Don't be fooled by Clients

[Buggy]

i do friends and family at a "mates rate" but it is on the understanding that a full paying client can take their place in my diary. if they want them done for a special occasion and a full paying client wants their space, then they have to fork out full price if they want to keep their appt. otherwise i move it.

as for "broke being relative" totally true. i come from a typical "council estate" background. Broke to me is having less than a tenner. Broke to one of my mates, who is a true "Silhillian" (i.e. from Solihull) is having less than £500.

having your nails done is a luxury not an essential. i don't fall for that "broke" line. if you're that broke that its a choice between food/bills/roof over your head or having your nails done, then we all know which one we'd pick. if i have a client that's so broke she can't afford to eat but comes to have her nails done, well quite simply its not my problem.

having said that, although i always try to remember this, i have been known to give away the odd gems, or solar oil!

ps. mates rates is for true mates, not acquaintances!

 

[aj1]

So far for me in my home based business, I have my neighbour who comes to me, my daughter's bus driver, sister'n'law and they all pay full price. That's it no funny business, I am a very soft person and I tend to give away free nail art but hey that I can handle. My mom comes to me and pays full price and then some to do her mani's and pedi's. I have always done her nails for years, but now that I have a certificate she feels the need to pay. I don't argue because she's too strong and she'll win.

I even charge my friends full price, I feel like I have my prices low enough, so why not pay me what you would pay at the local NSS, and there is a huge difference in the services!'



aj

 

[Emmajt]

Yeah and never do work collegues nails - what a nightmare, evertime she chipped one, lost one or had anything happening to them at all, boy did i know about it. And she expected me to do them for a fiver - i ask you!!!

My Mum is the only person that get any thing free from me - she get's a free manicure when she wants or free enhancements when she wants - she is my mum after all - and i love her!!!:hug:

 

[SANDRA BARNES]

hi does anybody agree if it,s ok to replace lost nails or do repairs free of charge in the first week of having enhancments or rebalancing done, ido this as i feel guilty that it is my fault .

 

[Buggy]

suggestion: next time your client says they are broke, say "i know what you mean, one bottle of this stuff (hold up small bottle of monomer) costs nearly 30 quid!!!". they'll soon shut up!

 

[Emmajt]

suggestion: next time your client says they are broke, say "i know what you mean, one bottle of this stuff (hold up small bottle of monomer) costs nearly 30 quid!!!". they'll soon shut up!

PMSL :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[CadenceAlex]

suggestion: next time your client says they are broke, say "i know what you mean, one bottle of this stuff (hold up small bottle of monomer) costs nearly 30 quid!!!". they'll soon shut up!

I wouldn't dare - look at the amount of nail sets you can get out of a £30 bottle!! I think they'd be outraged!

 

[1999judy]

I wouldn't dare - look at the amount of nail sets you can get out of a £30 bottle!! I think they'd be outraged!

If a hairdresser told you how much their scissors cost would you feel outraged? It's the professional service that they are paying for not just the products.

 

[ValencianNails]

hi does anybody agree if it,s ok to replace lost nails or do repairs free of charge in the first week of having enhancments or rebalancing done, ido this as i feel guilty that it is my fault .

I wouldn't, it's like guaranteeing the nails for a week, how do we know what our clients have been doing with their nails in the week since they left our care? the answer is... we don't.
if clients think that their repairs and/or replacements are going to be free of charge then they won't respect your work and they sure as heck won't look after their nails.... if you charge for your time accordingly then hopefully your clients will learn to respect their nails and the number of repairs/replacements will reduce drastically.
it's all about having confidence in your own work hunny. xx

 

[min11]

having your nails done is a luxury not an essential. i don't fall for that "broke" line. if you're that broke that its a choice between food/bills/roof over your head or having your nails done, then we all know which one we'd pick.

Good point but very rarely do people who say they are broke actually have a situation where they cant afford to pay their bills and if they did not many would choose to have their nails done (I certainly don't) but thats not the point. Its an expression. Even when they are telling you their woes they are bending an impartial ear, not asking for your sympathy or charity.

Except for rare exceptions I dont believe clients are looking for freebies, a soft touch or trying to make anyone fall for anything. If anyone gives freebies its down to the nail artist, not the client because only you can allow the lower charge or the freebie, no client can force you to hand it over or do it for less.

I promise you as a client, if I came to you, I would tell you because your there and impartial, not because I wanted anything from you other than perfect nails.

 

[CadenceAlex]

If a hairdresser told you how much their scissors cost would you feel outraged? It's the professional service that they are paying for not just the products.

I know that, and you know that... but some clients seem to think that they can do their own nails!

 

[kateyork1]

I wasn't there and I dont know your friend but here's a flipside to the coin. Maybe if she wanted to do these things to her house she had to make sacrifices elsewhere. It sounds from here like she was honest and said she loved your nails but had to find somewhere to cheaper to have them done. If she had just stopped coming and then you found out she was getting them done for less elsewhere wouldn't you have felt even worse?

She does things like this all the time though this was just one example - and says if you can do them at the same price as the salon where I get my hair cut then I'll keep coming to you otherwise I'll go there. Then she tries to get retail products at the price I pay for them. It wasn't even much of a difference - she only has infills (and every 3 weeks) her hair salon charges £18 for infills at 2 weeks and she wanted me to match this price even though my 2 week price is £20 - she was just trying it on. If it had been that she was making sacrifices to be able to make her house nice then that would have been fine but I know her far too well! x

 

[geeg]

Good point but very rarely do people who say they are broke actually have a situation where they cant afford to pay their bills and if they did not many would choose to have their nails done (I certainly don't) but thats not the point. Its an expression. Even when they are telling you their woes they are bending an impartial ear, not asking for your sympathy or charity.

Except for rare exceptions I dint believe clients are looking for freebies, a soft touch or trying to make anyone fall for anything. If anyone gives freebies its down to the nail artist, not the client because only you can allow the lower charge or the freebie, no client can force you to hand it over or do it for less.

I promise you as a client, if I came to you, I would tell you because your there and impartial, not because I wanted anything from you other than perfect nails.

With respect Min, you aren't in the salon yet. don't assume all peeps are like you ... they aren't.

I do agree that it is the ultimate decision of the nail artist and entirely her fault if she gives freebies etc, but don't assume that clients won't try every trick in the book to get free nails out of you, cause they will. There are allot of other ways apart from pleading poverty ,,, and some know them all.

I could tell some stories!! How about the time I had a client barge into the salon saying she had an appointment with me at 3:00pm. Well, she didn't and she hadn't booked it. I had a regular in the chair who always had this appointment and no way had I made a mistake. Anyway, this person was so loud and insistent in front of all the other clients that someone (we had 6 technicians) gave in and did her nails. Turned out that later we were told by a friend of this client that the client had said, "works every time"!!! She had done this sort of trick before in hair salons etc just so she could get in when she wanted. Figured if she was loud and noisy enough and caused enough disturbance that someone would slot her in.

 

[CadenceAlex]

With respect Min, you aren't in the salon yet. don't assume all peeps are like you ... they aren't.

I do agree that it is the ultimate decision of the nail artist and entirely her fault if she gives freebies etc, but don't assume that clients won't try every trick in the book to get free nails out of you, cause they will. There are allot of other ways apart from pleading poverty ,,, and some know them all.

I could tell some stories!! How about the time I had a client barge into the salon saying she had an appointment with me at 3:00pm. Well, she didn't and she hadn't booked it. I had a regular in the chair who always had this appointment and no way had I made a mistake. Anyway, this person was so loud and insistent in front of all the other clients that someone (we had 6 technicians) gave in and did her nails. Turned out that later we were told by a friend of this client that the client had said, "works every time"!!! She had done this sort of trick before in hair salons etc just so she could get in when she wanted. Figured if she was loud and noisy enough and caused enough disturbance that someone would slot her in.

Cheeky b***h!!

Did she ever come back again after this?

 

[geeg]

This lady still goes to my old salon ... been a customer for 10 years now!!! But this is only one of many things she has tried to pull off over the years. She doesn't always get away with it.

Once I banned her from the salon ... 6 months later she was back again and up to her old tricks. She knows we know ... she just can't help herself ... her mother was just the same. Ended up we just used to say to her ... don't try my patience Pamela or I'll ban you again ... she knew which side her bread was buttered on.

 

[CadenceAlex]

This lady still goes to my old salon ... been a customer for 10 years now!!! But this is only one of many things she has tried to pull off over the years. She doesn't always get away with it.

Once I banned her from the salon ... 6 months later she was back again and up to her old tricks. She knows we know ... she just can't help herself ... her mother was just the same. Ended up we just used to say to her ... don't try my patience Pamela or I'll ban you again ... she knew which side her bread was buttered on.

She is really scheming!! I would never do something like that... I'd die of shame!

 

[min11]

With respect Min, you aren't in the salon yet. don't assume all peeps are like you ... they aren't.

I do agree that it is the ultimate decision of the nail artist and entirely her fault if she gives freebies etc, but don't assume that clients won't try every trick in the book to get free nails out of you, cause they will. There are allot of other ways apart from pleading poverty ,,, and some know them all.

I could tell some stories!! How about the time I had a client barge into the salon saying she had an appointment with me at 3:00pm. Well, she didn't and she hadn't booked it. I had a regular in the chair who always had this appointment and no way had I made a mistake. Anyway, this person was so loud and insistent in front of all the other clients that someone (we had 6 technicians) gave in and did her nails. Turned out that later we were told by a friend of this client that the client had said, "works every time"!!! She had done this sort of trick before in hair salons etc just so she could get in when she wanted. Figured if she was loud and noisy enough and caused enough disturbance that someone would slot her in.

Oh I dont, thats why I said rare exceptions and I said rare assuming, maybe wrongly, that the great majority of clients are honest. Your right of course, I'm not in the salon yet, but as a client of various people over the last decade I just want to put the otherside, some might be grabbers, but most of us aren't, or at least not the ones I know. People who pick nails off and the like to get a new set or their money back are not, in my head anyway, the same as the people like me who sit and tell their woes and then get reductions they didn't ask for or freebies which is actually where this topic started :lol:

Different industry I know but I worked for a few years in retail from a major chain store where people bought things back you could tell they had broken themselves just to be sure of the refund, through to gift shops where I have very carefully boxed things knowing it was inspected and perfect only to have it bought back days later with a chink out of it but it was like that when they opened it, honest guv.

The appointment thing made me smile because I have turned up at AnneVera's once in the past for an appointment made over the phone only to find I didn't have an appointment. AnneVera didn't take the call concerned but I had written it down as it was given on the phone. We will never know who's error it was though, not like your canniving client.

I'm sorry if I seem in my soapbox. I'm having a cruddy day anyway and taking things much more personally than anyone on a ever forum should. I just wish all your clients intentions were as honest as mine.

Min x

 

[Vetty]

I had to share this although it's a case of a client putting me straight this time!!! My 1pm client today, new lady wanting enhancements - lovely set of soft white and intense pink tip & overlay...... Client thrilled, just what she wanted - how much, she says..... Is a cheque ok? Fine says I - she writes out the cheque and gives it to me with the cheque card at which point i admit I don't usually ask for cheque numbers..... You need to be careful, says she, there's some dodgy people about!!!

Clients never fail to amaze me, but I (like most) am a trusting type.....!!!

 

[michelle taylor]

I love this thread and reading all the replies! and have myself had people pleading poverty with me!I also very much agree on not getting too close to your clients,but something i have learnt very recently is dont get to close to your boss either!! i started working in a salon 18months ago(ended in feb)when i started she was very professional and we had a good working realationship then we became friends and things changed basically she started to take the p**s i worked all hours i worked school holidays days off and overtime(for no extra)everything suffered, my marriage my family life and the time i spent with my kids,i know i could have stopped it but because we were friends i felt i couldnt let her down.i finally finished when she promoted me to salon manager and health and saftey person all for £5 an hour so i handed in my notice,on the day i was leaving she didnt even come to the salon and i havnt seen her since(what a friend)now im not slagging her off i just feel sorry that our friendship really wasnt important,but i am pleased im outta there!!!x every experience is a learning experience!!

 

[Peter Pan]

My Mum is the only person that get any thing free from me - she get's a free manicure when she wants or free enhancements when she wants - she is my mum after all - and i love her!!!:hug:

couldnt have put that better myself