Are you there for your clients?

[izzidoll]

I know there have been a lot of threads of late asking about how to drum up business and clientele....and some excellent advise has been given.

However I have to ask.........Are you there for your clients?

I have have been busy lately calling in on salons and telephoning them and I have been AMAZED at how many...just aren't there!!
" Oh, she is only here when she has clients booked" I have been told on numerous occasions.
Seriously?.....I know when I started out I was ALWAYS THERE even when I had no clients....I just sat and practised my smile lines and suchlike, and awaited any walk ins. My first walk in was still a regular client 7 years later, and is still a client of my protege.
I dread to think what would have happened if I had gone home because I had no bookings the day she walked in as she recommended many other clients to me too!!
I always was at my workplace during my set hours, then both my clients and I knew when I was available.

So geeks.....are you guilty of this, do you only go to work when you have actual appointments booked in....and does that work for you?

 

[hippy-chick]

Fab points made and very relevant to me at the moment.

I have been a holistic therapist for 10 years and mainly worked freelance. I literally go into venues to do appointments booked in then go.

I have worked in my room above a chirpody clinic for a year now, and I literally am only there for appointments booked in. I think twice I've had someone ring on the day and ask to be fitted in, and of course,if I have any gaps then I will fit them in.

but,
I've just taken 2 rooms above a hairdressers, and again, I was only going in and doing the appts booked in.

but the owner has taken me aside and suggested that I be there for the hours that my literature says I;m available.

Well it has totally knocked my last 10 years into chaos. I dont know if I;m coming or going, I'm torn between being there JUST IN CASE to wanting to 'get on with things'!!!

I've compromised with trying to be there as much as possilbe and am now covering 50-60% of the time that my leaflets say that I'm there for.

But, I;m finding it extremely hard to adjust to being 'captive' to having had so much freedom.

I appreciated the owner telling me this, and have really undergone a transformation in thinking, BUT its stopping old habits from resurfacing.

tomorrow I am down to do 9.30 -3pm and I have 2 appointments in in the morning and one in the afternoon, so it will be really easy to stay there.

 

[Cathie!]

I'm there all the time...sometimes wish I could saty in bed a bit later....but business is business!

Missed phone calls for bookings, not everyone likes to leave a message, missed walk ins, not only for immediate appointments but bookings too.....if you don't keep regular hours, no one will know when your shop is open or closed!

 

[lotus blossom]

great thread izzi!!

even though im employed, and have to be there 9 til 6, when i first started in the salon, and i didnt have clients,
i used to go over to hair clients and say,
"ive just had a cancellation, would you like a complimentary manicure, as all my equipment is ready?"
or " today is free polish with your hair colour, would you like to look at the colours i have ?"
or to clients who where having their colour processed, "would you like a free demo nail? even if you dont think youd like to wear extensions, you can show your friends at work!!?"

that was two yrs ago,
now i have no gaps, i love it when ppl cancel as i have a chance to breathe!!( only joking!!)






YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT , TO WIN IT !!!!!!!!!!



ps izzi, i need to spread the luuurvvve! xx

 

[fiona wallace]

great thread izzi!!

even though im employed, and have to be there 9 til 6, when i first started in the salon, and i didnt have clients,
i used to go over to hair clients and say,
"ive just had a cancellation, would you like a complimentary manicure, as all my equipment is ready?"
or " today is free polish with your hair colour, would you like to look at the colours i have ?"
or to clients who where having their colour processed, "would you like a free demo nail? even if you dont think youd like to wear extensions, you can show your friends at work!!?"

that was two yrs ago,
now i have no gaps, i love it when ppl cancel as i have a chance to breathe!!( only joking!!)

Well done you...fancy a job in Glasgow?????????

 

[adelekeegan1]

I'm always on the end of 2 numbers call me:green:

 

[Martigirl]

Yes I am always there for my advertised business hours and sometimes at other times too.

I am really lucky tho and I have a receptionist who is there and answers my phone if I need to pop out to the PO or something or the bank or wholesalers. Although I tend to do all these things before work sometimes I can't.

I also have an answer machine, but I do live in dread of someone turning up for gift vouchers andbeing faced with a closed door so I never let that happen

Great thread Isabel

 

[lotus blossom]

Well done you...fancy a job in Glasgow?????????

oh go on then!!!!:lol:

 

[Cathie!]

oh go on then!!!!:lol:

It's cold up there!

 

[lotus blossom]

It's cold up there!

ohh is it up north then???
ive heard its grim up there!!!

only kidding!!:lol:

 

[lotus blossom]

i can commute 6 hrs a day on a train!!

can i finish at lunchtime to get back for tea????

 

[izzidoll]

MMmmm....serious thread here...........get back on track laydeez!!!

Thanks for your honesty Hippychick....will be interesting to see if your business does gain from your 'imprisonment'...as it were.

 

[lotus blossom]

MMmmm....serious thread here...........get back on track laydeez!!!

Thanks for your honesty Hippychick....will be interesting to see if your business does gain from your 'imprisonment'...as it were.

sorry izzi:ox

 

[hippy-chick]

I can see where you are coming from totally izzi, and it has been difficult for me to change me lifestyle to suit.
but I know it is the way to go forward.

I've only been there a month and I notice the HDs are more friendly and willing to promote me the more I am about. I am finding it easier to hover in the salon and leave my therapy door open if I'm upstairs. They shout up for me if they have a question.

When I've popped in, I notice that a lot of the clients are holding my leaflet, so have been handed to them by HD.

I still am working at my other premises and still have a few teaching committments to full through until end of January. But, can see me getting into the swing of things.

The HD is open set hours so there is always someone there to take an appointment or sell a gift voucher. I think what they are finding it difficult to do is tell people to the best time to call back to speak to me in person.

I have never intended to go into this full time hours. I have 1 son and I'm not having anymore children. I don't mind getting pick ups occassionally and we already are in the routine of him getting picked up by his grandparents 1 day a week. His dad finishes work early 1 day a week, but I want to be there to pick him up the other 3. So, until he is in high school I intend working in school hours. So, for some clients, who expect businesses to be open 24/7, you are always going to miss a phone call or a drop in or a gift voucher.

 

[izzidoll]

Seems like you are now getting a good balance here though....and certainly a lot more support from the hairdressers than some geeks get from their landlords.

 

[fiona wallace]

When I opened my first salon I was there 9am 'til 5pm, 6pm or 7pm what ever was needed! If I had had NO clients all day but one wished to come at 5.30pm, then so be it!

This was 6 days a week, and in the first few weeks I sat looking at the phone praying for it to ring...it always did eventually:lol:

As time went on I had staff that I was able to depend upon and was able to leave the salon, if it was manned, to attend to other business matters.

Interestingly, there was a salon that opened 2 streets away, and oh, I worried so much about the competition!!!!! Well, they opened, presumably when they had a client, usually 11 or 12ish, closed anytime between 2 and 6, and have now changed hands 4 times in the time I have been in business. Most of that time the salon has been closed. Every new owner has conducted their business in exactly the same way None of them have lasted obviously!

Some of my clients of 10 years were 'walk-ins' in those early days and are still coming because of the COMMITMENT we showed.

 

[hippy-chick]

yes I think that with the aid of their advice and my slowly shifting pattern of thought, I am getting their.

I've started taking work to work rather than doing it at home.

I did ask the HD if she could ring me if a walk-in came in and I could be there within 10 mins but she said she didn't think it would work.

I spoke to another one of the HD team and she was saying about the previous self-employed therapist that had worked for them a few years ago. She said that she would close up early and go and do her food shopping at Tesco. If a client came in or rang up then she would have missed them.

today I will be there for all of the shift, but will take an hour out for lunch.

 

[hippy-chick]

god you can't win can you?!!!!

a prospective client came in this morning wanting to speak to me about booking an appointment, but, I was doing a treatment!!!!

the girls in the Hd told her I would be in until 2.30pm and she promised to come back.......I waited until 2.45pm and no show. bl**dy typical isn't it!

 

[nailzoo]

I work set hours and i work by appointment, i also have quite a good reputation, whatever are my salon hours, the phone is always on (or switched over to my mobile) they both synchronise. I am always available during salon hours, outside of these hours I charge extra, or dont answer my phone (whatever suits me) there should be a dual repect.

Outside of working hours anyone is free to text me,(you may not get a reply immediately) but don't dare interfere by "calling me and expecting me to speak in person " during MY TIME.

MY TIME is precious and should be respected .... otherwise I will call you at 4am after I have been out clubbing just to confirm your appointment (yes, i have done it). I have never kissed a clients bum and don't expect to start anytime in the future (i'm not that desperate for business).

I'm a nail tech, not a slave........ and i'm not called the Nail Nazi for nothing

 

[blossom]

Well I work from home so it's a little different . . . but if I am available I will answer the phone, if not (whether I'm working with another client, out or simply engrossed in another task) then the answerphone will click in. OK, some folk don't leave a message . . . that's fine, I'm busy enough anyway really so it's no big deal. If a regular calls then they always leave a message and they know I always get back to them as soon as I can.

I work to appointments, obviously. If it works out that I have a free afternoon NO I DO NOT sit in waiting for the phone to ring, I go out, do stuff, indulge in a little retail therapy or have a facial or whatever. I have a life as well lol!

That said, I take GREAT CARE of my regular clients. If they chip a nail and need it fixed, say, before a big date, I will, if at all possible, bend over backwards to fit them in. But I wouldn't re-schedule my or my kids lives over it.