I am frustrated…My hair is not terribly cut, but it’s not right either..
When I first discovered the hair salon I had my hair done was after a long search of hair salons in my neighbourhood. It was also around 2 years ago, my wedding was coming up and when I eventually braved myself to approach a new hair stylist I started my conversation with… “I’ll go mad if the hair is not right”…
And to be honest she did do a good job.. after that I decided to stick to my stylist. So I had recently had my haircut before our holiday in Italy and I am frustrated… not just frustrated, but I am not going back to the salon.
My hair used to be long, I wanted shorter, a lot shorter, and layered, nicely, so that the hair flows and falls in the right place. I had the hairstyles researched through Pinterest, photos taken, went through the details of what I wanted and did not want…
All looked good in the salon after the haircut, but after my first home-hair wash, I realized the stylist either cut the corners or did not know how to cut shorter hair properly.
So frustrating..
I am not in the mood to argue so I just don’t go back, instead going to embark on a tedious journey of searching for a new hair salon.
Here’s the problem.. if I don’t give the salon a feedback, and I won’t for two reasons, noone is asking for one and I don’t want to have a fight over a hair cut, so the stylist or the salon owner will never know why the salon lost another client.
So here are 5 tips on how not to lose a client from a hair client point of view
1. Always follow up
It does not take a lot. Automate your follow up email after the visit and you’d be surprised of the feedback you will get back.
2. If something is not right, offer solution, fast.
Things does not always go smooth, despite the best efforts, but you can always try to
put it back right.
3. Don’t build your salon around stylists and client-stylist loyalty, build it around your salon brand If a stylist leaves you may loose clients, but if you build it around the salon loyalty you will keep them.
4. If a client stopped visiting your salon, don’t assume they will not come back, figure out the reason why
5. Lastly, keep investing in the team training and customer service. This part called customer service can be brushed off, and often can be associated with just polite manners.
But customer service goes beyond a pleasant smile. It’s about looking after the clients
so you keep them. After all you can do as much salon marketing as you like but if it
fails to looks after clients… obviously no amount of marketing can help to keep clients
happy.
Yours in hair (shorter hair)
Tamara Machavariani Forrest-Smith
