Julie Taylor & April Thomas
Outreach Committee
If you or other piercers in your studio are going to be at Conference for a week, it is best to take stock of how this will affect your studio as soon as possible. The sooner you do this the sooner you put into place a plan for while you are away.
There are a variety of approaches to determining what will work best in each studio. Communicating with your entire team and making a plan in advance can reduce your anxiety about what is happening in your studio while you’re enjoying your time at Conference.
If most of your staff is going to Conference it could be a time to close the studio and give your tattoo artists a week off. If your entire staff is away, you might consider hiring someone who can answer basic questions and book appointments for you.
It could also be a time to have a guest piercer come into assist your clients while you’re away. If you are not the studio owner, offering to fill the spot with another piercer could be greatly appreciated. APP Member Woodstock Bader, owner/piercer of Crow’s Nest Tattoo, says, “quite simply, we find a piercer we trust to live in our house and [work] at the shop.” Woodstock offers this piercer a guaranteed minimum to ensure they will make money while they cover for him.
Use your social media and email contacts to let your clients know about Conference. Get them excited about your trip, so although they will miss you when you’re gone, they know you will return full of inspiration and knowledge, and in turn they will even support you being gone. APP Member Brian Fowler, owner/piercer of Brand X Piercing, says he lets people know that he will be away for months in advance online as well as when they come in to get pierced. He says that those who stop by when he is away “receive a fancy coupon to entice them to come back.”
If you regularly answer your studio’s emails or other messages, have someone else take this task over, even if they have to refer some questions and troubleshooting to you. Vegas is not the best environment for replying to clients in a timely fashion. Pat Pierce, owner/piercer at Mauve, says he creates an email out-of-office message which “responds to anybody that emails me, stating that I am away with the dates that I am gone, what I am away for, when I will return, and that the reception staff are available.” Pat will also try to look through his messages as time permits so that he is able to respond to any urgent client concerns.
An invaluable way to ensure that your clientele appreciate your absence, is to promote the jewelry you will be returning with. Take special orders for any vendors you only shop with while at Conference. Once you return with your goodies, plan to do things like organize a trunk show and/or update displays to show off the year’s new releases and designs. This is a great way to showcase the designs that may be unique or new to your studio. There’s nothing like sharing your post-Conference glow with your favorite clients!