Salon Manager Duties and Responsibilities

In many hair businesses, especially the smaller ones, the owner fulfills all the roles - they are the CEO, manager, receptionist, and stylist, juggling a load of duties. Once their business becomes more established and income gets pretty steady, many of them start considering employing more specialized workers to help them with daily tasks. Many owners end up asking - are hair salon managers necessary and will hiring them bring measurable profits to my business? Let’s clear up some doubts by thoroughly explaining the role of a hair salon manager, listing their duties, and considering whether or not your salon requires such a position. 

What does a hair salon manager do?

Hair salon manager responsibilities can be loosely divided into two categories:

• Operational - related to overseeing a salon’s daily processes, and
• Interpersonal - related to managing employees, recruitment, and dealing with problematic clients.

Both of these categories require not only certain qualifications but also particular personality traits. The specific salon manager's duties determine what skills are required in the person for the job.

Operational responsibilities of a salon manager

A salon manager is supposed to be the owner’s right hand, ensuring that the business is operating properly at all times. They are there to keep everything moving forward and under control. The operational responsibilities of a salon manager include:

• Controlling tidiness of the premises
• Enforcing hygiene practices across all workstations
• Monitoring stock levels and ordering supplies
• Keeping records of cash inflows and outflows
• Taking care of customer records
• Overseeing the scheduling of appointments
• Supervising communication with clients
• Running marketing activities, including social media fan pages
• Looking after the loyalty program (if you run one)
• Checking the availability of resources (equipment and rooms)
• Helping the salon owner create important documents (such as the financial plan of your hair salon)
• Creating reports regarding salon operations

The role of a beauty salon manager covers many responsibilities. Moreover, all of these duties are important and impactful, one mistake may bring significant consequences. This means that a salon manager has to be a very responsible person. What other requirements does this position have when it comes to the organizational side of things?

• Deep knowledge of all services and products available in the salon
• Basic knowledge of bookkeeping
• Experience in managing a hair salon
• Great organizational skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Capability to multitask

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Interpersonal responsibilities of a salon manager

Now that we have the organizational tasks settled, let’s focus on the interpersonal ones. An important duty of the hair salon manager is that they are a link between the salon owner and stylists, as well as between stylists and clients. They help to settle conflicts, improve communication, and in many cases are the owner’s voice. A salon manager must be able to empathize and think fairly and rationally. The interpersonal responsibilities of a salon manager include:

• Preparing work schedules and assigning tasks
• Maintaining staff records (salaries, commissions, time off and absences, etc.)
• Setting goals for stylists
• Running recruitments
• Addressing client complaints
• Resolving issues between customers and staff members
• Monitoring conflicts between team members, and intervening if necessary
• Reporting to the salon owner

Salon management requires a strong, but compassionate personality. Any cases of personal bias or playing favorites can lead to a huge disarray. What are other requirements when it comes to the interpersonal side of being a salon manager?

• Unshakable patience, especially in dealing with customers
• The ability to separate personal likes and dislikes from team management
• Objectivity and a lack of prejudice
• Distance to oneself
• The ability to handle client complaints calmly and gracefully
• Strong leadership skills
• Great communication skills

Do you have to hire a hair salon manager?

Seeing how many responsibilities a hair salon manager has, you may be thinking - “so it is vital to hire one, then?”. Well, yes and no. Having a well-qualified person that you can trust to help you with those important matters is great, but not every salon owner can afford to hire one. Oftentimes many of the salon manager tasks can be automated, thanks to smart programs for hairdressers such as Booksy. Our salon software delivers a wide variety of managerial features, including (but not limited to):

• A digital appointment book that allows for instant scheduling and editing of appointments, and which you can access from any device that connects to the Internet
• A communication segment that lets you launch personalized text messages and email marketing along with automatic appointment notifications
• Employee management that allows you to create work schedules and record time-offs, but also delivers detailed work reports, automatically calculates commissions, and much more
• Inventory control that checks stock statuses for you

As you can see, Booksy has many salon manager responsibilities covered - and it comes without human error. It will never make a double booking, lose track of data, or overlook low stock levels. It pretty much becomes your most hardworking employee who never makes mistakes, doesn’t have to rest, and never takes sick leave. 

Is having a digital salon manager a better option, then? It replaces a human in many aspects, but not all of them - everything boils down to your expectations, needs, and preferences. There are things that simply require a human touch. At the same time, automation makes “hard” elements of salon management foolproof. This is why the perfect solution seems to be hiring a salon manager - and then arming them with a digital helper. Such a dynamic duo will be unstoppable. Nevertheless, for many hair businesses, especially the smaller ones, the salon management system will be more than enough to keep everything running smoothly

Do you want to try Booksy for yourself? You can do so now by starting a free 14-day trial with us. It comes with no obligations, no contracts, and a credit card isn’t required. Create your account now and let your new best employee do the hard work for you!