Advice about walk-ins please?

[aj1]

I work out of my house and I have a seperate parking for my clients and seperate entrance to the business. I have a nice black and white sign on my front lawn, and I live on commercial property. I live on a very busy street.

This is my dilemma, I have "by appointment only" on my sign. I wanted to have some sort of a life without being commited to salon hours....you know come and go between appt's.

What do you all think if I put a sign out there saying "Walk in's welcome today?"
I don't want people to get confused in thinking that I am now a walk in place, yet I want to be able to offer this at times when I am slow and bored. I mainly stay home during the day to get my calls if any,,,run out if needed for a bit. I do have a phone with a machine but new people don't like leaving messages.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am scared of doing the walk in thing because you just never know who will walk through that door. When I am home alone I feel weird about having my door open like that, know what I mean? Am I paranoid, and before any of you answer yes, I'm reminding you of my waxing flasher that I had a year ago. A great client but one day he decided that he wanted to bring Willly out to play, and now I have a fear of being alone at home and leaving my business door open. You think you know the people that have come to you for a while and then they pull this. There are sicko's out there ya know!

Enough rambling, would love thoughts and opinions on this, thanks so much!
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aj

 

[TechJaylee]

Ooohhh, thats a hard one.. Well, get some pepper spray.. Not to freak you out though.. I would try it, I would try it for short periods of time, not an all day thing, and not a night thing either.. If you think you could use the business anyway..

 

[rach_kate]

i'd try it but maybe make sure someone else knows that your offering it that day like a friend so they can ring you or keep an eye out for you and yeah i'd get pepper spray too just because you never no!! I'm going to keep it in my beauty room. You can never be too careful!!!
So yeah, i think certain times of the day when business is slow or maybe put something on the sign like 'appointments available today ring (number) to enquire'???

hope you find a solution!!!

 

[waxprincess]

Or maybe have your sign say walk-ins from 9 am to 5 pm. If you already have an appt, say, at noon you can ask the walk-in to come back at 1 or sometime. That way you already have them in the door and they would be more likely to make an appt.

 

[TechJaylee]

Or maybe you should just put a sign up, "In a service please knock for assistance." or somthing to that effect..

 

[aj1]

*bump*

 

[Beautyandme]

Tricky one,

What about something saying " Ladies do you feel like being pampered TODAY, come in for a treatment", or words to that effect.

When they walk into your business, do they walk straight into your treatment room or a reception/hall area? You could get a baby monitor with camera set up and a bell and then you could see who they were, before letting them in.

 

[aj1]

They walk right into the nail room, I don't have a reception area at all. I have two rooms, one is for mani's and pedi's and a seperate room for waxing.

So that wouldn't work,

 

[Retired]

Hmmmm, see your difficulty. How about something like: 'Ladies only appointment-free day. Please knock for assistance'. Suppose that way at least no "gentlemen" will call! lol :hug:

 

[melissaq]

'appointments available today ring (number) to enquire'???

This is what I'd suggest as well as tell a friend/neighbor so that they can keep an eye out for the seedy looking type.......
unfortunately ....at leased in my province
Pepper Spay is a no no as only the RCMP is allowed to have that sort of stuff......
you could get a baseball bat and keep it beside your table however ....

 

[blossom]

I work from home (although in a side road so it wouldn't work for me anyway) but theres no way I would open up my home so just anybody could walk in. I'd feel like a sitting duck. But that's just me.


Good luck anyway x

 

[aj1]

So what do you do when you get a phone call do you not book when there is no one home then?
I know it's nice when you get a vibe while speaking on the phone with them, but really do we ever really know who they are and what they are capable of?

 

[Noodle]

This is what I'd suggest as well as tell a friend/neighbor so that they can keep an eye out for the seedy looking type.......
unfortunately ....at leased in my province
Pepper Spay is a no no as only the RCMP is allowed to have that sort of stuff......
you could get a baseball bat and keep it beside your table however ....

I work from home (although in a side road so it wouldn't work for me anyway) but theres no way I would open up my home so just anybody could walk in. I'd feel like a sitting duck. But that's just me.


Good luck anyway x

Never compromise your own safety .... I'm not sure about the baseball bat though!

 

[Beautyandme]

Hi, after reading through the threads, it seems really that the only thing you can do, to be sure of knowing who comes to you, is by appointments only, through family and friends, or clients that you have met before.

It is different when you work in a salon/hairdressers, which is on a high street, as you normally work with other people, so never really on your own. And thats the idea of working on a busy street, you want the passing trade.

Of course even if it's an appoinment made booking, you still have to be careful of who you treat, male or female, something as simple as a bottle of varnish going missing is a pain. Your personal safety is very important, if you want the passing trade on some days, you may need to put up a sign up saying "women only", and keep your door locked and they use the door bell. There isnt really much you can do.

Hope you find a solution.

 

[RedAdmiral]

I dont think you should allow walk ins. Keep the way you are a be more agressive with your advertising maybe work out your slowest times of day/week and offer a specific group a specific treatment at those times telling them THEY are entitled to come appointment free.
ie. local mother and toddler group - file and polish with nail art on mondays