Every now and again, you will come across a client who comes in to get a style and leaves unsatisfied for one reason or another. A difficult hurdle for any stylist to overcome is learning how to deal with that unhappy client. In this article, we will cover exactly how to prevent unhappy client interactions and solutions to offer when a client is unhappy.

By Donae Madison – Houston Braids Training Center

How to Prevent Unhappy Clients?

Keeping clients happy starts before you even start on your client’s hair. There are two key steps to take before starting on your client’s hair.

Communication

Make sure that both you and your client are on the same page. At this stage, you can talk about which style your client wants and whether you can create that style for them.

Consultation

Consultation is the most important step in preventing dissatisfied customers. These specialized appointments are important for avoiding unhappy customer outcomes.

When the client comes in for a consultation and sits in your stylist chair, you’ll be able to examine their hair and see if there is any breakage, color, or other issues of concern with their hair. You can also do a test braid to give the client an idea of how the style will turn out.

If your client doesn’t have time for a formal consultation, have them come in 10 or 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment for a mini-consultation instead. This way, you can familiarize yourself with your client and their desires and be prepared to do the best job that you can.

Consultations sometimes reveal that a client is not the client for you. Your client may want a style that you don’t know how to do, don’t have the time to do, or can’t do for some other reason. Weeding out clients that you can not help will reduce the number of negative customer situations.

Consultation Form: Create a consultation form for you to fill out with details about what your client wants, important information about your client, the cost of the style, and appointment details. Both you and the client will sign the form, and this will constitute an agreement between you both.

If you skip the consultation and fail to communicate effectively, you are more likely to end up with an unhappy customer.

Offer a Solution to Unhappy Clients

About nine times out of ten, the client is right. And even if you strongly believe that the client is wrong, you should still do your best to offer a solution to fix the client’s issue.

Solution 1: Fix the Style and Offer a Discount

When a customer expresses dissatisfaction with their style, apologize sincerely and ask the client to come back in so that you can fix the style. You can also give them 20 to 30 dollars back for their trouble, depending on the cost of the style. Once the client comes back and gets the style fixed and is happy, you can ask for a referral.

Solution 2: Offer a Partial Refund

If the client is so angry that he/she doesn’t want to come back to get the hairstyle fixed, instead of letting them stay angry, you can offer them a partial refund of about half of the cost of the style. So if the style costs $80, you can offer them $40.

Communicating Refunds and Style Fixes: After you realize that your client is dissatisfied, kindly let them know that you’d rather communicate with them through text or email. This is to keep a digital trail of any agreements, refunds, or correction appointments. This protects your business from false claims that could possibly come from dissatisfied customers.

Explain to the client, through text or email, that you understand that they are dissatisfied with the style and that the refund is to compensate them for their trouble. You did put forth hours of effort and complete the style, so a partial refund is usually appropriate.

When you refund money to the client, they are less likely to blast your business on social media or speak badly about your business to others.

By Donae Madison – Houston Braids Training Center

@houston_braids