Customers seeking nail service at busy salons are sometimes turned away at the door by shops that can’t meet overwhelming demand. Clients of downtown Detroit’s TEN Nail Bar won’t have to worry about availability nearly as much when the salon at 1215 Griswold St. opens its second location in the New Center area.
The new shop’s grand opening at 6541 Woodward Ave. is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 17, followed by an official opening at 10 a.m. May 18.
Before the first TEN Nail Bar opened in 2016 co-owners and native Detroiters Kelli Coleman and Anika Jackson decided that personal care and grooming was needed as part of economic development in the city.
“Customer service and community are at our core,” Coleman says. “We just ultimately believe you can have an awesome customer experience, you can essentially provide quality workmanship and you don’t need to sacrifice the cleanliness or convenience of a location.”
Coleman and Jackson wanted to provide a nail care experience similar to what’s available in other major cities. A visit to TEN Nail Bar includes champagne available to guests.
“Customer experience is paramount to our business, as well as creating an environment that is comfortable and promotes community,” Coleman says. “That’s the formula that sets us apart from any other nail care destination.”
The Woodward salon’s location is double the original location’s size and will offer new services, like full body-waxing. Expanding was important for TEN, since the Griswold location already services about 1,500 customers a month.
“It truly is about supporting the community,” says Jackson. She says opening businesses in the city has let her and Coleman hire many Detroit residents, particularly women of color.
“Keeping your dollar in the community allows us to support it in philanthropic ways,” she says. “The entire ecosystem of enterprise is united by sales and revenue, employment and, ultimately, a philanthropic perspective.”
Jackson and Coleman are excited about the New Center expansion and the support from clients and community residents. Coleman calls the salon their “latest baby.”
Jamesha Jackson has been a customer at TEN since its opening, and used to drive there from her home in Ann Arbor for appointments every two weeks.
“What I liked was that the service was consistent,” she says. “From the first time I went the service was inviting, welcoming. I felt the concierge staff, over time, definitely made it a priority to remember my name. That is something you don’t see that often.”
What draws other clients of different genders, ages and ethnicities is the hospitable environment, Jamesha Jackson says.
“If you come in and see other people, and everyone doesn’t look the same,” she says, “you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m welcome here, too.’”
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More small business expansions in Detroit: TEN Nail bar announces New Center location added by Debanina Seaton on
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