Be the Boss of Your Commission by Watching These Metrics

When it comes to growing your beauty business, it’s important to track metrics beyond simple profit and loss. Behind every metric is an opportunity to fine-tune your business and collect more commission. For example, if you spend 25% of your time doing complex color jobs, but they make up 75% of your earnings, you could make significantly more by shifting the balance of how you spend your time. 

That said, it’s easy to become so absorbed by the many possible ways to analyze performance that you become unsure what will actually move the needle in a significant way. When formulating key performance indicators (KPIs), it’s crucial to focus on those that will make a difference to your bottom line and not burden yourself with unnecessary data. 

Your goals will inform the KPIs that matter most for your business, but if you’re not tracking anything on this list, you’re almost certainly not maximizing your full financial potential.

You can’t make money without clients, so of course, there are several KPIs related to the relative health of your customer base.

First-time client retention

How many new clients come back for a second appointment within 30 days? 60? 90? Some will never return no matter how excellent a service you provide, but having a firm grasp of your averages is crucial. It’s particularly helpful when combined with a measurement of new clients per month. The pandemic threw a wrench in the works, so you will likely need to redefine your baseline to match the current climate.

Client retention

Once you convert that first-time client, how long do they stick around? Again, a percentage of churn is normal, as people will stop using your service for any number of benign reasons. Keeping an eye on existing client retention over time paints a picture of the overall health of your client base, especially when compared to first-time client retention. If you’re not gaining new repeat clients as fast as you’re churning older customers, your business is slowly but surely dying.

Occupancy

This measure puts an actual number on how busy your spa or salon is. First, determine the total treatment hours possible for your business, based on number of staff, average length of treatment, hours of operation, and so on. Then compare that to how many hours of service you actually booked for that same time period. Monitoring that ratio over time reveals many ways to improve the overall efficiency of your business, such as whether there’s room to double-book staff. A stylist could do a blowout while a color is processing, for example. On the other hand, if your shop is already at its limit, it may be time to consider opening another location.

Frequency of visit

This metric is perhaps most useful when combined with other metrics. Knowing that clients tend to visit three times a year, when combined with the average ticket amount, gives you a broad idea of per-client income. From there, it’s a quick calculation to determine how many new clients you’d need to attract (and how many established clients you’d have to retain) to increase profits.

Time to booking  

This is one of the metrics that beauty business owners tend to overlook, but knowing how far in advance clients book a service has value. It can be an indication of customer loyalty, for example, if they’re booking far enough ahead to ensure they can work with their favorite stylist. It can also provide opportunities to improve in-house operations. If you discover that particular treatment is commonly booked the day-of an appointment — such as manicures, perhaps — you know to be prepared to offer it at a moment’s notice.

A clear vision of the people coming into your shop is only half the equation. You also need to understand how, when, and why your money is coming in and going out. 

Average ticket

This is one of the core metrics you should be tracking for your beauty business: How much does the typical customer spend? While it’s useful on its own, average ticket complements several other metrics to give you a full view of your spa or salon’s potential. Tracking it over time can reveal client trends, as well. Your customer base may splurge more before the winter holidays or may become extra thrifty just after them. Knowing how much your customers spend is the stepping-off point for promotional opportunities, price adjustments, upsell strategies, and more.

Stock turnover rate

It’s easy to overlook how long something sits on your shelves before it moves out the door. After all, what matters most is how much product you sell, right? Well, yes and no. Unsold stock has a dollar value associated with it — a value that depreciates over time. Tracking how long assets are tied up in unsold products can reveal unproductive spending patterns or untapped opportunities for increased revenue.

Upselling rate

How often does a customer add a service or product onto their service? What is the value of the typical upsell? Do certain services lend themselves more easily to cross-selling? These are all questions that can be answered by tracking this KPI. A low upsell rate lets you know that your staff should change their current approach, for example. Examining this metric might also reveal that certain members of staff excel at cross-selling, which is an opportunity for them to train their peers.  

Keeping track of these KPIs will give you the information you need to make smart decisions about growing your business in a sustainable way. Ideally, you want to use software that integrates with the rest of your tech stack to provide seamless reporting on the relevant metrics for both short and long-term goals. Boulevard was created to give you the data you need, in a format that makes sense. See for yourself! Get a free demo today.

Boulevard was built to help your business achieve profitability at scale without losing an inch of sanity. See for yourself! Get a free demo today.