Clients 'friend requesting' you on FB?

[shellbert]

Is it just me or do you find it strange when prospective clients want to friend request you when they are on your business page anyway and in most cases I haven't even met them!
I would just rather not have people looking at my photos of nights out and my family when they are not friends of mine.
What are your thoughts?

 

[Nearlyme]

I just say "my facebook is for family only, I have pics of my kids on there so I am sure you can appreciate why I dont add clients"

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[KHS]

I'm with you on this one lol, my personal FB profile is locked to the max, tbf if any prospective clients went through my photos of mad Saturday nights down the local they probably wouldn't book in with me LOL

 

[sallyyummymummy]

I had this happen last week. I ignored the request as my personal facebook is just that - personal. I do have a few clients on it but that is after quite a while and they have become more like friends than clients.

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[shellbert]

I totally agree with you all. I mean, why would a man friend request me just because he wants to book a massage? It's just wrong - but that's something else I need to sort!

 

[siana]

I quite agree - I have a business page for clients and a normal page for family only. I've had a few friend requests from clients but have ignored them I'm afraid. I think it makes sense to keep personal and business separate.

 

[JemmaB]

I hate this, I've had alot of clients add me.
Most of the time I politely explain I don't accept clients, but I have accepted a few that im quite chatty with.
I do wish I hadn't now though, I've got a right potty mouth on fb.

Oh and I keep my profile as private as possible too!

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[Faylizzie]

I hate this too, my business page has everything possibly they need to know about me, my person page has absolute nothing on it they they need to know. I declined everyone to begin with then kept getting re requested by one very persistent client so I accepted her and deleted her a month later changed all my settings to completely private and told her I deleted my account lol!
I have a couple of clients on it that are now more so friends than clients and know me as a person as well as a professional which I don't mind but I have been debating setting up another account just for my very nearest an dearest so I don't have to think twice before posting something lol! Xxxxx

 

[Nat-Nat]

Some have been with me for years so I'm more than happy to accept their friend request however it is a little odd when newbies do it however I don't want to turn away potential clients so accept to see if they want to book if not I delete! I always keep a professional air on there at all times!

 

[StephsTherapies]

I don't have a personal FB page only a
Business page, so I avoid all the drama


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[ProjectPretty]

This happens to me a lot. I don't accept them. My FB is highly privatised now. Even have in the description that it's only for personal use.


xProjectPrettyx

 

[squidgernetball]

I don't have a personal FB page only a
Business page, so I avoid all the drama


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I have a pseudonym for my FB page. Even trying it and not using it, which was my original plan, resulted in clients trying to friend me. I only went on FB to run my business page, so chose a pseudonym and now no-one knows who I am!!!

 

[StephsTherapies]

My husband is the "Manager" of my page! lol x


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[cmsuper]

I keep my private life separate from work

 

[Gold_R]

I couldn't agree more with this! Sometimes I think they know I'm ignoring which is even worse and I just end up giving in, and when I have I wish I hadn't! Now I'm thinking to make new ones of everything and make them all private again. It is hard to keep the two work and friends seperate! I'm so glad were all the same haha!


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[SalonNerds.com]

This is an interesting topic. Don't under-estimate how important it is for you to stay in front of your customers. Everyone's made some very interesting points as far as what a client should or should not see. Privacy is important (although at least here in the States marketers don't give a crap about it); but at the same time if your customer is "bonding" with you on Facebook; I wouldn't want to completely reject them either. I mean yeah you're going to have creepers and internet stalkers, but if they're not taking it too far and they're civil when they're in your chair, I'd definitely want to maintain a virtual relationship somehow. I liked the suggestion above from Siana as far as opening a business page and keeping it separate from the personal one.

If you do it right; and you do have a good chunk of your clients liking your business page, the things you can do from a marketing standpoint are endless and financially rewarding. The goal is to not "push" marketing at them and instead use it as a way to interact and stay in touch just enough so the odds of them leaving for a different salon/stylist decrease dramatically.

 

[VHunter]

Business and Personal are separate.
The dangers of having 'clients' on your personal space are them perhaps not liking something 'personal' about you and then you've lost business.
The other risk is that they don't respect the lines of business and will harass you in the middle of the night on Sunday cause you happen to be online.
When business invades the 'personal space bubble', you start to resent your business as you have no real downtime.
Trust me, been there, done that. No thanks.

When I receive an inquiry, I very politely explain that my profile is strictly for close friends and family and encourage them to contact me via my page. If this doesn't satisfy them, I link them to the FB rules that are clear that you may NOT conduct business from a Personal profile, and as such, you don't wish to lose contact with friends and family.

I've never ever had anyone not understand this, or take it the wrong way.

 

[Murfles]

I've been added by a few clients and a couple I've been happy to accept, but a couple I was a bit wary of. But I felt bad declining so what I did was accept them all but put the ones I was a bit unsure about on a restricted list.

You can make "groups" of friends and set your settings so that when you post things it shows only to friends and not your "restricted" list. When you post something you want them to see, (or don't mind them seeing) you can choose public, etc.

I have everything on my personal page set to private, so none of these "restricted" clients can see my family photos etc, but every now and then I'll share a funny picture or write a random status and make it public so they can see it, just so they don't get suspicious that (for as much as they can tell, as they can't see anything else I put up) I never post anything. I find this is working well. Any clients I don't really want to accept go onto this list and that way no one gets offended with rejection of a request, but I keep my privacy too!

 

[mybronzesun]

I have a personal page and a business page. Business page is only about business.
That page I have open to everyone, so friends of friend can find me, or others who like what I do.
There is no connection from my personal page to my business page.
If you create a business page you can post anything about your business with out a worry of who sees it.
Hope this helps

 

[Saira23]

I was talking about this earlier! A couple of years ago, one of my clients found my personal page. We had no mutual friends and she only knew my first name. I didn't really know this client well so did not respond to the request - a few weeks later, the client stopped coming into my salon as a direct result of me not accepting her on Facebook. So from now on, I accept all clients and put the odd few onto a restricted list. It is difficult as you have messages in regards to opening times, etc whilst you are not working but at the end of the day, the clients are the reason our business' are operating and we're keeping a roof over our heads!