All About Hair...and So Much More.
Welcome to All About Hair—where education meets inspiration for stylists and hair lovers alike.
Whether you’re starting your career behind the chair or just obsessed with all things hair, this channel is your go-to spot for real tips, honest advice, and plenty of inspiration.
You’ll find pro techniques, career-building tools, and everyday hair hacks—plus the encouragement to grow with confidence and creativity.
Subscribe and join a community that’s passionate about great hair and even better vibes.
All About Hair...and So Much More.
129: Handling an Unhappy Client
When building relationships with clients, one of the most important and difficult things to do is handle complaints properly. Here are tips to help turn a client’s negative experience into a positive one.
Be in the Moment
Let the client know you can sense they are disappointed with how the design is looking. Ask them to offer feedback to what is specifically the problem area. Handling the problem in the moment will increase the probability of satisfaction
Practice Reflective Listening
After listening carefully to the client’s feedback, restate back to them what you heard to allow them a chance to make corrections to your listening skills. Be prepared to ask question to clarify any areas that have a lack of clarity.
Position the Feedback
Express appreciation for the client’s honesty, which will now allow you to meet their needs. Offer the option of making changes if possible, during the existing service or make plans for future satisfaction in the form of a return service, gift card or rescheduling with a different designer
Learn From Experience
Making changes to gain client satisfaction provides a learning experience that will help build your professional listening and flexing skills.
Are you a struggling salon owner?
Do you feel like you want to work on your business, instead of in your business, but you don't know how to get out from behind-the-chair? Do you feel like you are doing your best just to hold it all together? Then our NEW Roadmap for Salon Success is perfect for you! Get on our Waiting List Today!
Use my Gloss Genius link to start using today!
Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel as well!
Visit my Amazon Store for all my favorite products!
Grab your Ultimate In-Salon Training Toolkit!
Website: www.danisekeilitz.com
YouTube: All About Hair
Shop my favorite Eufora Products.
We all have it. Oh my goodness, we try to do our best. But somehow the communication, the translation something, and our client isn't happy with whatever it is, and we take it so personal How can we not we're stylists, we're artists. It's our work on their head. Well, hey there. This is Denise. And this is the salon ownership Made Easy podcast for salon owners who are searching for simple solutions to their everyday challenges. I've owned several six and seven figure award winning salons in my 30 year career. With so many changes happening in our industry these days, it seems like salon owners need a shoulder a hug and a big dose of reality. Think about it. We didn't learn how to be successful salon owners in beauty school. So why don't you let me share what has worked and what hasn't worked for me over the years, you do have what it takes to be amazingly successful. So let's do this. I'm excited you're here. If you are in business to make 2023 your best year ever in your salon, you want to be sure to get signed up on our waiting list for our brand new course no better do better your entire roadmap for salon success. It's gonna include best interview practices, onboarding, how to develop your values and culture, how to train your front desk, taking the fear out of selling retail, knowing your numbers, so you can make a profit, how to coach your team to success and so much more, to get your name on our waiting list. So you'll be the first to know about it, just go over to salon ownership made easy.com forward slash waitlist, we'll see you there. Today, we're going to talk about just a few little pointers, just four little things that you can do to help ease your pain and your clients pain. And hopefully, have a good relationship in the end. Because the last thing you want is to lose a client over miscommunication. And typically, that's all it is. So so first of all, the first thing you've got to do is just recognize it and be in the moment. And what I mean by that is we all know, and consents. When we feel our our guests not liking what we're doing, like maybe we're blow drying. And maybe we can even sense that we don't like what we just did. I don't know sometimes. Sometimes we were our worst critic, and then we might not like it, but they love it. But pretend like it's just them that doesn't like what they're seeing. And you can sense it, you could sense their bodies getting a little bit or they're playing with their hair, you know, you can there's signs, the very first thing that you should do is sit down your tools, sit down your your brush, come around to the front of them, look at them and empathetically with everything you got, say, hey, I can sense that you're not liking what you're seeing. Let's talk about it. What is it that you're not liking? If it's color, and it's not bright enough, or it's not dark enough, or you see gray hairs, something like that? Find out how you can rectify the situation. So just ask them for their feedback, say, Hey, what is it, maybe it's something that you can do in the moment to help maybe it's just trim their bangs a little bit or part on the other side or, or give them a little bit more volume? I don't know. But whatever they say, you have to practice listening, you have to listen and let them talk. And then it's called reflective listening. What that means is you repeat back what you've just heard, so say they are saying I don't know, it just doesn't seem like it's as bright as last time. You need to repeat back exactly what they just said. So what you're telling me is the color doesn't seem as bright as it was last time, just repeat what you're hearing. So that way they can say yes or no. And then see if you can make any corrections to that. And just be prepared to ask questions. Say what is it about it? Is it the placement? I mean, they don't know. Maybe they don't know. Maybe they just start thinking something is off. Okay. But you have to know that that takes a lot of courage on their behalf How many times have you gone to say out to eat and you know, the manager comes by your table, we've all had this happen and we're you're sitting there eating and you're like you know, and but the manager comes by how is everything and you're like oh it's good, it's fine and you don't really say hey my steaks undercooked or whatever, you just don't say anything. You just don't go back. Right. So So, think of this feedback and think of this as an opportunity for feedback, to gain trust. And to let them know you're listening. You know, say, Hey, I get it, I feel the same way. If I were you, I want you to tell me. Now if you don't have time to correct it at that moment, say you've got somebody waiting for you come up with a plan, either come up with a plan for to reschedule them come in, on your day off come in, when when it's convenient for them, to help them offer, you know, to tone it, or you know, what you can even offer if you if you just feel like you're you're not communicating well, with this guest, you can even offer another stylist in the salon, when you rather them come back into the salon in your doors than to lose them forever and tell all their friends what a terrible job you just did. Yeah, most importantly, you want to learn from your experience, right? You want to learn what you could have done differently. And typically 85% of the time, it's communication, and it starts in the consultation. Either you didn't take enough time in the consultation to really get to the heart of what they want. Maybe they just didn't communicate well, or you didn't hear the same thing. Maybe you didn't see enough pictures, maybe you didn't pull out enough swatches, if that, you know just to get a visual of how bright it is. Or if it's a haircut or bangs or length or something like that pictures are huge. So maybe next time you learn from this and go okay, maybe I just need to come up with a couple of Pinterest boards. So I could whip out my phone and we can go over Hey, you want blonde highlights? Let's look at blondes. Do you want it this blonde or this blonde, there's a there's a difference between the level seven blonde and the level 10 bar. And we know that they may not know that. So if you can learn from that experience, that'd be awesome. I can tell you that handling unhappy clients is one of the worst, a humbling experiences. There's always a time I mean, I remember, in the salon, every single stylists will have their moment in the break room crying, because they felt like they did something wrong. And we're human. We want to do our best. And sometimes our best isn't what the client doesn't meet up the client expectations. I totally get it. Sorry, my dog is in the background. If you're hearing that. So getting back to this, we could just do our best we learned from it. I just had a client unhappy with her haircut. It happens it happens throughout your whole your whole career. Guess what it is totally okay. own up to it. Say hey, get home play with your hair when you run your hands through it and you're styling it yourself. If there if you need any adjustments, please let me know guarantee everything please let me know. I would rather than call me and I feel a little awkward. Then them not to call me and they just not come back. So I would much rather than call me and say hey, it just felt a little heavy or feel like the the back needs a little bit of texture or whatever. Come back in. And in fact, come back in when it's convenient for you, for your client. Make sure they're happy. And guess what, when you do that little thing, that little magic, they will tell all of their friends. You wouldn't believe this. My stylist didn't make me feel awkward. She didn't make me feel ashamed. She'll tell her friends. It's magic. So yeah, when you have an unhappy client, use it as a not a challenge, but an opportunity, an opportunity to really empathize with them to really tell them that you know, you're doing your best and you want to make them happy no matter what. Anyway, I hope these little tips helped. I'm looking forward to hearing if you've ever had a difficult client or an unhappy client that you didn't really know how to respond to please share with me share in the comments. I'm sure that there's other stylists out there that could probably benefit from your example. Anyway, follow me over on Instagram. And until next time, remember, it's not about the little things. It's all about the little things. Hey there thanks so much for listening to the salon ownership Made Easy podcast today. Would you do us a favor? If you got value out of this week's episode? Will you share it with your friends? And while you're at it, go ahead and leave us a review. That way more business owners like yourself will find us and we can help them with the challenges they may be facing to. Thanks again, and we'll see you next week. Take care
