Salon client warning signs you should take heed of!

Clients come in all shapes and sizes, and some are wonderful rays of sunshine, whereas others make you question your own sanity. Obviously, you’re going to be more worried about the latter, as these difficult clients can have a negative impact on your profits, bookings and morale. It’s important to remember that each type of difficult customer usually comes with their own individual warning signs that you’ll have to spot in order to quickly nip them in the bud.

The classics

The most classic examples of difficult clients are the usual penny-pinchers (who are fed up with your prices but secretly love your highlights), late arrivals (usually with caramel latte residue on their upper lip), and ghosts (clients who simply vanish - don’t worry, no exorcism required). These types of customers can prove to be minor annoyances and in more serious cases, the cause of significant financial loss. But is it possible to sniff them out before they wreak havoc upon your business?

Obviously, penny-pinchers are going to make themselves known to you by proclaiming: “your prices are so high!” - so that’s one type of difficult client you will have no problem to identify. But what about late arrivals? Let’s say a first-time client books with you - you’re excited to work on them and you prepare your station and wait. Now they’re 15 minutes late. You’ve called them 3 times and there is no response. Then they waltz right into your business without a care in the world. You let it slip this time, but as a result, you need to rush through the treatment in order to get to the next client on time….and they’ve just walked in. Here’s what you may have missed - did you send this client a copy of your late arrivals policy or an appointment reminder? And if they’re not responding to any of your booking confirmation messages, that may be a sign that they’re not taking your business seriously. If you’re using a system to send appointment notifications, word them like this:

“Please come in no later than 15 min. after your scheduled visit, as this will result in a cancellation.”

“Being 15 min. late will result in a cancellation. Please let us know if you need to reschedule your appointment!” 

By wording your messages this way, you show your customers that you mean business and by doing so, they’re more likely to inform you ahead of time if they’ll be running late.

Now, when it comes to ghosting clients, you need to be extra vigilant when looking for warning signs. A customer might love everything about their new look and the experience they had at your business, but all of a sudden they’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. Did they go on an extended holiday break? Or were they deep down dissatisfied with their experience? There may be other explanations to this (they’ve gone in search of Narnia, the Holy Grail, etc.), however, dissatisfaction is usually the cause. But how exactly can you tell that the dissatisfied client will ghost you?

• One-way chat: if the customer isn’t in the mood for small talk when you’re working on them, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll ghost you. Sometimes, customers just have a bad day. However, it’s more likely if they express the following symptoms.
• No comments: clients who respond with short, inexpressive sentences like, “yeah, I like it” probably don’t feel like your work is what they’ve asked for, and may even feel like they’re overpaying.
• No interest in booking another visit: this is a dead giveaway. If you’ve bleached the client’s hair to remove the remains of a cheap box dye, they’re going to have to come in for another session before you can actually colour their hair. Now, if they don’t want to book another session, then you’ll know that they’ll probably not return to your business.
• No responses: you’ve sent numerous text messages and you’re coming off as borderline obsessive over a client. But no matter what you do, they’re not writing back.

Once a client ghosts you, getting them back can be a real challenge. We’re going to be blunt here - chances are minimal that you’ll bring back clients who have not booked with you in over 5 months - but you can always try. In this situation, Booksy’s Message Blasts feature will play a vital role in doing so. This tool sends automatic SMS, push or email notifications to clients who have not been booked in a while - now here’s the fun part. In order to encourage them to come in, you ought to create a tempting message. Here are some examples we’ve come up with:

“Ok, we’ll be honest - WE MISS YOU! It’s been a while and we’d love it if you’d visit us again. Take this -10% discount off your next booking. See you!”

“Hi, it’s [salon name]! It’s been a while and we’d love to have you again! Come in for a -15% discount on ANY treatment you’d like! "

A word of advice

In some instances, a wonderful ray of sunshine can become a thunderstorm without any warning, which means all you can do is prevent such future situations from ever occurring. A loyal client might stop visiting your business, begin to complain about your prices, leave negative reviews or talk behind your back at another salon. When a return client goes to the dark side, you should have a three-stage plan, consisting of:

• An assessment: what went wrong, who was to blame and how can this situation be resolved.
• Implementation: apologise to the client, encourage them to return with a heartfelt SMS message. Offer them a free service/product or send them a discount - depending on the situation.
• Summarise: did you win your clients back? Or was this plan futile?

You’re not going to be able to win over every client that walks through your doors, but you should try to gain as many as possible! And with the help of a reliable salon system, you’ll be able to reduce the number of troublesome clients - see for yourself how Booksy can help! Grab your free account today.