pushed you towards a greater future in the most convoluted way.
Cara: It was, it was. I couldn’t even have script—like you couldn’t even make it up of what actually started to happen.
But now the fear is, remember I was in that town since I was 24 years old, right? So now I’m full-blown panic, I’m leaving a town, I’m going to another two towns away. So not that many miles away, but you have to go through one town and then go to the next. It was a downtown with no parking. There were so many things where I was just freaking out, like is this going to work? Is this not going to work? What’s going to do? Maybe I should just go across the street.
You start replaying and replaying and replaying, and I went there, we looked, and I was just like, gotta do it. You got it. You got it.
Now remember again, I do like that analytical stuff, so I ran numbers with the fact that I was going to lose every single person on my team who didn’t want to move. I ran all my numbers and then I ran where everybody was from. So my other half, my partner in life, also does hair, so we were able to actually run the numbers and just say, “Okay, where our clients come?” 80% of our clients came from that town.
Britt: No way.
Cara: Yeah. So I was like, okay, and then let’s run the numbers, bare minimum. Like if everybody walks out, what are we left with? It’s starting from zero.
It was scary because it was a multimillion dollar salon, and now, when I ran the numbers, I’m like, “Whoa, we’re at ground zero.”
Britt: Literally. Yeah.
Cara: We’re back at ground zero. You’re just starting over and it was scary, but I was so hurt by what went on, because I felt like—it was like my heart, and I didn’t take a vacation since 2000. It was 2010 now, it’s four years and all the stress and everything. I was just like, I think it’s time. I think it’s time to just start over and refresh and this is it.
I just went in and jumped in with all positivity.
Britt: I love that and I agree with you. It’s like the energy you bring in and your view and your vision on “We’re starting at zero. This is a fresh start. We can do this, but we were truly starting over here,” and owning that piece is so important.
When you say fresh start, did you change the salon name? Did you carry it over? What did that look like?
Cara: Yes. We changed the salon name and completely remodeled. The salon that I inherited, that I bought—not inherited, that I bought—was not a hundred percent my vibe. And it was beautiful. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t know why the old owner decides to put the Sistine Chapel on the ceiling. It was different from what I wanted and where I wanted it to be. So yes. Every single thing completely changed. I mean, everything.
Britt: So your clients come in and they’re seeing this—like to what you said, potentially 80% of the former clientele/existing clientele live close to this new salon. Of those clients who came in and saw the changes, what was the feedback?
Cara: They loved it and I was so scared because when you walked into the old salon, it was like 30 foot ceilings. It was so grand and luxurious and marble everywhere. It was a very luxurious, high-end place. So I was scared. I’m like, “Oh, are they going to feel the same?”
They loved it. They loved it, and they actually, like the minute they walked in, they’re like, “Oh, this is so you.”
Britt: Oh, I love that. This is so you, yeah. I love that. Like this is you. I feel like you run this place. You’ve been an owner previously, but this is you and it’s a representation of you and who you are to your clients. It was like an instant, “Oh my gosh, this makes sense.”
Cara: Yes. Instant. It was a fabulous feeling and it was scary doing it. But then once we did it and we were there and, we had some challenges there too. Unfortunately I couldn’t really tell the staff till like…
Britt: The 11th hour.
Cara: Yeah. Which I completely understand. So in the beginning, again, everybody came aboard and then everybody left.
Britt: Did truly everybody leave? Did you keep anybody?
Cara: Just about, yeah. I still have employees. Yes. But most of them did leave and I completely understand.
Britt: I really appreciate you for sharing that because that is so incredibly common, that no matter how much they loved you, they loved the salon, they loved each other. To what you said earlier, everyone’s life is in constant evolution. They came, they checked it out, for whatever reason—who knows, it doesn’t even matter—they ended up choosing a different path.
To what you said, you had to make sure that you could financially handle this move even if not a single person came with, clients, staff, everything, you had to make sure that this was your project and that no matter what anybody would work for you previously or clients that saw you previously decided, this was—to what you kept saying—a fresh start.
This is often part of the journey. So for those of you, if you make a move and your staff comes and then leaves or doesn’t come at all, it’s okay. It’s not necessarily a reflection of you. It’s part of the business and this is just what happens.
Cara: Oh yeah. Definitely, and you know what? You have to be, at that point, you’re okay with it. You’re like, right. For me, you just have to keep moving forward.
Britt: That’s it! That’s all you can do.
Cara: The bad word of the hairdressing industry is like change.
Britt: Everyone’s still afraid of change, right? Change is a four letter word.
Cara: Yes. They are so afraid of it, and I say all the time, you guys change people. Hairdressers change people’s lives. And then ask them to change color, and they’re like, woo, not happening.
Britt: Right. So true. So true.
Cara: And I’m more like, let’s change it and if it doesn’t work, we can change it again.
Britt: Change again. Exactly. There’s no limit to the change. There’s always a bit.
Cara: Yes, always. And I think that’s one thing that for me, keeps me going is to always seek out something more and pivot, like you said. It’s not like a complete change, but you have to pivot into things.
Britt: And I agree with what you said. It’s almost a mindset, it’s a very freeing mindset to say, “I’m going to do this and if it doesn’t work, it’s okay. I’ll do something different.” Nothing is so final. And I think a lot of people feel like, well, this is it. It’s all on the line, and it’s never, generally speaking, never all on the line. There’s always the option to change or do something different.
Cara: Right. Absolutely. I a hundred percent agree with that.
Britt: When did you open this latest location?
Cara: 2010.
Britt: 2010. 11 years ago?
Cara: Yeah. 11 years. Yeah. Now remember, even though I was in a big shopping center, we weren’t on the main road. Now all of a sudden we’re in a down—I’m talking downtown. It’s like a little city and I was shocked. I could not believe the amount of people, the new people that we were getting. It was crazy.
Britt: And why do you think that is?
Cara: A new person in town?
Britt: Ah, new and exciting.
Cara: New and exciting and a new person and people were just, and the traffic is there and people are walking by and we made it look very attractive and everything. And, by the way, prior to this, I actually, I knew from when I took over in 2006, the other salon, I knew that reviews were going to be where the industry was moving.
And remember, I always say, I’m a dinosaur. I am. I was shocked. I told people, I am shocked that this is coming out of my mouth. From the eighties, hairdressers were superstars.
Britt: Celebrities. Celebrities in their own small towns. Yes.
Cara: It was word of mouth, and all of a sudden I saw this shift and I’m like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe people are going to rely on reviews from a stranger.”
And I mean, I didn’t tell you what, but when I took over this other salon, they were still on pen and paper, so I shifted them to the computer. Which everyone was like, “Oh my God, it’s never going to work. It’s never going to work. It’s never gonna work.”
Britt: Oh, it seemed insane. I mean, absolutely insane. And what do you think is here? Yeah, it seems crazy, right?
Cara: Yeah, and so with that, I also shifted into getting a review platform.
Britt: What was your review platform of choice at that time?
Cara: At that time it was Demandforce.
Britt: Oh, my gosh. Demandforce. You just took me on a trip back in time. Yes.
Cara: Yeah. They were new on the scene. They were brand new. They integrated with our software and I was like, we just have to do this. They were very expensive, but I was just like, we have to do this because this is where the industry is shifting.
Let’s go fast forward to 2010. I also feel that not just the fact that we were the new kid on the block, but also we had all of these reviews piling in. So when somebody all of a sudden saw the salon and they went in and they looked and they were like, “Oh my God, they have like a thousand great reviews.”
I think that was also part of the push that landed us into starting, the first few months it was like, “Oh my God, we had,”—I never had like 40 new guests in a month.
Britt: Wow. Wow. And I think, to what you said, divine intervention, that really was such an alignment of timing that it’s new, it’s exciting, great location. You really took me on a trip back in time with Demandforce, because I remember the excitement in my salon too. Would we discover Demandforce? I think their sales reps calling us about the Demandforce options.
Social media was in its infancy, which I consider digital reviews, social media. So when I say that, that’s what I’m referring to. Anywhere anybody’s having an online conversation about a business to me is social media. That really was the birth of small business online social media at scale.
And you’re right. I remember thinking the same thing. It was like, wow, referrals, word of mouth and referral building is dying. It was almost like you could see it. It was tangible. And this online review thing took flight.
You’re right. It started with Demandforce, and then there was Foursquare, and Yelp, and there’s all these popups of digital reviews were where it was at.
And to what you said, you’re absolutely right. Strangers were saying, wow, not only is this salon beautiful, but 1000 people think it’s amazing, and it did change overnight. It wasn’t my friend Shelly says this salon’s amazing. It’s Shelly and 1000 others. It was this very tangible way to see a salon’s reputation through these online review platforms.
Cara: It worked wonders for us when we moved. I really think that was part of the whole thing that pushed us forward. It got to the point where we were actually starting to see 90 new guests a month.
Britt: Wow. And how big, can you give me a ballpark? How many stylists did you have-ish at the time?
Cara: We have 10 stations and four color stations, five color stations.
Britt: That is phenomenal. Wow. Incredible.
One of the things that excited me most about you is your excitement for Yelp and I want to talk about it a little bit. When did you really start leveraging the power of Yelp?
Cara: Well, again, for me to seek out there and be a consumer too. Like I think a lot of hairdressers, you are a consumer, so be the consumer, walk through it.
So what I found was happening is all of a sudden people were all about Yelp. It’s like, “Wait a minute. What about my Demandforce? What’s going on here? What’s this new—?” All of a sudden these new platforms just started popping up on us and I’m like, “Why are people going there?” And we don’t have enough of them, the reviews from Yelp.
So I saw another shift and I’m like, “Well, everybody got smart and knows that companies are hiring these platforms to help give them reviews.” Not that they didn’t believe them, but it was just like, “Ah, nope. I see what you’re doing over here, but I’m going to go over here and take a look.”
Britt: Hold on. Another golden nugget. You are just dropping them like crazy today. That’s genius because we both know there’s a lot of people who don’t like Yelp and so I call him the Yelp monster because not everyone’s a big fan.
But to what you said, people forget about the history and pre Yelp, it was companies like Demandforce and I’m sure a dozen others—there was another one called Wildfire. There were all these companies and we all knew as consumers that it was forced reviews, that these platforms, these businesses, these companies were siphoning these reviews out of consumers.
And when reviews are siphoned like that, of course there’s some truth to it, but it felt very contrived. You’re exactly right in that Yelp, when at its inception, was a by the people for the people. So when people complain about Yelp and they’re like, “Well, it’s so annoying that somebody can just go on there and write whatever they want,” or “It’s so annoying that people can upload their own photos,” we forget that this is actually the least contrived, most authentic way to get feedback.
It is not without flaw and I will be the first to admit that, but you’re right in at its inception, it really was really giving the power back to the consumer to keep it 100 and share what they wanted to say.
Cara: Absolutely. Everybody was like Yelp, Yelp, Yelp, because actually when somebody new comes into our business, I have every little thing of how they came to us. It has Yelp, it has Google, it has Facebook, we have hotels in the area, it has hotels. So however, a person is referred to us. Even if it’s a client, the client name goes in.
I look at that and I actually run those numbers, so to speak, and see where people come from. All of a sudden I kept seeing Yelp, Yelp, Yelp. I think Angie’s List actually came out before Yelp, and so it was like Angie’s List, and then all of a sudden it was Yelp, Yelp, Yelp, Yelp, Yelp.
I’m like, “Oh my God.” I remember, I’m like, okay, well what about if I put a deal together? Then if they buy the deal there, they’re more likely to run to Yelp to actually put the review.
Britt: I love this. Do you guys hear how she’s seeing the system for what it is? She is seeing the exact “if they do this, then this will happen, and if I offer this, then their next step will be”. She sees this as the tool that it is. It’s not just a place where people talk about their experience. It is a machine and she sees it for what it is.
Okay. Keep going. This is great.
Cara: Yeah, and so what I did was I did the first deal, which was $90, they get it for $65.
Britt: Yep, which you guys, if you don’t know this Yelp has, they call them Deals. It’s almost like a Groupon where there’s more value, but the client is able to pay less. So when we’re saying Yelp Deal, if you’re not familiar with Yelp, Yelp Deal is similar to a Groupon-ish where you pay less for more value. Okay. Continue.
Cara: Right. And to that, sometimes Yelp will give you an idea of what they think it should be, but you always can customize it. I think a lot of people don’t realize customize your Deal to make it work for you.
Britt: Which I love that and that’s the big difference between Yelp and Groupon and a lot of other deal sites is that they hold all the cards and they’ll be like, “Nope, it can be this or it can be nothing.” It’s interesting to hear from you that Yelp is much more customizable.
Cara: Yes. It’s customizable. And so what we did was we made it $90, which was over our haircut at the time and added another service. But we would just say, “We suggest you get a conditional treatment or maybe a clear glaze.” And so what that did, was the cost value—we all know the cost value of the conditioning treatments is a lot less.
Britt: Right. Conditioning treatments, if you guys don’t know, it’s the most profitable service you can do in the salon, and they’re so underrated because it’s like, “Oh it’s just 15 bucks, it’s 20 bucks” or whatever. It’s pennies to put that treatment on the person so when you look at margin, there’s a huge margin for you to play with and you just completely doubled down on that.
Cara: Yes, and so we started selling and I want to say this was 2011. It was like a year after we were there, and 10 new Yelp deals were coming in a week. We had five stars and I remember I was just panicking, like every time you would get to your phone and I would check the emails and I’d be like, “Oh my God, a Yelp review. What does it say? What does it say?” And I’m like five stars, five stars, I’m like, Oh, thank God, thank God. You’re just like, wow.
And then all of a sudden, I had a staff meeting, I’m like, “Somebody is going to give us no stars because we have five stars. Like it’s going to happen. So let’s prepare ourselves. Let’s be ready for the no stars. Let’s want a no star.”
Because all of a sudden we look like you’re going into the Waldorf Astoria.
Britt: So true. So true.
Cara: Like what’s happening now. I always feel like you need to improve, you know what I’m saying? Not everybody walks around as a 10.
Britt: Right, it’s not sustainable and it’s not realistic.
Cara: Right, and so I prepped the staff for the zero review and of course it happens. That’s why everybody hates Yelp. I think there’s some fake reviews sometimes out there. A hundred percent agree.
One thing that I have found to weed out and how you know what’s going on with your reviews is—and I’ve done this even before I did it on social media platforms. If somebody complained and somebody was very dissatisfied, it was my goal to actually get them back in for a complimentary service with anybody. So even if they went to like a level one stylist, they can go to a level three complimentary.
Britt: Okay. This is interesting to me. Oh my gosh, I love this. Why was that your policy? Why were you like, “If it didn’t work with Sarah, why don’t you come in and try Tracy?” Why was that your stance that they could see a different stylist and you would take care of it?
Cara: Because I feel like most of when clients don’t mesh with somebody, it’s usually, I find, it’s a communication gap between two people.
Britt: One hundred—every single time, every single time, I totally agree with you.
Cara: And we as stylists beat us up, like beat ourselves up like, “Oh my God, they didn’t like my hair color. They didn’t like the color. They didn’t like that.” Dah, dah, dah, dah. But it’s usually a communication gap.
Britt: 99 percent of the time. Yup.
Cara: I found the time—yes—and I found getting that customer back in and if you fix that problem—and it wasn’t about the hair—but if you fix that, they stayed with you a lot longer.
Britt: The loyalty will triple, if you can get somebody to satisfied back in. Completely.
Cara: And we were successful with it. That’s how I was able to weed out, like who wouldn’t take a free service with a higher person in the salon? It just confirmed that yes, people out there that, Yelp haters, things do happen. They could be fake and everything, but you have to take the good with the bad.
Britt: Right. You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. When you get a bad review, it doesn’t mean the tool sucks. It means it’s terrible that that person wrote a fictitious review or it’s frustrating that the appointment didn’t go well, but it doesn’t mean that Yelp is bad.
And it doesn’t mean the stylist who didn’t please the client is bad. It doesn’t mean the client is bad. It just means it was a misfire, and you’re right. If we can come to resolve, that’s always going to be better for the business long-term. So true.
Cara: Yes. Also constructive. You should learn about the other side of your business, but it’s such a great feeling of having five stars, five stars, five stars.
However, think about like when somebody doesn’t give you that. Then you know where to improve. If somebody just keeps saying, you’re wonderful, you’re wonderful, you’re wonderful and doesn’t give you that constructive criticism on the other side, how are you going to improve the experience?
Britt: So true. You’re right because if one person says it, it doesn’t mean four others weren’t feeling it, but it’s the one person who says that we need to learn from it because it may be a more widespread issue than we realize. And that is the only place that we grow.
I have a question for you: when you’re looking through these reviews, you know how some where it’s like, “You know what? My team may have gone wrong. This may have been a miscommunication,” and there’s some where you’re like, “Whoa, none of this is even accurate. What are we even talking about here?” Do you have a fine line with deciding, you know what, let’s get this guest back in, let’s see if we can make this right and clearly we’re just not a fit. Is there any kind of distinction or does everybody who writes a poor review get a second shot?
Cara: No, if I felt like it was way out of line, didn’t make any sense, no, it was just, the same thing that I do, that we strive for satisfaction and, then that’s it. Just simple. I do respond.
Britt: And you respond publicly, yes?
Cara: Yes, yes.
Britt: Which is so important. So important.
Cara: Yeah. I respond publicly, I try. In the beginning, I wasn’t, because I didn’t realize you could do it. Remember it was all new. It was new, but yeah. But now yes, I respond.
I respond to good reviews. You have to and it’s encouraging because sometimes it’s more like somebody doing more than one review.
Britt: Oh yeah. People go back and add to their reviews. I really want people to look at Yelp as social media, because it’s so more than we see it for face value.
Are you uploading photos to Yelp? And if so, how often do you do that?
Cara: I do it quite frequently. We have about 90 plus photos on there. I don’t obviously do it as much with social media, but yes, I actually started really flooding it with pictures for the purpose of you read the review, but then all of a sudden you look at the pictures and you’re like, “Wow, that looks really good.” So I do use it like social.
Britt: And to what you said, that’s one of my most favorite things about it, and those who have embraced it love it because with Instagram or Facebook or a TikTok or whatever, you need to be there every day. The expectation is what do you got today? What do you got today? What do you got today?
With Yelp there, that is not the expectation. To what you just said, could you be uploading photos more? Sure. Is it working against you that you’re not? Doesn’t really sound like it.
It can really build your business beautifully and quickly without quite the amount of maintenance. It’s a very different kind of platform. We need to be commenting back to reviews. You can’t just set it and forget it. But that pressure of writing creative captions, showing up, and posting every single day, in the DMs. The relationship with Yelp is very different than it would be with another platform.
Cara: Yes. People definitely go in there and look at the pictures. We have clients that upload pictures. They take their selfies and they upload them. So yeah, because I look at those analytics, I see all the time and what’s been really fascinating too on the other side of it—I guess I could say I’m a Thriver since 2018, right? Fall? One thing that you’ve taught me is about your target market and a lot of things, and so now when I look at my Yelp and I look at the woman in her thirties, woman in her thirties, woman in her, I’m like, “Wow, I’ve hit the nail on the head.” It’s the target market that’s coming in and looking at this.
So on top of everything, it also gives you that backend and then you see what they’re doing. When you look at the analytics, okay, they clicked on the website. Who called, who did this, who did that? And it tells you a little bit more about your business and where they’re going with it.
Britt: So true, and to what you just said, first of all, the analytics on the backend of Yelp are so robust and more well-rounded than on any platform I’ve ever seen. For sure.
And to what you said, when someone’s looking for you on Yelp, they are in “I’m taking action” mode. They’re not just browsing or hanging out on there or maybe “I’ll do that another time.” They are ready to make a call, ready to click through to a website. They’re action takers. It’s like the ideal person who is ready to pull a trigger and book an appointment.
Cara: Yeah. That’s a great point. I didn’t even look at it that way, but that’s a great point.
Britt: It’s so true and you’re seeing it in those analytics. I mean, every single time.
Now, one thing we talked about before we went live here was I asked you, I said, “Has your relationship with Yelp changed since the pandemic?” What did your relationship with the app look like in 2020? And what does it look like now?
Cara: It definitely died off a little bit. I did do a second deal because I felt like we were getting so much of that small deal that I just wanted to take a little bit more control of it, and that’s when I did the $125 for $90, which then brought a color client in.
Britt: This I love. So just so you guys know, she refined her offer, raised the price, so she essentially raised the barrier to entry. You have to pay more to get the deal, but she’s saying it brought more of a color clientele than maybe just to cut clientele. The caliber of client, if you want to say, although I don’t like to see clients that way, but the value that the guests were bringing to the business changed. It was a good quality over quantity situation.
Cara: Yes and I feel like if somebody is going to invest within you with that, you have more of a stronger hold. Like a haircut, they might just come and go but a color, they’re not making that jump unless they really want to jump. We definitely saw less, but they still came in. It’s funny because I looked at it the other day and I’m like, “Wow, I think we sold three this year.”
Britt: Yeah. Yep.
Cara: But people are still using the platform and that’s what I think people keep forgetting. No matter whether you hate it or love it, it doesn’t matter because your consumer is still going there.
Britt: So true, and to what you just said, there was a time when it was giving you 10 guests a week. Post pandemic, you’re seeing maybe three in the first three—maybe one a month, let’s say, but no one in their right mind should be shooting down one new, highly qualified, already-prepaying-to-come-to-the-salon guest a month. That is somebody who is so committed to the business versus picking up 10 Instagram followers where we don’t know what they’re going to do or not. It’s choosing these highly qualified leads and clients with very minimal effort compared to what you’re doing elsewhere.
I have a question for you: have your stylists ever given pushback? Like “I don’t like these Yelp Deal people”?
Cara: No, never.
Britt: Oh, I love that.
Cara: Never. It’s been just known what the deal is and basically we put an imaginary red hat on that person and they know that’s a Yelper. You know what I’m saying? Everybody knows that is a Yelper coming in. They wear their imaginary red hat through the salon and everybody knows it, whether it’s not your client, it doesn’t matter. No, but they’ve never given pushback for that.
Britt: I love that and I love the analogy of the red hat, because if you guys didn’t catch that, it means that everybody is working as a unit to embrace and enhance and level up the perceived value of the salon. As these people that we know are public reviewers are walking through the space, that is your best chance of word of mouth reputation increasing.
And it is, you’re exactly right, it’s a collective that works towards that mission. Not one person can’t make or break the salon reputation. It is a collective. And I love that analogy and the way that you lead.
Okay, so this is a record breaker. This is the longest interview I’ve ever had, and I could literally keep going because I’m so fascinated by you, but I’m going to leave everybody hanging and wanting more.
Can you let us know once everyone’s as obsessed with you as I am where’s the best place to find you, connect with you, and follow you?
Cara: Okay. I own BC Salon in Maurice County, New Jersey. My Instagram handle is @BCSalonNJ and our website that’s beautifully designed by the Website Academy is bcsalonmorristown.com.
Britt: You are absolutely amazing, and I’m following Cara and following the salon, so if you follow me, you can find her. You are an absolute joy and pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time with me today. You are incredible.
Cara: Thank you.
Britt: All right, that’s it. You guys, thank you so much for joining me for this interview series over these last two weeks. Cara, you are an absolute inspiration. I for one, am following your journey, look forward to seeing what is next in your path.
You guys, please, please follow Cara. Please share this to your Instagram stories, tag she and I both in so we can celebrate your support.
You guys, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
