I Know I did the right thing - but need confirmation!!

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Hi

Everyone is commenting on Client Cards. How do I know mine covers enough? Can anyone advise on a really good one. Thanks in advance. Sam
 

hsmith

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Jan 16, 2003
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Location
thetford, norfolk
Hi Board.

I just wanted to know if I did the right thing. We had a customer in the salon on Saturday who was visiting from up north. My technician decided that they old set the customer had on was far beyond repair with what looked like at least 6 weeks growth and glue everywhere because they had obviously lifted. The product was still on most of the nails after an hour of soaking and my technician noted that it didnt seem to come off as well as other acrylics and was then sus about MMA (the customer did say that she went to a shop full of Asian technicians) . When most of the product was off it was noted that her little fingernail had split halfway down exposing the nail bed and three more of her nails had lifted almost off the nail bed and were yellow and green, the rest were paper thin - my technician informed the lady that it would not be in her best interest to have her nails replaced for fear of infection and in particular losing the three nails that had lifted. Well you can imagine that there was a few said words - so my technician called me at home and I went to the salon to see the situation - the nails were very bad and I also advised the client that she best leave the nails off and have them treated, I did state that we were doing this in her best interest - upon this the client refused our advice and said she 'needed her nails!' and that if we put them on and they went bad she would not blame us! I did say that other reputable salons would advise the same - upon this she stormed out screaming that we had labelled her dirty and infected and she was off to buy some stick ons. I feel I was right in my decision to protect my salon and my technician - but i wanted your opinions. :? :rolleyes:
 
You have three people to protect here:

The Client - the right thing is not to put her at any risk.

Your technician - she risks her reputation and it would not be in her interest to perform the service. Too many risks.

You as the Salon owner - your whole salon is at risk if this is not handled correctly. This client does not have the right to put your whole business at risk.

My verdict - OK she is upset, but you still have your business and noone is likely to spoil that for you. I think it was very well handled.
 
Well done !!!!!!!!
You stood your ground and rightly so................
You have the responsibilty to make shure that any client receives the best possible care and advice...............
Thats what you did...............
Well done...............
So what could she possibbly say about you ????
That you advised her correctly!!!!!!
You didn't just preform a service to get the money the till!!!!!
You cared enough and explained all the reasons why she shouldn't have a new set applied................

But maybe and only maybe......
you could have said something like, well if you bring me a doctors note and he ok's treatment, we could wrap (not extend just repair)those little darlings with some Fabric# and then use Silk as it would soften the colour of the nail bed underneath the wraps.........
As, unless I get a note from the doctor due to the severe nail trauma, I cannot possibly preform any nail service........


Well done !!!!!!!!!!!
love Ruth xxxxx
 
I completely agree with what you did - and i would have done the same in your situation.

you have to think of reputation as the salon owner and the client

If you had put the nails on and she had got an infection - dont you think she would have been very quick to bad mouth your salon???

Good on you!!

Didi
 
well done

I think you were great.

I agree its really hard to stick to your guns with that kind of pressure however remember that at that time she was frustrated and probably angry when she saw the state of her nails and probably :oops: but i bet once she calmed down and thought about it rationally she will be thanking you

:)
sa
 
I agree with Ruth and the others, but where Ruth has hit the nail on the head is this:-

Once those nails are exposed and cleaned and sanitized, there is no chance of infection re-occurring if the enhancements are applied correctly and are the right length i.e. short.

It would actually be a very good protection for this type of damaged nail to be wrapped while the damaged area grows out. At least it would have given the client a nice result without sending her out with nails so horrible that she immediately wants to cover them up with stick-ons, which in my opinion should carry a health warning they are so unsanitary.

So can't say that you did the wrong thing, but the client was left very unhappy and she needn't have been. Unless the skin was open and/or weeping, it would not really have needed a doctor's note to go ahead and re-apply a light wrap.

Also I do think that to mention the fact that the technicians were of Asian background could be misconstrued as a biased remark -- I'm sure you did not mean it as such but please be careful in what you say. There are plenty of wonderful Asian technicians and the fact that a technician is from the far east is not an indication of bad practices in all cases. In this case it might have been so, but we wouldn't like to cause hurt to any of our site members Like the lovely little Mui who is so keen to do everything right, not to mention any other technicians who look in on the site and are of a
Asian background. I think we all need to think about what we are writing and how it might be seen by others.
 
Thanks for all your help

I know for a fact that this client weould not have been happy with anything but super long acrylic nails which she always had and as she doesnt live in my area a doctors note would have been no good - in fact i dont think any compromise would have done any good - and we didnt have much chance to discuss other treatments as she stormed off.

As to my remark about Asian technicians - that was very stupid of me and I hope my unreserved apology is accepted. :(
 
Hello to you,

I am sorry this happened to you but here is what I would have done a little bit different.This is only my opinion for what it is worth.
Firstly when filling out a client card I would be asking what product is on her nails,when the nails had last been attended to,and what home maintainance she herself had done.
Then I would ask permission to remove the laquer on one nail to determine more clearly the condition underneath.
Then I would make a decision at that stage,explaining my reasons for any problems that could arise.
I was not there but I could envisage several solutions that could have been ok.
Stress all the time that you are only concerned for the welfare of her nails,it goes without saying that your salon is a professional one.
Always have a client sign her client card .

Maybe it would help if you thought of this as a hair client coming to a hair salon with tinted hair and lengthy regrowth that she may have attempted to obliterate at home.As a professional you can spot that the original tint was not a good job are you going to perform more tinting? The hair could become a mess.The client is not going to blame her first hairdresser only YOU for what she sees as a ruined head of hair.......

This problem is one of the worst that a nail salon will encounter,a bad job from another source.an unhappy client, but dont make her YOUR unhappy client.
One thing I do is offer a package..Old Product Soak Off..Manicure..A Future Set of Enhancements after Medical Help has been sought..
If this package is already in place in your salon all staff can refer to it.
This also helps with hurt feelings on you or your clients part ie they know this can happen to anyone who (forgets) to keep up maintainance.

But do not feel bad about it you perhaps have not encountered this before.

Just when you think you have met all problems after many years filing something new happens.Here I will share this with youall.

I do nails in Greece poolside for the tourists now.This season I had one complaint.A week after Fabric Tip and Overlay with Nail Art a client came to complain that her nails although intact with all diamontes in place she was unhappy.THEY HAVE GROWN she said and the clients waiting arond me started to laugh at her.Fortunately I remembered her saying that this was her first trip abroad so she welcomed my advice about absorbtion of Vitamin D thereby enhanced holiday growth.I repainted them showing her that underneath they were perfect.My parting comment to her was that if she walked around in Manchester in a Bikini the same would happen.Luckily we all ended up laughing and the waiting clients learned something new.

Hope you have understood all this fellow nail person.perhaps my rule of thumb might help.
As soon as I attempt to fix someone elses bad work I take it on as MINE Do we want that(each case is different)
Love Tricia
 
Hi

If you have a look at the www.creativenailacademy.com web site the NVQ section criteria element 1 has a client record card which gives you all the information you need.

Cristine :)
 
;)
Hi Everyone, this is my first time posting on this site, and first off
I would like to say... This site is awsome 8) . Finally techs that
agree on the right way of taking care of our clients and are not
afraid to do "what we are trained to do". ;) But I must say
my first hour on the board and after 15yrs in the business, I have
never, ever, heard of using Cuticle Eraser on a enhancement client
before fill. This is news to me as well as most tech's I know. This
has never been mentioned on anyother board. I can tell already
that joining this board was the best moved I made since.... :twisted:
Well, I won't go into that. Thanks everyone.
 
Hi Vicky,

When doing a fill though it is important to do all your file prepping first before you do your nail prepping.

If you start by putting on Cuticle Eraser or Remover first, it could run under any lifting (that is if there is any :( ) and hide it from you.

So file first THEN use the cuticle cream, remove any cuticle from the nail plate and then sanitize and apply.
 
We had a customer in the salon on Saturday who was visiting from up north.

Neat, I'm the type who loves to know where people are and where they have been blah blah blan
BUT then I read the entire post and NORTH had no meaning at all. You and your profile never idenify your location, your city, your country, so North never had any meaning.
Please do go back and complete your profile, no one is going to attack you for the location of where you live and work.
NOW
considering your post. I agree that what you did or what you refused to do was perfectly techically corrrect.
I also agree with others that you could have done something such as wrapped the nails and thus protected them and HOPEFULLY that may have encourgaged this person from returning to the place that we assume was responsible to her nail damage in the first place.
What is really revealing about your post is the attitude of that nail customer. You know their are newbie techs out there who acutally say things similar to """ well you know once customers find out what kinds of unsafe practices occur in certain nail shops, then the customers will abandon those types of nail shops """. Really. I wonder did you feel that your visitor is going to abandon the type of nail shop that apparently did so much damage to her nails.
My vote would be that she will continue to patronize that catagory of nail shop placing importance upon low price and quick service and disreguarding safety and sanitation.
I am curious as to what kind of vibrations you picked up from this visitor concerning topics of safely and sanitaiton ---- it does seem to me that she was more upset about you than she was upset about those responsible for her situation.
 
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