During the next 30 days scrutinize every commercial building you walk into. Look at the floor, look at the tables and displays. Think about them from the point of view of a customer. Look at things you would not normally look at like the light switches and the lines in the parking lot.
I believe these are the things that subconsciously create the feeling of a business. These are not the things that you normally see. Not the obvious things like the products on the shelves or the pictures in the menu. This would be the ketchup on the corner of the menu or the dust around a box on a shelf.
After your 30 days are up, go into your salon and look for the same things and fix them. Take about four hours and just walk around, fixing everything. If there is a greasy fingerprint on the light switch that has been there for years, wipe it off. If there is a piece of paper in the parking lot, don’t just walk by it. Pick it up. If there is a light bulb that is out in the bathroom, put a new one in.
After your cleaning session, pay very close attention to your clients attitudes. I would bet that everyone that comes in will be somehow magically happier, more relaxed and more friendly. Then raise your prices. Guess what, there is no one else that is doing this kind of thing.
Congratulations you have just become one of top salons in your town.
Now all you have to do is keep it up and never let it get away again.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
How to fire a client in 67 easy steps!
Lets start the day with a story…
Yesterday I was in Las Vegas packing up during the last 10 minutes of the Las Vegas Hair and Nail Show, when a nail tech approached the booth. She said “I’m the one that talked to you on the phone.” Great… How are you doing, are you having fun at the show? I said.
Well come to find out she was having challenges with the product. Stress cracking down the middle, Pocket lifting, nails breaking and just falling off.
I was thinking that to have all of these kind of problems is very uncommon, unique even. I couldn’t remember anyone that had this many problems all at the same time.
So I said well your situation is unique, but I am sure we can find a solution for you. So I started to ask questions like, tell me how you prep the nail or how you apply the base. She interrupted me and said I apply the product exactly how you told me to. So I asked her about what kind of dehydrator she was using. She interrupted me again and said I only use your stuff. Then she said I was lying to her because she knew lost of people that were having exactly the same problems as her. So I asked who? And why I hadn’t heard from any of them. After all the phone number is printed on all the bottles and I had never heard from anyone that had as many problems as she did. She named someone who I was familiar with but as far as I was aware was not having the same kind of problems. She said I was lying.
I told her she could sit down and we would do a class with her to go over the proper application steps. So she sits down and we get started. We spray on the hand sanitizer and get the file ready when she says, well you aren’t doing a nail on me. Then we say well do you want us to do one on a tip? She says no you have to find something else….
Ummmm…. OK, what would you like us to do? She then gets up and starts to walk away, I say we can help you out. She keeps on walking and just mumbles something like… It has only been two months and we will see what happens.
After she left I started to recall our telephone conversation from two months ago. There were several steps she was doing that were just plain wrong. She skipped several important things and she was using a UV lamp that we have tested and does not properly cure our product. But she still insisted that we were ruining her life because she was not having success.
What more can we do if someone will not take our advise or even take the time to sit and have a nail put on.
….
I think that was the most confusing, and one of the most frustrating few minutes I have ever experienced.
What do you do when a client misses appointments without calling, shoves paperclips and other assorted items under their enhancements, picks constantly and always tells you they are not happy but they keep coming back?
Fire them.
Here’s how…
Start a policy of no shows and hang it on your wall. If a client misses an appointment without 24 hours notice tell them they must pay for that missed appointment in order to schedule another one. In other words do not schedule another appointment for them unless they pay for the one they missed. Let them know that you don’t charge to do nails, you charge for your time, weather they are there or not.
Start a policy that if there are more then three broken nails, you charge for a full set instead of a fill.
Or just straight out let them know that you cannot take them any more and refer them to someone else that might be able to accommodate their hectic lifestyle.
Firing a client is never easy but trust me, there are some people that no matter what you do they will never be happy. It is best to identify these people as soon as possible and send them on their way. There is no amount of money that is worth being abused.
Yesterday I was in Las Vegas packing up during the last 10 minutes of the Las Vegas Hair and Nail Show, when a nail tech approached the booth. She said “I’m the one that talked to you on the phone.” Great… How are you doing, are you having fun at the show? I said.
Well come to find out she was having challenges with the product. Stress cracking down the middle, Pocket lifting, nails breaking and just falling off.
I was thinking that to have all of these kind of problems is very uncommon, unique even. I couldn’t remember anyone that had this many problems all at the same time.
So I said well your situation is unique, but I am sure we can find a solution for you. So I started to ask questions like, tell me how you prep the nail or how you apply the base. She interrupted me and said I apply the product exactly how you told me to. So I asked her about what kind of dehydrator she was using. She interrupted me again and said I only use your stuff. Then she said I was lying to her because she knew lost of people that were having exactly the same problems as her. So I asked who? And why I hadn’t heard from any of them. After all the phone number is printed on all the bottles and I had never heard from anyone that had as many problems as she did. She named someone who I was familiar with but as far as I was aware was not having the same kind of problems. She said I was lying.
I told her she could sit down and we would do a class with her to go over the proper application steps. So she sits down and we get started. We spray on the hand sanitizer and get the file ready when she says, well you aren’t doing a nail on me. Then we say well do you want us to do one on a tip? She says no you have to find something else….
Ummmm…. OK, what would you like us to do? She then gets up and starts to walk away, I say we can help you out. She keeps on walking and just mumbles something like… It has only been two months and we will see what happens.
After she left I started to recall our telephone conversation from two months ago. There were several steps she was doing that were just plain wrong. She skipped several important things and she was using a UV lamp that we have tested and does not properly cure our product. But she still insisted that we were ruining her life because she was not having success.
What more can we do if someone will not take our advise or even take the time to sit and have a nail put on.
….
I think that was the most confusing, and one of the most frustrating few minutes I have ever experienced.
What do you do when a client misses appointments without calling, shoves paperclips and other assorted items under their enhancements, picks constantly and always tells you they are not happy but they keep coming back?
Fire them.
Here’s how…
Start a policy of no shows and hang it on your wall. If a client misses an appointment without 24 hours notice tell them they must pay for that missed appointment in order to schedule another one. In other words do not schedule another appointment for them unless they pay for the one they missed. Let them know that you don’t charge to do nails, you charge for your time, weather they are there or not.
Start a policy that if there are more then three broken nails, you charge for a full set instead of a fill.
Or just straight out let them know that you cannot take them any more and refer them to someone else that might be able to accommodate their hectic lifestyle.
Firing a client is never easy but trust me, there are some people that no matter what you do they will never be happy. It is best to identify these people as soon as possible and send them on their way. There is no amount of money that is worth being abused.
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