hey there,
what kinds of topics do you talk about with clients?? a friend of mine talks about retail the whole time her clients are there, a little bit hard sell i thought?

I talk about life really. I don't give too much away about my personal life, maybe a few bits but not much.
I do mention my retail stuff but I don't do any hard selling. They usually ask me at the end of their appointment if they want to buy anything. (I've forgotten about it by then).
As long as you keep away from religion etc. there's usually no problem.
You can get to know what your client is like in a relatively short time and know what to talk about and what to avoid.

if i dont know the client very well then i just make genaral chit chat weather,holidays,clothes,or thay are intrested in what im doing so thay often ask questions or thay are telling me about prevous nail treatments thay have had.if i know the client well or thay are family i talk about anythink..at college that told us we could talk about anythink other than sex

General chit chat. I ask about their family, work, hobbies etc. I give them a bit of nail info & tell them about what they should be using at home & why. I also feel retailing for the whole time is a bit of a hard sell, & that would put people off.

I usually ask them about what is going on in there lives. As i am working with them I usually try and give them some eduacation about what we are doing and i may add retail to that. But for the most part It usually is more of their personal talk.

Anything & everything! Usually I end up talking about tv or holidays. I have had clients tell me all kinds of things so I tend to listen and see what they want to talk about.

Most of the time i explain to them what i am doing when i am using a product that i retail i explain why and what the benefits are.

Being a hairdresser,the weather and holidays usually comes up lol. I am very chatty anyway so i am rarely stuck for words lol,telly and kids usually come up a lot too.

I chat a lot but i make sure i retail too.hth x

It depends on the client! A new client I would stick to pretty safe stuff as you may offend someone without realising.

Some of my longer term clients boy oh boy what we DON'T talk about!!! Religion, politics, sex, families, all the usual no-no's we get in there and have a good old discussion and I LOVE IT! It's usually started by a topic on the news as I have the radio on and then goes from there.

I avoid talking about religion or politics. Most of my clients want to talk about the usual things, tv, weather, children, holidays, events they are attending.

Whatever they tell me though obviously goes no further, but if they have told me they are going on holiday/to a wedding etc I do remember for the next time they come in to ask them about it - makes for great customer service and the client feels special because you have remembered their event.

ha ha.... most of the time it's just general chit chat... about their lives... but have a couple who just tell me EVERYTHING!! lol.... we have a right good giggle and I look forward to their appointments. Even end up meeting up as mates. It's great. x

IMHO mixing business with pleasure is a tricky road to travel. You may find that at some point down the line because you are friends they start to expect favours, cheaper treatements, hell, even freebies.

I know there are some clients that you will feel very close to but there is a very fine line between being friendly and becoming mates and it is a line, for my professional well being not to cross.

I know what you are saying.... but this is something that won't happen. They know how I feel about that. I've had friends in the past taking the p..s and it won't ever happen again.
It's a great way to meet new friends I think.

i had a funny topic today, my 11 y.o son was reading over my shoulder as i read a womans mag, it was paris hilton again, she had a rather short skirt on and was dancing on a table. in this pic, you can see her bum cheeks(soz guys, no other way to put it!!) he said ..... "EEEWWWWW MUM!! is that what they call flaps??" i almost died! & i told him yes! hehehehe not a nice girl the things kids come out with

I agree with Sassy ....depends on the client.....
In saying that though.....I'm new to Canada so my clients are new to me so we talk of chit -chat things....weather , nails, trends.....
But when I lived in the States I had clients that I knew for 15+ years we would talk about anything and everything ...and even a few were got to be close friends.....when I moved..... I needed favors from them and in exchange gave them favors.....trade outs...example I hired one of my clients kids to clean the yard, used anothers name to replace my carpet at her cost ....ect.......worked wonders for me and really helped me out with my big move when it came time....and I still e-mail these friends...they became family....

So now that I'm here in Canada I would love to learn French so I'm thinking of taking a trade out for French lessons in exchange for nail services....

I like to ask them open questions, ones that cant be answered with just a yes or no....that way they do most of the talking and I can just listen and work. As soon as I start to do most of the talking I slow down and it takes much longer to do the treatment. Having said that, I had one client and it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to talk at all, that made for a nice atmosphere in the room thank goodnes the radio was on