Insight Academy's online training offering increases

As we expand our training offerings, today we interview our Senior Senior Trainer/Sales Coach, Silvia Minguzzi, expert in sales training in the professional beauty field. Together with Silvia we will understand why constant and continuous professional training is important for all salon and hair professionals.

Why is it important nowadays for a company to be able to offer training online as well?

For a company, providing online training means giving everyone the opportunity to continue to learn and grow in the profession. The classic advantages of the online world are also advantages for those who wish to enrich their knowledge. Online training, in fact, offers several pluses to the learner. First of all, it does not require physical travel, which, in addition to greater convenience, also means savings in both time and money. In addition, the user is free to choose the best time to take the course and can split the training into several times. Finally, an online course can be reviewed as often as desired or as necessary to learn more complex concepts.

Not only that. For a company, offering training also online has the advantage of being able to release courses that otherwise could not have been implemented on land for a wide variety of reasons. In addition, new courses can be activated at any time of the year, without having to manage the physical organization of the training, such as attendance, choice of date and location, etc.
 

How do the courses you offer in the Insight Academy enhance and improve the know-how of a hair professional?

In my courses, I teach those transversal skills known as "soft skills": interpersonal and behavioral skills that determine much of our results in the work environment. They are applicable to all professions but each one especially requires some rather than others.

In the salon world, soft skills are also that preparation that is NOT technical but crucial to keep the client coming back, to make the client have an emotional experience of full satisfaction, as well as a professional one.

What I have noticed throughout my experience is that often, hairdressers and salon owners, on a rational level know that taking care of the client and making him or her have a positive emotional experience is very important, but still they mostly see their professionalism tied to their technical-stylistic skills. It is as if they forget that a client who has not felt comfortable will probably not return to the salon, even if they have had the latest cut of the moment done to perfection. Instead, a client who felt welcomed, pampered, and treated as someone really special, will be more likely to come back even if the cut was a grade 8 and not a 10-plus.
Many hairdressers know these things, but they tend not to transfer them consistently and consistently on a day-to-day basis. Doing soft skills training serves both the veterans, to remind them of the importance of practicing these skills, and the newbies, to learn and build the foundation of a trade that is based on client relationships.
 

What advice would you give to those new to the salon world and those who are now veterans of it?

To those who are new to the salon and hair world, I would advise them to always remember why they chose to do this job. Hairdressing is a very tiring and stressful job, you are on your feet all day, always in contact with the client (and you don't always have to deal with 'easy' clients). It is important to remember why you do this job so that you can overcome all the daily difficulties that, over time, can demotivate you. Hairdressers have a very important function from a social point of view: they help people to feel better, to like themselves more, and to be a little happier... The hairdresser is a kind of missionary from the point of view of aesthetics, and beauty. It is important for them to be aware of that and to remember that every day.

Another tip is to study well all the products in the salon, in order to give the client the best possible service. Study well even one a week or 1 every other day.

For those, on the other hand, who are veterans, I recommend never forgetting the basics for two reasons: to keep perfecting and to teach them to new recruits. As in the world of martial arts, the hairdressing journey is a step-by-step process, and when you get to the end, you do again the things you did at the beginning but in a perfect way. This goes somewhat against the trend in the hair way where you are always looking for the new. Veterans want to keep in mind that to get to perfection, you should never forget the basics; in fact, you should keep working on those as well.

A second tip for experts in the field is to to give positive reinforcement to newbies: appreciation, compliments, and encouragement are just as important as corrections.

How best to handle difficult situations and emotions?

We all face stressful or difficult situations all the time. Nowadays the same social situation is complicated, puts us under pressure, and makes us less clear-headed. Therefore, it is important to know how best to handle complex situations, very demanding clients, and very challenging emotions.

How to do that? Breathe more.

Something as simple, innate, and automatic as breathing, when managed and carried out in awareness helps a great deal in managing one's emotions. Being aware of how we feel, and how our body reacts internally to certain external situations, is a great help in managing them.

For those in public speaking, it is crucial to take care of yourself, to ask yourself more often 'how am I feeling right now?', and to take the time to breathe and reactivate the prefrontal cortex. Breathing is like cleaning the glasses with which we see the world: a simple but very useful gesture; we all gain, ourselves and those around us. Breathing is like tuning a musical instrument, and if the instrument is not tuned, it doesn't play well-even if we use a lot of energy to play it.