Marie L. Bates, Owner

Great Clips is a new type of value hair salon to enter the Alle-Kiski market area. Designed for the teen, busy singles, mom and guys, the Great Clips salon offers low cost, fast service, convenient hours and an unbelievable 1000nconditional satisfaction guarantee. Great Clips is a service made for today. If you are on your way home from shopping or work, Great Clips is the place to stop for a quick cut. Although a haircut is priced at $12.00 and $10.00 for children and seniors, Great Clips offers monthly coupons in area media that reduces the cost over 50% [there are coupons in this issue of Alle-Kiski Today]. In other words, use the coupons every month for fantastic savings.

Great Clips focuses on cuts, perms and styles. You do not need an appointment and waiting time is minimal, if at all. If you want a perm an appointment can be made by calling 724-275-1130. The salon features a nautical motif environment designed for customer comfort and privacy. The new store at The Shops at Pittsburgh Mills (near Steak ‘N Shake on the main road off Route 28) offers very convenient hours starting at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday and closing at 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

What separates Great Clips from other hair salons is the emphasis on customer care and satisfaction. A stylist is trained to help you get the type of cut, perm or style you will be happy with and satisfied. This is more than words, because it is backed up with an unconditional 100% guarantee. If it isn’t done right, they will make right! The professional stylists receive advanced training at one of 56 Great Clips area-training centers.

I talked with Marie E. Bates, owner of Great Clips. She stressed that every one of the eleven stylists has at least five years experience and many have ten years or more. One of the reasons she chose the Great Clips franchise was based on how they focused on their stylists. They believe in respect for the individual, taking care of the stylist as they represent the business, pay well and offer bonuses “My employees say they like to work for me,” she said. No wonder, she is unassuming and when she visits the salon she often picks up a broom and starts sweeping.

Marie’s style is to hire top-flight managers and assistant managers and let them run the shop. This is her second salon. The first is located at Shoppers Plaza on Route 8, Allyson Park. Another salon is under construction in Richland Township’s new Park Plaza. She and her husband own Bates Holdings, Inc. and plan to open up a number of new hair salons. Right now she is scouting new territory for the best fit.

Marie wasn’t always in the hair salon business. She graduated from Fox Chapel High School and LaRoche College with a B.S. degree in Business and a Masters in Human Resources. After school she joined a major Pittsburgh corporation in the Human Resources division. Starting off as a generalist she eventually moved up to Quality Improvement Initiative within the company. She did team facilitation and designed training programs.

Grand Opening

After 13 years in the corporate world, and after the birth of a son that she began to consider doing something else. Believing it was “time to move on” and wanting change, she and her husband began to investigate other career avenues. She knew she wanted to own her own business, but “what” was the question. They both agreed a franchise is better then reinventing the wheel, so they started looking at national franchises.

It was at this point they engaged Jeff Young of FranChoice to help them. Marie speaks very highly of how much Jeff helped her narrow the choices down to what fit best. By taking her through the process of what she was looking for, her background training and more in-depth questions, he was able to narrow her hunt down to a few franchises. Because of Marie’s background, having people who were trained and certified was very important. Great Clips was one of these.

As it is said, the rest is history. Marie is a native of the area and lives in Indiana Township with her husband and one son.

Watch the video interview with Marie Bates at

Great Clips http://www.greatclips.com/

FranChoice http://franchoice.com/corporate/consultants/jeff-young.aspx

GREAT CLIPS The Shops at Pittsburgh Mills 2015 Pittsburgh Mills Boulevard 724-275-1130 Hours are 9-9 Mon – Fri 9-6 Saturday 11-4 Sundays