Whether you’re working with a new client or someone who’s been enjoying your hair service for years, conducting a hairdressing consultation is a must.
While some clients will tell you exactly what they want, others may be timid. And in all cases, you can never guarantee that the words someone says mean the same to you as they do to them.
Consultation bridges the divide.
A few questions before diving in can ensure that your clients feel heard and their needs are accurately understood. Ultimately, implementing a solid consultation enables you to gather all the information you need to deliver a rocking hair service.
A good hairdressing consultation is an exciting discovery between stylist and client to share the hairstyle vision. Once introduced properly, the client consultation process will begin to just flow, and your salon will thrive as a result.
Before we explore what to ask, it’s worth discussing why it’s so important. When conducted effectively, hairdressing consultations offer benefits for both you and the client. Consider the following:
Conducting a face-to-face hairdressing consultation gives you the opportunity to learn about your clients’ needs, straight from them. This reduces any ambiguity between you and the client, so you can make sure to deliver exactly what they want and need.
Sometimes, what someone wants isn’t actually the best fit for them. Conducting a consultation beforehand will help you uncover those issues so you can educate the client or steer them in a different direction, thus preventing situations that may upset the client.
Let’s say someone wants a haircut that’s not a good fit for the shape of their face. By being thorough in the consultation stage, you’ll be able to make better recommendations instead of just giving them a haircut that they’ll end up regretting
Consultations make clients feel heard, and this can greatly influence how they perceive your salon. When you show clients that you care about their needs, they’re more likely to feel at ease with you, which ultimately improves the experience for everyone.
Conduct enough hair consultations and you’ll soon see trends and gain insights that can be leveraged in your business. You may start to notice common words or phrases that clients use, and that can inform your salon marketing initiatives.
Or, you may start seeing the same issues come up repeatedly, and that could inspire you to introduce a specific service to address the common pain point of your clients.
Hair salons that don’t run with hair consultations in mind are at risk of falling into bad habits and missing the opportunity to really shine. If you want to deliver the best possible salon experience, it’s time to put hair consultation into your salon’s hair care routine.
Here are some tips that could help.
The first and foremost thing for you as a salon biz owner is to advertise your hair consult. Whether this is paid or free depends on you, but it is essential that your clients are aware that a service like a consult exists.
Talk about it on social media, through your emails as well as in-person.
Hair salon consultations can take time, so be sure to account for them when setting appointments. If a haircut typically takes half an hour, it may be worth padding the appointment with an extra 10-15 minutes to make sure that the consultation period is covered.
To make this easier, choose a salon scheduling software with features that enable you to specify appointment durations and add buffers to ensure that your appointments don’t overlap or end up being too close together.
You can also add a pre-consultation form (can be created in under 10 mins using Google form) that can then be added to your booking page. If you have tech support available it can also be embedded on your salon website design.
Here’s an example from Pélo Salon
It’s not recommended that you simply “wing” your hair salon consultations. You want to be prepared when talking to your clients, and a good way to do that is by putting together assets — such as a questionnaire or consultation form — to ensure that you’re able to conduct hair consultations like a pro.
You don’t necessarily need to have that list while you’re in front of the client, but be sure to save it somewhere accessible (such as a shared folder in the cloud) so you can reference it whenever the need arises.
To offer a guide that can be easily copied and adopted, we’re going to cover the top questions you should ask. Some questions will be essential, while others may depend on your client, their hair color, hair goals, and preferred way of styling. With practice, your stylists will easily pick up which questions to ask and which follow-up questions apply in certain instances.
While this is a very obvious place to start, this is where you begin to gather the information that will help you understand their hair styling needs. This is a good question to start with, mainly because it’s short, direct, and open-ended, which gives the client plenty of room to express their needs.
Quite often, your clients will be inspired by trending looks they’ve seen on social media or in magazines. It’s extremely helpful to ask to see those photos as they can help you visualize what they have in mind.
It also lets you identify any expectation management that may be required. For example, your client may have dark brown hair, and they’re looking for a balayage. But the reference photo is of someone with dark blonde hair who has a balayage. You can take this as an opportunity to set expectations and let the client know that their hair color may not come out exactly as what’s depicted in the photo.
Sometimes even with a reference, clients will have different ideas of how a haircut or style will look on them. Ask them what they visualize as the end result. Consult with them about how the colors will come up or how the style will sit with their hair type to paint a realistic picture of the end result.
It’s important to ask this question because it lets you know whether they might need some guidance and expert advice on the style they want.
Let’s say your client’s hair type is very thick, and they want to cut it short. If they have never done this before, they may not be aware of how much volume they’re going to get once the weight comes off those ends. In some cases, they may not know how to maintain the style properly and you’ll need to educate them.
On the other hand, if they tell you that they’re already familiar with the style they want, then you can save time from having to go in-depth with maintenance steps.
When you’re working with new clients, it pays to ask them about their previous experiences to learn what they like and what they don’t. The goal is to quickly uncover what you want to replicate and what you want to avoid. Don’t be afraid to be direct and ask:
If your client is unsure of what they want or they seem to be on the fence, you could propose a new look. If you know that client well, you could afford to be bold. Propose something you know will look amazing on them, and make sure you accurately describe what the end result would be and confirm they are on board.
Be very careful to read their body language when you’re proposing anything new. Some clients are easily led but not easily pleased. If their body language is closed, give them other options that are less of a diversion from their usual style.
Whether styling products are part of the package or not, some clients will love to have them, and others will not. Ask every time. If styling products are extra, you can let them know that you have a special price for styling products and ask if they would like them.
If they are already included, simply let your client know that styling products are included in the service and ask if they would like them. Don’t be afraid to make recommendations and discuss what you do with your own hair.
How you style your client’s hair after a hair service is equally as important as doing a great job with the cut or color. Asking them how they prefer it styled is the safest way to ensure they feel amazing walking out of your salon. For best results, be sure to:
With the information you’ve gathered from your questions, repeat back what you’ve heard to the client. This can be as simple as saying things like:
Doing so ensures that you haven’t heard anything incorrectly or misunderstood something that they’ve said. It also gives them a chance to reconsider what they’ve requested and make any changes before the scissors have been introduced.
This reiteration should go on throughout the appointment. Show them the length you’re about to cut and get their confirmation. When you’re mixing the dye, describe to them what color it is, how it’s going to come out, and get their confirmation that you’re both aligned on the end result.
Hairdressing salons that do hair consultations well do them in such a natural way that all the staff just seem to be really conversational. Leading by example is the best way to reinforce this practice to your staff, especially when hiring a new hairstylist.
In addition, be sure to give some guidance or training to bring them up to speed.
When doing the hair consultation, it’s nice, where possible, to have your staff sit at eye level with their clients. This makes the conversation more comfortable and will help to get clients to open up.
Teach your staff to look out for body language and practice good eye contact. Eye contact builds trust, and it also lets you see the signs of whether your clients are comfortable or not. If they’re averting eye contact but saying yes, they may not feel comfortable saying no. Good stylists have to be intuitive about people, able to pick up on queues that won’t always be verbal.
Take the hairdressing consultation questions above, copy and paste them into a document, add your own notes that apply to your salon, and create a hair salon consultation manual.
In this manual, you should give your staff a step-by-step guide on how to approach hair consultations (include the steps above), what questions to ask (use the ones provided in this post), and any other information that applies specifically to your salon.
For example, if you have add-on services, you might want to advise on how to introduce those high-quality services in this consultative approach.
Hair consultations are the biggest confidence booster hairdressers can possibly get to confirm they’re on the right track to rock their clients’ new look. Use the hairdressing consultation questions above to ensure that you’re giving clients the perfect hairstyle, exactly as they envisioned it.
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