Client said to me "Never get hair & beauty from Groupon"

[Lash N Load]

Had a new client in this week and she told me she was going on a bootcamp trip via groupon. Which got us on the subject of groupon. Her and her circle of friends love groupon but have learnt to never buy hair or beauty from groupon.

Two of them had a bad experience and her circle of friends now avoid. So that's just one circle of friends, I wonder how many others have come to this conclusion?

So who really benefits from these cheap hair and beauty treatments? Is groupon the only winner...?

 

[nicole333]

There's bound to be good and bad. I would do my homework on a salon whatever the source or price. The other day I had a lovely facial from a professional salon, when I bought a voucher from a local version of Groupon.

My therapist may not have got a lot of money for her treatment that day, but what she has got out of it is a new customer at her normal prices, because I am going back.

 

[TMH]

I had a bad experience from Groupon. It was for a pedicure and the girl was so rough with me and she actually cut my cuticle and made me bleed

My friend went to get her hair coloured and the stylist rolled in 45 mins late! Although the colour was ok, the stylist just didn't seem bothered

I wouldn't use vouchers again

 

[Sam81]

Personally I wouldn't buy a groupon for hair and beauty for several reasons. First, I would assume if a salon was good they wouldn't need to do such a deal to bring in clients, I prefer to go for word of mouth recommendations. Second I know that groupon take roughly half of the fee charged, so for example, a salon local to me was offering a 90 minute treatment, facial and massage, I think it was something ridiculous like £17. So buy the time Groupon have taken their cut the salon aren't even making enough to cover the therapists wage, let alone products. I wouldn't work for less than nothing so I wouldn't inflict that on another business even if they are daft enough to do it. 3rd, by 11am that particular salon had sold 150 vouchers. That's 225 working hours earning absolutely nothing, and no time to fit in full paying clients for weeks on end, therapists get fed up, clients don't get the best treatment, majority of clients that buy Groupon vouchers are out for something cheap so the returning client rate is pretty low. I just can't see how anyone but Groupon wins.

Sorry I'll get off my soap box now! lol

 

[Justine'sHair]

Personally I wouldn't buy a groupon for hair and beauty for several reasons. First, I would assume if a salon was good they wouldn't need to do such a deal to bring in clients, I prefer to go for word of mouth recommendations. Second I know that groupon take roughly half of the fee charged, so for example, a salon local to me was offering a 90 minute treatment, facial and massage, I think it was something ridiculous like £17. So buy the time Groupon have taken their cut the salon aren't even making enough to cover the therapists wage, let alone products. I wouldn't work for less than nothing so I wouldn't inflict that on another business even if they are daft enough to do it. 3rd, by 11am that particular salon had sold 150 vouchers. That's 225 working hours earning absolutely nothing, and no time to fit in full paying clients for weeks on end, therapists get fed up, clients don't get the best treatment, majority of clients that buy Groupon vouchers are out for something cheap so the returning client rate is pretty low. I just can't see how anyone but Groupon wins.

Sorry I'll get off my soap box now! lol

Totally agree!!

If a salon is looking to bring in new clients why not advertise in local mags/newspapers etc.

A salon I trained in did a groupon offer, they sold over 250vouchers and couldn't fit all of the clients in around the deadline date, which then meant thy was having to honour this offer for another 2months after it was supposed to finish, which meant loosing out on more money! The two stylists that were dealing with these services also got so fed up, they was drained, and Mistakes were repeatedly being made because they was under so much pressure. One of the stylist actually quit afterwards because the boss had gone against their wishes and done the group on when they didn't want it to be done.

From experiencing it this way, I wouldn't buy from group on. I've heard more bad stories than I have good! X

 

[jojo@tranquil]

Groupon attracts the wrong clients they will always move onto the next deal, far better to do offers on Facebook for your already loyal clients who will share with there friends.
I wouldn't buy treatments or use them at all.
Others I guess that's what they want , to work there arse off for nothing ! Me I would rather have a day off than slave for nothing !
Just saying ! X

 

[Harlequin]

My only salon experience was being taken on by a hair salon to do Shellac, acrylic nails etc and the manager did a groupon/KBG deal for me and for the hairdressers.

I hated every second of it and after teh deal was over and the clients stopped coming I ended up losing said job because the salon wasn't generating enough cash. I mean it was good experience and I ironed out a lot of my problems (although i would have preferred no problems at all!) with application etc but in the end up I didn't get to keep my job. And to top it off I walked by the salon today and its now completely closed down

So...IMHO, a groupon voucher defo gives a deal to teh client but groupon really are the only ones who benefit. if every client you got was a repeat client it'd be great but out of the 200+ deals we 'sold' we got maybe three repeat clients out of it

Just my opinion.

 

[Lexikiki]

I must admit i buy the odd groupon deal as its great to check out other salons and how they work without having to spend alot of money. Then when i find a good therapist or nice salon i will have other treatments. If i dont like the salon etc then i havent lost alot really I work on my own in the salon at the mo and its nice to get the odd massage and facial c

 

[beautybyK]

I've bought groupon vouchers fpr numerous things including spray tans and I've always bren happy with what ove received maybe iam just lucky!

 

[little-miss-owl]

We did an offer on our version of Groupon because we had taken over a business which didn't have a great reputation, nor did many people know about it. It was also a way of letting my clients know where I had moved to as my old employers were not telling them!

I was dreading doing one as I felt like other salons would think we looked desperate for clients, plus also attracting the undesirables looking for a cheap deal and expecting miracles.

We sold 400 in 6 hours, it was insane. However I can honestly say we haven't had a horrible client yet, and its been really nice having people come up to see us, giving us a try. We've had repeat clients off it and they've bought loads of products so from our point of view its been successful. Not sure if that's just our lovely clientèle in Jersey or whether we have just been lucky, but we have treated them exactly how we would treat a normal, full paying client.

Having said that I am getting quite bored with some days being crammed with just the offer clients! Feel sorry for the poor girls who do an offer on lashes or something, that would be hell.

 

[Harlequin]

I guess it does have it good points...I can just say from my personal experience it wasn't great and...as far as I know...the hairdresser always had offers on so...

 

[AMO]

I have bought various vouchers.

Surely the whole point is to get a good deal and good experience and then you will go back for full price? Some of the 'employees' don't get this though and don't treat you well or give you substandard treatments!

I went to one salon and had microdermabrasion with the boss which was thorough but the second time was by an employee who was very immature. I was in there for less that 15 minutes afet a 35 min drive. Prior to this I had arrived for my appt with nine at the desk and then was ignored with no apply for having to wait another 30 mins.

I have one session left but can't be bothered.

It's a bit far for me to go anyhow but anyone who uses Groupon etc needs to make sure they or their staff give the client a good experience so they will come back ( which should be happening with all clients obviously).

 

[Tomme]

There's a local salon by me that seems to be doing them constantly, and they already have a reputation by those in te know about staff turnover. Also I don't like how groupon write the listing words for u, I know the woman who owns te salon would never be that creative with words, and I'd she was she wouldn't need groupon or advertise for so many stylists xoxo

 

[Divine h & b]

We have done a beauty deal and a hair deal, we did the beauty one when we first opened that side of the business to market and promote that side and got numourus repeat bookings from it so when we were looking to take on a new stylist we ran a hair deal and again had a lot of repeat bookings from it!

Personally I think it depends on the approach of the salon and if they treat the Groupon clients differently to other clients, then it's not going to work how it's suppose to as a marketing tool.

 

[Sarahbo]

ive done all the deals and all i got out of it was nasty clients .. people badgering me when deal over .. threats of taking me to courts and even sexually suggestive men when doing the massage deal ... groupon clients were the worst ... demanding . argumentive ... never again ! i ended up working for £ 4.50 per hour!