Your Salon Etiquette

Where have people’s manners gone these days?

Having good manners is essential to building relationships and growing business. Yes, life these days is so much faster than it used to be, but there is no excuse for rudeness, lack of acknowledgement or respect for others. Employing good manners will, without a doubt have your business standing out from all the rest.

So what is etiquette? Etiquette is the ability to get along with others, to demonstrate good manners, perform acts of consideration and put others at ease. I am sure you can remember times when you were so impressed by the service and attention you received by a store or establishment, that you wanted to go back there really soon.

In contrast, I am sure you have also been to places where you vowed and declared that you would never go back, because the staff were rude and left you feeling like you were the biggest inconvenience, or that the service and experience generally was really bad. If you had to rate your own salon, how would it score for etiquette and manners, at all times, even when you are not there?

A recent article on LinkedIn reported the top 30 problems hair salon clients complain about most. Thirty! There are so many little things that can have a negative impact on clients, you might not even be aware of them, so I challenge you to be objective and try to find out if your business is at all being disrespectful to your clients and potentially causing damaging effects.

Etiquette covers not just physical presence either, it is your telephone skills, your email manners, and bedside manners too in the treatment room.

Some basic tips for good etiquette are:

1. Make eye contact when greeting clients and smile.
2. You may want to shake hands with a new client, if you do make sure it is confident without being overpowering.
3. Be mindful of different cultures if your business is likely to receive clients from different cultural backgrounds for meeting and greeting.
4. Have your receptionist introduce the client by name to the therapist who will be treating them with a brief introduction on their credentials to ensure the client has the impression they are in good hands.
5. Try to use the clients name during the consultation process and do not form any judgements on them at all.

More on etiquette and the tiny turn offs you need to be aware of in the next blog post.

I would love to hear from you, please post your comments below.