banning clients?

[michelle g]

i was just wondering whether any of you have ever had to ban a client from your salon? we had a client visit our salon and was warned ( by a hairdresser)
that she complains about everything.
she has been visiting my salon for about 2 months now and everything was going fine until yesterday! she had asked for a soak off and french manicure last week, which my nail technician did.
yesterday she came in saying that my nail technician is crap because 2 of her
natural nails had broken!! by the way this client is a cleaner, so nails in cleaning products constantly.
i said that she cannot blame her for her natural nails breaking and that maybe she should have an overlay. she agreed and had the treatment.
when i returned to the salon my nail technician was sobbing her heart out,
the client had told her that she was crap as her natural nails had broke and she was not paying for this treatment because of it.
i phoned the client and said that i do not appreciate the fact that she had made a member of my staff cry and that maybe she should find another salon to go to. never had to do this before, just wondering if any of you have had to?

 

[Noodle]

Have a read of this poll posted by Izzidoll a while back, as it may help:

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/17587-poll-how-would-you-sack-client.html

 

[sj1973]

i think you done the right thing....your a business and you dont need this woman saying that her nails are c**p INFRONT of other clients....it makes your salon look sh*t because of this woman ...so yes you did the right thing.

 

[nailzoo]

she has had her nails as a cleaner and survived quite well for quite some time (before her last treatment) ..... before you decide to sack her, make sure her claims are not legitimate

 

[sodabubble]

theres a well-known lady in our area that has been banned from a lot of salons for kicking up a fuss about her fringe trims. i find it hard to believe that out of a dozen or so salons, every single one of them messed up her (blunt cut straight all one length) fringe. so she now travels by train over 200 miles every month, there and back, for her trim.
it doesnt help your situation i know but some people can be very odd!

 

[gillian w]

i think you done the right thing....your a business and you dont need this woman saying that her nails are c**p INFRONT of other clients....it makes your salon look sh*t because of this woman ...so yes you did the right thing.

Thing is she is still going to tell everyone the nails are crap and if she is a bit mouthy and she has been confronted she is certainly going to spread the word.One person can do a lot of damage.
If it wasn't me that had done them in the first place im not sure what id have done as Nailzoo said maybe it was the techs fault if they were not your work how do you know.

 

[Marlise]

she has had her nails as a cleaner and survived quite well for quite some time (before her last treatment) ..... before you decide to sack her, make sure her claims are not legitimate

It could very well be that she has gotten used to the strength the enhancements have given her nails and that she was able to bash them about.

Suddenly, she doesn't have the strength anymore and is still bashing them about like she used to and voilà, natural nail breaks.

Not the techs fault, unless she caused damage to the natural nail and weakened them like NSS would, which I doubt.


Marlise

 

[loualarta]

Where I worked we never got rid of a client, pain in the neck or not. We always tried to resolve any issues with our clients and try to keep them. She sounds like the sort of person that will go round telling everyone how badly you treated her. I would try and sort it out with her and then she will have nothing but praise for your salon and customer service. Im not saying let her take the pee but you cant pick and choose clients you have to take the good with the bad. Its business afterall

 

[michelle g]

she has had her nails as a cleaner and survived quite well for quite some time (before her last treatment) ..... before you decide to sack her, make sure her claims are not legitimate

her nails did not survive, that is why she had nail enhancements.
and her nails were not damaged in anyway from having the nail enhancements on.

 

[geeg]

Where I worked we never got rid of a client, pain in the neck or not. We always tried to resolve any issues with our clients and try to keep them. She sounds like the sort of person that will go round telling everyone how badly you treated her. I would try and sort it out with her and then she will have nothing but praise for your salon and customer service. Im not saying let her take the pee but you cant pick and choose clients you have to take the good with the bad. Its business afterall

I have to say I agree with this. Now you have lost a client who up to this point had been a good one. There is always a way to resolve things usually amicably.

There are ways to let a peson know they are in the wrong without having a bust up and bad feeling.

 

[tinkywinky]

I understand that maybe you should try and work it out, but sometimes some people can be horrible to the point where they make you/your technician feel terrible, cause upset in the salon etc etc. Is it really worth £25 for all this hassle, or for someone not to pay at the end?

I once had a horrible client who put me down and slashed my confidence so much that I lost all interest in a certain area. Personally I would sack someone of this nature - life's too short to be upset with someone, but also at the same time maybe I would have to evaluate the reasons behind the client getting so angry and maybe use it as a learning experience.

 

[fiona wallace]

Is it really worth £25 for all this hassle, or for someone not to pay at the end?

It's not just the £25 honey, it's the damage that can be done to your reputation and the fact that you have not been able to deal with this client unemotionally in a professional manner which I am sure with hindsight you will wish you had, even if only to prove to yourself that you could!

 

[Scratchers]

if it were me i wouldn't have sack her, a moaning client is better than a bad reputation and trust bad rep spread faster than good!! its just the way it is.

when i was a manger of a salon i had this but to be honest you just have to smile nicely explain and say we recommend this?? did your tech explain when she had them off that she is use to product over them so in her job they may not last as well as without acrylic on??

also i wouldn't have put her in with the same tech i probably would have done them myself as she had a problem with the other girl..only to satisfy the client.

Thats just my opinion tho hun you just have to do what you think is best, my old boss sacked a client and she use to brag about it which didn't help but people started hearing about it and now she's known for not being too nice.

:hug:

 

[Bagpuss]

I think it depends on what kind of person you are...some people can take more than others.....some can take it but refuse to....and others get upset.

I personally wouldn't take rudeness for any amount of money, if i wanted to be verbally abused i would get a job as a parking warden.

I am more than happy to solve problems for unhappy clients but not rude ones.....its cos people never tell them that they continue to behave this way.

 

[geeg]

I think it depends on what kind of person you are...some people can take more than others.....some can take it but refuse to....and others get upset.

I personally wouldn't take rudeness for any amount of money, if i wanted to be verbally abused i would get a job as a parking warden.

I am more than happy to solve problems for unhappy clients but not rude ones.....its cos people never tell them that they continue to behave this way.

You don't take rudeness, you turn it around. AND you do tell them ...

And that is exactly what I would do. I would keep my voice very soft and draw the person aside and say to them;

I'm sure that you know that this kind of rude behaviour is unacceptable in the salon or anywhere and what's more it is unnecessary because we are going to solve whatever problem you have. But we will only solve it if we can speak calmly about your complaint like mature adults. Then we can reach a solution that satisfies us both.

Whenever I have spoken to a client like this they 1. calm right down because I have kept my voice soft/quiet and I have told them we are going to solve their problem and 2. they have been reminded that their behaviour is unacceptable and that you wont tolerate it.

In 10 years I never had to sack a client .. and we had some incidents I can tell you

 

[dee]

this is a hard one i think coz it really does depend how nasty the client is ? i think if she one of them that are nvever happy no matter what you do she will still go around bad mouthing you just coz she gets a kick out of it

i once did a hair client and she told me she did it to everyone !! she was a total nasty piece of work , she got her kicks out of spreading nasty rumors about people granted i never did her hair again haha (i was probably rubbish too :lol

but what i am saying there is a tiny amount of twisted clients !! usually you can solve or help their issues but some just wont have it

just my take on things x

 

[tinkywinky]

"It's not just the £25 honey, it's the damage that can be done to your reputation and the fact that you have not been able to deal with this client unemotionally in a professional manner which I am sure with hindsight you will wish you had, even if only to prove to yourself that you could!"

Fair statement Fiona, but sometimes people are more hassle than they are worth. I've sacked a client before who gave me hell, was rude, made me cry several times, and I would never wish to cross paths with this nasty jealous person again in my life.

My business never suffered because of this one girl, who set out to make my life hard. In the end I had no choice to get rid. I would have given up my whole beauty career if she had had her way; she told me "I wasn't competent" in my job. I'm like yes I am, otherwise I wouldn't be in business. Still going strong with lots of happy customers 7 years later.

Enough said. Personally I would sack a client like this.

 

[michelle g]

thank you all for your replies, i did try and sort out the problem with the client and thought it had been sorted but the client was not satisfied untill she had finished verbally attacking my staff and making them cry! if i had not sacked her she would have still bad mouthed my salon, like she has every other salon,hairdresser, dentist, restaurant, taxi company, phone company,doctor, plumber.... the list goes on. i don't make habit of sacking clients and i hope to god i never have to do it again.

 

[tinkywinky]

I'm not being funny but if she did come back to the salon and behaved like that again, you would end up losing clients and your member of staff who she has verbally abused. It's really not worth it. You made the best decision xx

 

[Minipig007]

i know there have been many replies on this already, and the decision has already been made in relation to this particular client, however, there are some points i agree with in this thread and some i don't.

I must admit that I come from the same school of thought as Geeg.... there is no situation that cannot be resolved. I think that a lot of how that happens comes from the individual dealing with the complaint. If you take complaints as a personal attack, the complainee will make it a personal attack as they can see that that's the way to get at you. If you deal with things in a calm, matter of fact matter, the complainee will feel safe that you are taking their concerns on board. Whether the end result is that it was or wasn't the fault of the therapist, the complainee will have the confidence that you have understood what they have said.

I agree that I would not have asked the same technician to do the clients nails again, I would have done the treatment myself as to a) avoid confrontation between client and therapist whilst wounds are still open and b) to ensure that the work was done by someone who the client trusted. Before doing the clients treatment, i would have spoken with the therapist and made it clear that i was not doing this as i felt that her work was under-par, but to avoid the aforesaid. This way you also avoid upsetting your staff.

The client obviously felt that the therapist was to blame and i do not disagree that her actions were not acceptable, but unfortunately this is how some people feel they must behave in order to be heard.

I must admit that in my experience, once you have dealt with a complaint for a client and resolved it in a professional fashion, that client will respect you and you will be more likely to have a more loyal client on your hands. Always try to turn a negative situation into a positive situation, and you will reap the rewards.