As a salon owner, you understand how key it is to create customer loyalty in business.
You want your client to leave feeling satisfied and wanting to come back.
That is why the client consultation before a hair cut, hair color, or other beauty service is so crucial. As a stylist, if you do not have a sense of what your client wants, even a fabulous cut might not be appreciated.
What is the best way to talk, listen, and ask questions to create customer loyalty? Read on for experience-savvy tips on how to master that crucial client consultation.
When you begin your client consultation, do you stand behind your client and look into the mirror at them? This is common, but not the best practice. That’s because once you get behind them and start touching their hair, your knowledge and training start to take over – drastically decreasing your listening skills.
Instead, begin a consultation facing your client.
Smile, make eye contact and give them your absolute focus. This ensures that you listen to what they have to say about their hair and lifestyle. Your client will feel the difference.
Do you really want to know the number ONE KEY to an effective consultation? Listening skills are only a close second.
Surprised?
Even more important are your “Questioning skills.”
Don’t assume the person in your chair can easily communicate what she wants – or even knows what she wants. Encourage the person – people are very shy about asking for what they want until they get use to it.
Imagine that the person sitting in your chair with a sign around their neck that says… “please understand me.” Go slowly in the conversation, seek to understand, and be cheerful.
Here are some open-ended questions that create customer loyalty, build trust, help your client to feel comfortable talking, and give you the status of an expert:
- How much time do you spend styling your hair each day?
- How do you normally style it?
- How often do you shampoo?
- What products are you using now?
- What do you like most about your hair?
- Would you like a cut similar to your hair style now, or are you looking for a change?
- Have you colored your hair before?
- How much versatility do you want in your hair style?
- What concerns do you have about your hair, such as dryness?
- What is one thing you’d like to change about your hair?
Make a habit of asking “how do you mean?”
That one phrase will build higher levels trust and understanding. Pause, and say back to them in your own words what the other person has just said. This proves that you are listening and give an opportunity to clear up a misunderstanding.
It’s important not to assume they know what they want. For instance, when a client says she would like two inches cut off, show her how short that would make her hair. Would it increase the curl and make it seem shorter? If you ask your client to show you what they think two inches looks like, you might be surprised by how far off they are.
Before you start cutting, double check you are both on the same page. Describe what kind of cut you plan on giving, and ask if they agree.
The key is to understand your client’s self-image and dream for his or her hair.
Create a custom hair plan, with that dream as the end goal. Then you can work over time to get create the look they want. An effective consultation is the first step in building a long-term relationship that will get your client to come back again and recommend you to their friends.
After the initial consultation, get to know your client, build trust, and make them want to come back by asking “social” questions, just like you would ask a new friend.
Ask…
- Are you coming to the salon from work or home?
- What do you do for work?
- Are you married?
- Do you have children?
- When you have a minute to yourself, what’s your favorite thing to do?
The key to creating customer loyalty is to build a genuine relationship that will make it difficult for them to want to go anywhere else. By showing your clients they come first, are sincerely valued and are being given loyalty, you are likely to get a mutual response.
In a world where business is not always based on genuinely caring and integrity, these qualities will separate you from all the rest.
Do you want to create customer loyalty create your Space for Prosperity?
To discover more ways to keep your clients coming back and give you more referrals, get the Keys To Salon Owner Success:
