Whether you own a tanning, hair or a beauty salon, providing consultations for your clients is essential for their safety and overall satisfaction. Often it is during a consultation that you truly get to know your clients’ needs and good communication from your site will put them at ease before a treatment. So why are many salons skipping the consultation even though this could be fatal for your business?
Consultations are important for both your salons reputation and customer satisfaction, and additionally can help you in many other ways too. Get them right and it will contribute in positive ways, which can lead to re-booking's and client referrals. Overall, a successful and well carried out consultation means more business for you and therefore more revenue. As you can see, everyone is winning here.
When I go to the salon to get my hair done or my nails, I rarely see this put into practice though. Bear in mind though when you give consultations you back yourself up in case of claims and will have proof for the insurance company if something does go wrong. Therefore, it is important to get into the habit to provide consultations with all of your clients, whether they are new or attend for regular treatments. After all, your customers change, even on a regular level and often their skin can change too. Most people experience changes with their hair and skin affected by the outside temperatures. Therefore, anyone that is after a change should be provided with a consultation for his or her safety and satisfaction.
'According to the NHF ‘it is actually a legal requirement to
perform a consultation before every treatment, even for
regular clients.’ (National Hairdressers’ Federation
Limited, 2017).'
Here are some tips on how you can improve your consultations to benefit your salon and what things you best avoid doing:
Things to do:
-Saving client record cards and history is important. Therefore, make sure you keep records up to date and edit them accordingly. Not only do you have evidence of treatments and consultations in case you need it but also to reference back to it and see the client’s transformation journey.
-Staff training: It is important that staff can cater for a variety of consultations and can carry them out confidently. Make sure everyone is on-board and happy with the procedure and attend additional training if necessary.
-Catch up on all their visits. If it is a regular client that comes to the salon, make sure you ask them about their previous experience and if there are any areas of concern. Good communication will ensure you fully understand the customers’ needs and can deliver what they have asked for. Overall, this will build trust between you and your client.
-Advise them on products and aftercare. Take the time to explain the different products and advise how they can care for their hair/skin/brows at home too.
Things to avoid:
-Don’t ask at all. Under no circumstances should you skip a consultation. If you fail to ask and something goes wrong you could end up with a lawsuit that could cost you your business and get you into a lot of financial trouble.
-Don’t talk to the mirror or avoid eye contact. It can seem to your client as if you’re not really interested. It can be easy when you are mid treatment to get distracted. However, make sure the consultation is personal and adapt to their body language.
-Don’t skip important questions or try to rush it. Make sure you ask deeper and wider questions, taking the time to get to know your clients history. A good consultation should not be rushed, just to get it over with but rather for you to understand your clients' needs.
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| Steps to a successful consultation |
The most important part of consultations are for you to get to know your client in order for a successful completion of service. Additionally, this also helps your business in other ways if the client is happy. For example, it can result in positive feedback, build trust and referrals to friends and family. All in all consultations makes a client feel valued and results in re-bookings, which will help your business grow. All of which, directly leads to an increase in your revenue.
As always if you have any questions on the topic, don't hesitate to get in contact with on of our team members via phone or email.
Salon Tracker x
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