We were lucky to catch up with Santana Morris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Santana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

When providing services, I keep my business mission statement in mind “To provide stellar services to the African American community by offering a phenomenal hair experience that opens a new level of confidence that allows you to look and feel your best while maintaining healthy and unique hair styles.”

I provide a high level of customer service to every customer or potential customer by ensuring an easy booking process, thoroughly answering questions/concerns, and following through with an unforgettable hair experience! It is my goal to ensure that every customer that receives a service from my business leaves with their hair looking AMAZING with a plan to maintain the style until they return for their next visit.

I offer monthly hair specials, complimentary refreshments while being serviced, and an all-inclusive experience. Retaining current customers plays a huge role in growing a business. Customers will likely return and refer people to your business when the service provided not only looks outstanding, but the customer’s overall experience was outstanding as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name is Santana Morris. I am an African American female from Birmingham, Al. I am self-employed full time as an entrepreneur and natural hair stylist. I am a single mother to two brilliant daughters (Kashyra and Kailynn). I have been self-employed for about twelve years, with the last eight years being full-time self-employed. Before I became self-employed full time, I worked in corporate America in various roles such as business financial service representative, store manager, customer service representative, registration coordinator and business account executive. These roles ultimately prepared me for my own business. With the business courses taken in college and the management positions, customer service positions, and financial service positions that I have held, I have been able to provide excellent customer service to my clients while running the day-to-day operations of my business, marketing my business, and completing my accounting effectively.

The first business I started was an online costume jewelry company in 2012. Customers could go online to make a jewelry purchase. I specialized in trendy jewelry and catered to women. I continued to run the jewelry business for about five years. In 2019, I launched “Braids By Santana”. I have always enjoyed hair and everything that encompasses hair. My mother was young mother and struggled to maintain my hair when I was a child, and it made me eager to learn how to style my hair. I started styling my hair at the age of twelve. I then mastered three years of cosmetology in high school (Cosmetology 1-3). I would style friends and family’s hair part time while working full time in corporate America.

When I had children, it was easy for me to style their hair because I had a cosmetology background. Sometimes, I would allow other stylists to style my daughters’ hair especially when my full-time job load was extensive. When my daughters reached middle school, I started styling their hair more because it started to become difficult for me to keep a reliable hairstylist for my daughters within my single- parent budget. I began using more advanced styling techniques on my daughters’ hair and the World loved their hair styles! My part time hair styling clientele increased significantly to full time, so I resigned from my job in corporate America.

My daughters are my inspiration and motivation to thrive as an entrepreneur. They have both followed in my footsteps, while preparing themselves for their own career paths. They both aspire to service the World through entrepreneurship and careers as doctors. Maintaining and running a business is very challenging but can also be rewarding. I thoroughly enjoy entrepreneurship and the beauty industry. It feels amazing to do what you enjoy daily.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building a social media audience is not easy. LOL! My social media business audience was established from my personal social media pages first. For example, on my personal Facebook, Instagram, and Snap Chat pages, I was extremely active; meaning I would consistently share personal moments that occurred in my life with my social media friends which included family, current and ex colleagues, childhood friends, high school/college friends, friends of friends, etc. My social media friends enjoyed my content so when I decided to pursue the cosmetology field full time, I started sharing pictures of the hair services that I provide. Many people were eager to support!

I would ask people to share my work with their social media friends then eventually I started two business social media accounts. I created one on Facebook and one on Instagram. I linked the two pages together so that if I posted content on one page, it would automatically post to the other page. I continued to post the services that I provide on my personal pages, but I was now able to tag the business page and ensured that everyone from my personal page followed the new business pages. I consistently posted content daily whether I received zero “likes” on a post or if I received twenty “likes” on a post.

I have learned that when running a business, customers and potential customers enjoy consistency. The content that I received many “likes” on is the content that I studied to find out what the customers enjoyed about the content and began posting more of what the customers enjoyed. I included my business social media name on my business cards. Every customer that had social media, I asked them to “follow” or “like” my page. After about a year of consistently posting creative content, asking people to share my work, and asking customers and potential customers to follow my business pages, I built a solid social media audience. My social media accounts grew from 0 to 500, 500 to 1,000, etc. Although I have a solid audience, I continue to post content on a consistent basis to retain my current audience and to continue to grow.

Advice that I would give to a business leader that is starting to build their social media presence is to start posting content consistently from your personal pages and don’t be afraid to ask friends, family, and colleagues to share your services or products with their social media friends. The more people that share your products/services on to their social media pages, the more exposure and growth you will see. After you begin seeing growth, I would start social media pages under the business name and start tagging the business page from your personal page and encourage your social media friends to like and share your business pages. Start posting consistently from your business pages and interact with your customers often. Doing these things will not only help grow your business social media pages but will also show your customers that you are serious about your business and will help build customer loyalty.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I keep in touch with clients through a wide range of communication channels. I communicate with my clients via email, text, and social media.

I foster my brand’s loyalty by providing an exceptional In-Salon Experience. While being serviced in the salon, I offer small comforts such as complimentary refreshments, TV/music, and Wi-Fi.

I try to remember client preferences. When clients know their preferences are remembered, they feel known and appreciated.

Providing quality service, a top tier in salon experience along with effective communication helps retain customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.braidsbysantana.com
• Instagram: @braidsbysantana
• Facebook: @braidsbysantana
• Other: TikTok: @braidsbysantana

Image Credits

Jerome Smedley