Gallup Organization is the leader in employee and customer engagement studies, methodology and implementation. We should know, we have been students of Gallup for more than three years.

Their employee engagement test is simply called Q12. It is comprised of 12 questions, each ranked 1 to 5 with a 5 being the highest level of engagement.

One of the questions that ranks among the lowest score of the dozen is "Have you received recognition in the past 7 days?"

Recognition can come from a co-worker, manager, or customer. It can be formal or informal. It can be as simple as "good job" to a written note.

Gallup points out that people are quick to point out errors, mistakes, screw ups and bad customer service. But the same people are aloof in providing positive feedback.

Like anything, it’s easy to get involved with this early on but as time passes, it’s easy to let it fade into the sunset. Gallup has pointed out that for engagement to be on the high end, recognition is important (when deserved).

With this in mind, I would like to recognize a few individuals as I have muddled through several projects over the past few weeks.

Dan, Jesse, Charles and Jason for doing the heavy work in loading and unloading the store fixtures.

Shelly for providing the design graphics. Dennis and Chuck for getting the display materials on time. Rick from Innovative Media who got not one, not two, but three installers on location to keep the signage hanging.

Craig for getting the Academy sound station up and working plus a redesign to boot. Mark for creating software to install a scanning station for our outlet center. The CTS talent for organizing their first clearance sale. 

Kelly for organizing two great Academy events, Hair Manya and Rockaholic. Finally Gaye and especially Rob for working out the transfers, price records and new product setups for the flagship store.

I will say one thing more for Gallup’s Q12: Simple questions but not easy to do consistently. But in the end, priceless.

Happy Wednesday!

Sure the economy still sucks regardless what the economists point out and business is tougher than ever. Most pundits would point out now is not the time to invest and reinvent. They say to ride out the storm and be safe during turbulent times.

Being in business today is anything but safe. Ask any business owner. The reinvention of our corporate store didn’t take place because it needed to, it all came about because of SAP, our database software system.

We are now finally able to review metrics and do something about them. For instance, we found out that we had nearly 5000 items in the store. Of those, nearly 1400 didn’t sell during the past 8 weeks. The top 500 items accounted for over half the business.

What happened? We became complacent. A customer would ask for a certain item and we would bring it in. Too bad the item never sold afterwards. Repeat this 1000 times and viola! More importantly, we didn’t have the right tools in place. It’s also a whole lot easier facing items than taking them off the shelf, cleaning the shelf, and putting the items back on.

First thing we did was get rid of the 1400 plus items. Whew, that was a lot of work. Next thing was to bring in our best selling catalog items not in the store including our all new CLUB1 items. Then we took our best selling store items and prominently featured them. And finally, we added a bunch of fun stuff like really cool Quotable greeting cards, mugs, notepads, snacks and a whole section of cleaning supplies.

New graphics and store displays were added. New signage, new in-store secret deals and new T-shirts for the staff. Also added was our new outlet center featuring all the stuff we couldn’t sell at regular price.

Today is the soft grand opening and you will be impressed. Special thanks to Lo, Megan and Lindsay who put up with me for two weeks and worked until 8:30PM Saturday to make it just right for today.

Today also kicks off the launch of Hair Manya, Kemon’s sexy and cool styling line. The Kemon "store-in-a-store" concept is really hip with its own color bar, mixing station and full range of products.

Of course there is no rest. Next up is our Shelby Township store. What fun and I know the Shelby girls are revved up and ready to go.

Happy Monday!

True hair maniacs don’t just use products, they cocktail products for maximum effect. With this in mind, we had the DeBartolo brothers come up with 12 mind-blowing cocktails that give instant results to virtually any look wanted.

Once the cocktails were developed, we needed really cool names for them. Hence, the Name the Cocktail contest. We had over 50 true hair maniacs enter and here are the official results!

#1: All Nighter. Winner: Samantha Metevier

#2: Vamp Up. Winner: Amy Butler

#3: Top Secret. Winner: Julie Harris

#4: Hot Funk. Winner: Allison Lieffers

#5: High Roller. Winner: Julie Harris (two-time winner!)

#6: Volcano Rush. Winner: Renee Sokan

#7: 24 Karat. Winner: Rachel Jones

#8: Big Slick. Winner: Jesse Richardson

#9: All Night Party. Winner: Robin Gaynier

#10: Stiff One. Winner: Samantha Metevier (two-time winner!)

#11: Shine Shot. Winner: Amy Bowen

#12: Peace Out!. Winner: Lani Denman

Each winner will receive $100 in Hair Manya products. The official cocktail menus will be available mid-August. They will be the talk of the salon.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

Happy Friday!

It can really suck to be a salon owner these days. Besides the normal chaos of running a business, salon owners have to decide which products to retail and use at the back bar and styling stations.

All the while, industry experts bemoan the fact that salons can’t retail. Every consultant that knows the difference between a gel and pomade has written and spoken about the subject. Unfortunately, they themselves have never been a salon owner during these turbulent times so what do they really know?

Most recently, salon owners leaned towards Bumble & Bumble and Kerastase. Salon exclusive brands. But to buy the brands, you must keep every item in stock and buy a minimum quota. In the good days, it was an issue but surmountable. Today, good-bye salon exclusive brands.

Salon owners like to stick with what they know. Little did they know the brands they grew up would be bought by major corporations in which the salon division was a mere percentage of their overall sales. It’s no wonder these brands are sold in virtually every retail outlet. Good-bye to 75% of the brands out there.

And finally, salon owners ventured out into no-man’s land and brought in small, untested brands and even private label. No diversion, no minimums, no results. After the initial launch and list of promises gone undelivered, it was good-bye to these brands.

So it’s with great fanfare that we launch Hair Manya, a hip, cool line of styling products from Kemon. The launch party is Monday and is sold out–more than 200 leading edge and entrepreneurial salon owners and hairdressers looking for the next big thing.

Personally, I love it. Not in a single retail store and nor will it be. No minimums to maintain each month. Education is second to none headlined by the DeBartolo Brothers. Cool displays and hip marketing. Fun, edgy and affordable.

This is the kind of stuff we need to get our industry back on track. I have a feeling these 200+ will help provide the spark. Salon owners still have power to make things happen. I look forward to see what they do with this.

Happy Thursday!