SALON TODAY recently received tips from Tanisha Foster, SalonBooker Senior Salon Product Marketing Manager, that focus on how salons can find success during the holidays.

Prepare your staff for high volume. It’s important to establish and communicate with your team: Who’s working what days and at what times? Who gets what days off? Make sure all holiday requests have been approved and communicated as necessary.

Customize gift certificates for holidays. Relevant, seasonal designs are more enticing to purchase. Customers will be driven to gifts that reflect the occasion they’re purchasing for. Make sure you add your logo to all of your gift certificates and cards for increased brand recognition.

Create an overarching promotional plan that takes into account which promotions you’ll be running and when. Map out opportunities you want to take advantage of on a calendar. Will you be running Black Friday promotions? Christmas promotions? How will you spread them out? Make sure you don’t inundate clients with promotions, but also make sure you’re taking advantage of all your promotional opportunities. Strike a balance!

E-mail your customer base to keep them in the loop about your holiday plans, promotions, and events. The holidays aren’t only about bringing in new clients. You want to get previous clients back in your spa, so make sure you keep them in the loop!

Create a social media plan. Tackle this one by creating a content calendar. Strategize and draft posts in advance to optimize your plan. Do you plan on updating the imagery on your profiles? Now’s a good time to create all of those pieces as well.

Think about décor and your environment. Keep your clientele in mind when you’re planning your holiday décor. What sort of things would make them feel most comfortable and welcome? Do you plan on setting up holiday retail displays? Start planning these things now so you create a cohesive decor plan.

Give back to your community with a charity initiative. Tis the season of giving, after all. Find an organization that has some significance for you, and pair with them for an event.

Do you have a plan to reach gift buyers? Try to reach your less frequent patrons or people who don’t typically visit your spa. This can include men and teenagers who might be buying for family members.

Create a gift guide for buyers. Highlight some of your key holiday offerings in a flier or newsletter. Simplify the buying process for gift buyers so they’re more likely to follow through on making a purchase.

Capture buyers’ attention. When someone new comes in to purchase a gift during the holidays you have double the opportunity to get new spa. You can acquire the person they’re purchasing for as well as the gift giver themselves. Make sure you ask for their email address when they’re making their purchase so you can take advantage of this opportunity.

Throw a holiday party. Celebrate staff by throwing a holiday party at your spa. If a big party isn’t in the budget, arrange a potluck or something that splits up the contribution.

Make sure you’re selling gift certificates. We can’t stress enough the importance of selling gift certificates during the holidays. SpaBooker clients saw a 280% increase in gift certificate sales in December 2012 alone. Get on that.

Identify VIPs and reward them. The holidays are a great time to say, “Thanks,” to some of your most valuable and loyal clients. Send them an email with an offer for a free gift or percentage off a service and make them feel appreciated.

Establish and clearly display your holiday hours. So you’ve told your staff about your holiday hours, but have you shared this information with the general public yet? Post this info in your store, on your website, and across your social media profiles to keep clients in the loop.

Upsell with retail displays and sampling. Retail sales consisted of nearly 13% of total sales for SpaBooker clients in December 2012. Make sure you’re prepared to take advantage of this opportunity with holiday focused retail displays and sampling. Upselling clients and gift buyers alike can be a great way to boost revenue.

Get your website holiday ready. You’ll want to add prepare and add a number of things to your website to prep for the holidays, some operational and others about news and events, including: Holiday hours, Promotions, Special events or parties.

Higher volume means more everything. Stock up on products. Your normal amount of products you have on hand probably won’t suffice, so adjust your orders accordingly. Make sure you have enough staff on hand. Do you need to hire seasonal employees?

Identify your top selling services and don’t discount them! Discounting a top selling service is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Review your numbers to ensure you’re only discounting your poor performers.

Hand out staff gifts and thank you notes. Make your employees feel appreciated. Keeping your staff happy is a crucial component of your spa’s success, so let them know you value their hard work.

Partner with other local businesses to increase brand awareness and traffic. You’ll have the opportunity to get more eyes on your salon’s news, and also help out another local business in your community.

*Partner with another retailers to: Boost promotions–work with another business to create a compelling promotion. If you package your offerings you’ll both get something out of it.

*Spread the word about events–again, it’s all about reaching more eyes and increasing awareness about happenings at your salon. Find another local salon that maybe brings something you don’t offer to the table, and you can do the same for them.