The salon. The stylist. The client. is this the correct order of importance? Should it be. The client. The salon the stylist? You decide!
Last night i went to a formal work function It's was to do with my wife's work. Black tie evening dress do. large tables formally laid out we did not get to sit together. Lucky for me with all these older guys in dinners suits i got to sit between two professional well dresses very educated professional women. Interesting.
We discussed many things mainly polite conversation around why we were at this dinner general chit chat then the big question what do you do !! Well experience has taught me that as a hairdresser as soon as you tell women that the cat is out of the bag and views opinions fly about. Standards. Looks. Price. Service. Relationships and indeed consultation.
This was really interesting here i sit writing about many aspects of our industry sharing in discussion with fellow piers and professional we think w shave handle on our profession our clients Well do we?
Two professional women both well dressed both well educated both very dissatisfied with standards service ability of stylist and lack of skills.
Two women worlds apart they did not know each other their choice of salon stylist and looks very different One travels to London from Canterbury only 1 hour on the high speed train the other try's locally but also very dissatisfied. Travelling to London is around £50.00 return the hair cut colour around £200.00. Yet she feels that the standard of skill the service given that attention to detail is sadly lacking. But although has tried different alone different stylist the same applies don't listen just carry on doing a variation on what she already has creating the same issues. Those being made to blonde over processing no attention to low lights colour issues ect.
The second women over processing lack of consultation skills. Lack of sound advice no attention to detail. In both cases it came down to un-professional lack of. Service, lack of caring, poor consultation over pricing!
Frankly i was quite shocked here we all are sharing what we think.What makes for the perfect salon that experience. Discussing, skills educate training. Maybe just maybe the ones to really start questioning and listening to about concerns are our clients.
Maybe just maybe they hold the key to telling us advising us what they want what they expect from us. Maybe we need to start taking note and listening more. Asking better more intuitive questions.
Maybe instead of assuming we know best we should be come to pupils in to learn what our clients really need want and expect.
Would this lead to better client retention? Would this lead to more recommendations. Would this lead to better business. Better stylist staff relations?
Are we as professional big enough to take some time to reflect and think about ways to make changes to how we think what we offer. We worry about getting new clients. Instead we should be attending to the ones we all ready have. They are our business now. They potentially are our future through recommendation. They are our business.
This is the case whether you own a salon and employ staff. Our are freelance or indeed a booth or chair renter. We forget so easily it's not about us or what we want we get that by giving the client what they want! This was a very interesting evening an eye opener and great reminder and wake up call to share with others. It's so easy for us all to get so wrapped up in business and work we forget we get complacent until sometimes it's to late! we lose clients we lose our business.
All just thoughts.
Mike B2MR
