So, for those who follow my BaCC, you know I was getting increasingly frustrated when customers weren't paying for makeovers at Yvette Tan's Re-Nu-Yu Salon. Well, a few days ago I sent a copy of my salon to Twilightoutside/Little Nemo so he could do some testing, and after a couple of days of trial and error, he figured out the correct protocol for one Sim running a salon:

- Click on the Ug-No-More (lol) Makeover Station and set price to the cheapest, ie Ridiculously Cheap.
- Click on the makeover chair again and make your Sim the stylist.
- When the sales meter appears above the customer's head, DO NOT PERFORM ANY SALES INTERACTIONS to help the sale along, as that causes your business Sim to no longer be the stylist, meaning no makeover for them to sell.
- Your Sim will stand next to the styling chair as the customer considers it, and once the customer's sales bar is full, they will go straight to the chair and your Sim the stylist will autonomously do the makeover.
- When they're finished, the money earned will float upwards and be added to the household's cash as it does at a venue business.

Yvette got four §25 makeovers, one right after the other, following this method. Sooo happy, and now the salon is fun again!

In addition (haven't tried this yet myself):
- If you want to charge a higher price for makeovers, you could have another Sim do the selling while the other is the stylist, but not after the customer's sales bar is full, as that apparently breaks the sale for that makeover.

(Btw, if this info is already out there, I couldn't find it...)

Feel free to add more of your salon tips!

Happy Styling and Happy Simming, everyone!

Thanks for clearing that up, I had a similar problem in a neighborhood i was doing.
But did I understand it right? When a customer considers getting a make over (filling up the green bar) you should not try to sell it to him, no matter if selling sim is the stylist or not?

I think the theory is if the price is set to the cheapest amount, the customers will almost always convince themselves without any outside help/selling.

mandarine wrote:Thanks for clearing that up, I had a similar problem in a neighborhood i was doing.
But did I understand it right? When a customer considers getting a make over (filling up the green bar) you should not try to sell it to him, no matter if selling sim is the stylist or not?

This is what Twilightoutside said when he tested the actual selling of makeovers (Brandi and Skip Broke were his test subjects):

I tried using Skip for the sales interaction instead - but, as it turns out, at a laughably cheap price, he can't even sell the makeover, before the green bar is full - and then he actually breaks the makeover interaction that should start once the customers green bar is full with his sales attempt !

However, when I let Skip set the price to 999 Simoleons AND gave him a Gold Sales badge, I was able to sell a makeover for 999 Simoleons - though the Sim wasn't happy about so much money for a makeover and lost a customer star...

So it sounds to me that SELLING makeovers is a rather tricky balancing act, and I would rather skip it altogether by setting the price to ultra cheap (which kinda makes sense since people can do it for free at home).

My salon is currently at Rank 6, so I could try raising the price a bit and see how high I can go and still get the sale without screwing it up by actually selling them.

Great info, thanks for sharing!!

I like to group my salons with clothing businesses, as my sims make enough from selling clothing to offer the makeovers for free. If you have a gold sales badge you dazzle almost any sim into buying clothing. It's fantastic for making all the townies look pretty.

Ooooh! This is great information, thanks! I may have to try a salon once again. I did it ONCE, years ago, when OFB first came out, and gave up for other, more lucrative options. I find I make my best money at venues (with lots of snapdragons and a great sales badge) and at retail shops (with all the wholesale rewards, and a great sales badge).

But, yeah, selling the clothes and make-overs to townies is a great way to gradually make-over your whole community. If you "Show Item to..." on the clothes rack, you can actually choose the outfit, if I recall correctly. But like I said, I haven't done it in years.

A short note to this:

At modthesims.com, simler90 released a fix for the salon chair: http://www.modthesims.info/d/616913/sal ... r-mod.html

simler90 furthermore explains, that the chair was probably created after finishing everything else, and a lot of it as a result apparently borked.

Why am I not surprised?