How Sally Beauty Holdings Achieved Their Store Operations Makeover

Retail has experienced massive disruption and change as a result of the pandemic. From updating safety procedures to expanding omnichannel processes, retailers have had to quickly launch new programs, train front-line employees on new tasks, and adhere to new policies and guidelines.

As a result, retailers experienced a stress test on their operational infrastructure. Can stores handle a flood of communication about new safety procedures? Can they handle the execution of numerous new initiatives and tasks? And can they handle more complicated labor scheduling challenges, as employees navigate responsibilities at home that have shifted as a result of the pandemic?

At the Future Stores virtual event, Dave Hamilton, Director of Operations at Sally Beauty Holdings, and Doug Dilley, Customer Success Manager at Zebra Technologies, held a fireside chat on how Sally Beauty not only adapted to these diverse challenges, but achieved their omnichannel transformation plan and excelled during difficult times.

Dependence on Manual Scheduling

Before implementing real-time store operations solutions, Sally Beauty managed many of their execution and labor scheduling processes manually. During the fireside chat, Dave Hamilton explained that, prior to utilizing these solutions, “scheduling was done on paper. Any tasks that need to be completed were done through email. We never really knew when things were getting completed. And that makes it very difficult to keep track of how stores are executing on very important things like planning guides.”

To improve operational efficiency and automate these manual processes, Sally Beauty implemented a single platform of real-time task management and workforce management, giving their front-line employees a single, mobile touchpoint for every system they use over the course of the day.  With these solutions, they were able to centralize and simplify communication, gain an improved line-of-sight into task execution, and actively measure how well stores were executing critical projects.

Omnichannel Transformation for Associates

These solutions were critical to Sally Beauty achieving their omnichannel transformation plan and ensuring success during the pandemic. In late 2019, Sally Beauty had initially planned a small pilot of same-day delivery, but the challenges of the pandemic and the shifting needs of their customers drove them to accelerate this initiative dramatically. Buy online, pick up in store services were also crucial to Sally Beauty’s shift towards engaging customers that didn’t want a traditional in-store experience during the pandemic.

During the discussion, Dave Hamilton said that “same day delivery, buy-online pickup in store, ship from store, all of these factors became really necessary for our business to meet the needs of our customers. We needed tools to assist our stores.”

While these shifts would have been incredibly difficult for unprepared retailers, Sally Beauty utilized real-time task management technology to streamline these new and expanded omnichannel services, ensuring that customers receive their orders in a timely manner. Dave Hamilton expanded on how they accomplished this, saying that for buy-online, pick up in store orders, “Stores are alerted in real time when an order is ready to be packed and prepared for our customers. That backs up our POS system that holds the order. This has been very helpful in ensuring that we’re meeting the needs of our customers.”

Matching Customer Demand to Associate Availability

Dynamic workforce management also helped Sally Beauty accomplish this goal. The pandemic has made it more difficult for retailers to understand how to align labor with customer traffic, making sure that stores are adequately staffed throughout the day. Dave Hamilton spoke about the how utilizing and intelligent scheduling system helped them staff their stores, saying that “by putting in our workforce management program and having Workforce Scheduler available to us, this allowed us to tell our stores what their peak hours were, ensuring that they were scheduling properly. This ensured that they were meeting their customers’ needs by having the right associates at the right time, on the sales floor and available to our customers.”

With a real-time store operations and workforce management software platform, Sally Beauty was able to meet the challenges of the pandemic head on, empowering their front-line employees and providing customers with a safe and comfortable retail experience.

Check out the on-demand virtual session for the full discussion! For more insight into how you can achieve your retail transformation plan and succeed through disruptive times, contact us at marketing@reflexisinc.com and we’ll set up time to chat.