Omg please help me! Client yelling at me on phone!

[hairdresser18]

Please help me guys. A clients daughter rang up and had medium lenghth hair and wanted it cut shorter like she has previously had before. i chopped it with a razor and thinned her hair out a little as it was pretty thick, she wanted the type of style that has a fringe,no parting, so the hair came back, and the sides of her hair swooped back so it settles over her ears if you know what i mean.She told me she liked what I did and was fine with me over it then the daughter rang me up 6 hours later saying, I had my mum on the phone to me crying her eyes out saying I hacked at her hair and refuses to go to her sons wedding,. that is not true whatsoever what she said it being hacked into as it was nice and choppy. I asked her why didnt she tell me that when i was there, she said she liked it and the daughter said, she just wanted you to leave even my dad knew it wasnt right. I said ok give me her number and I will talk to her. I rang and her husband answered, he said she wasnt there which is a lie as she is housebound but he was as nice as anything saying i dunno whats happeened but my daughter came in and had one look at it and the mum burst into tears. I said I will ring tomorrow. Please help me, I am so sensitive its getting me upset. Is this daughter putting crap into her mums head? is it the mum getting the daughter to figure this out even when its her own hair or are they just saying this to get money out of me?
Help I have to ring tomorrow and sort this out. p.s there is nothing else I can really do to cut her hair, as there is nothing to sort out.

 

[wonderwoman]

aww hairdresser18 big hug!

We all get these every now and again. now to be fair you did nothing wrong, you cut her hair, if its lopsided then yeah might need to be sorted out, but she was happy when she left. but low n behold someone other than the client has a issue.

i would simply say, "unfortunatly i can only speak to the person in question and will not continue further with this conversation if you continue to verbally abuse me!"

i have a strict policy to ensure that all my clients are happy bunnies when they leave and even ask before they pay, especially ensure that my therapist and hds withhold my policy and rarely get any problems!

Now if you do get a phone call, make her come to you in person so you can define the issues, and certainly dont apologise for something you havent done, this can knock your confidence and make you second guess yourself.(what your doin now!)

You cant make hair grow and sometimes some ppl try it, just go thru what the consultation was and that way regurtiate exactly what she wanted and what she expects of you. this is when someone trys to act flakely (make sure that you have written down in record card if you do operate this way) I do it just to cover my back, i note down, cut layer, 1 inch, colour etc so i can simply relay from another person doin it! HTHs stay strong xoxo

 

[hairdresser18]

hey, yea i should have said that to the daughter really, she has shook me up and I have lost my confidence a bit now, I asked her about 3 times u sure you like you hair and she said yes i do like it thankyou. I dont get why the daughter is yelling at me when it is her mum supposedly with the problem. I saw the daughter and she said nothing and told her sister about it and now its the other daughter who rang me up having a go. I am a mobile hairdresser so I could only go to her and fix it but like i said there is nothing to fix. when i ring tomorrow and she isnt there i will tell her to call me if she has a problem but if she had a problem she would have said there and then or rang me up herself. argh i cried earlier lol, how sad am i?

 

[smooth]

Maybe it's the daughter who doesn't like it, perhaps too much of a change for her mum! If the client said she liked it then be guided by her but definitely don't take any verbal abuse by anyone. Just say that she needs to speak to you with a little respect or you'll end the phone call.

 

[karenrose]

I think the daughter is the one who has a problem with it, not the mum!
I dont get why clients say they are happy at the time, are happy to pay the price then complain afterwards! Surly you would know at the time you are unhappy and say something. I know I would!

 

[Fuzion]

Maybe it's the daughter who doesn't like it, perhaps too much of a change for her mum! If the client said she liked it then be guided by her but definitely don't take any verbal abuse by anyone. Just say that she needs to speak to you with a little respect or you'll end the phone call.

Definately the case I think!! I had a client years ago, she always wanted different colours etc, guaranteed every time I did it her husband cam in the shop, ususally when I was busy and had a go at me, because he didn't like it. I used to dread her coming in cos O knew he's be in within 48hrs. I moved shops and she followed me, and he did it there, that was awful as I was new and the girls were awful, I wouldn't have minded but she had a perm on her triple processed hair, an my then boss kept checking it as I'd never used this particular one, I kept saying to him,"there's bleach under that colour" and he ignore me, well this time it was amess, thankls to my boss, yet again the hubby came in had a go at me, when it should have been the boss, ho didn't stick up for me, gve the client her money back and took it out of my wages. That has never left me, it was as though it was deliberate, I was only 20 and to go though that was sole destroying. Sorry not much help am I? Just remember though we've all been throughit as some points in our careers, there are justsome customers tht will never be happy, no matter what it is.

Why don't you turn up on the doorstep and ask to see her hair?:idea:

 

[hairdresser18]

no it did help thought thankyou cause I know some are have gone through the same thing as me, I am 21 and quite sensitive when it comes to my career as I want to do a good job. I am not going to give her, her money back cause it was a good cut and I know that, I had to go especially for her and it wasnt my day to as I go to certain areas each day of the week to save petrol money and I used my products on her. But to hear from her daughter that she was supposedly crying on the phone, saying I hacked at it and isnt going to her sons wedding because of it as got me shaken up. I am going to do what Wonderwoman said and write down my consultations for now on.
I am going to be hesistant for a while now cutting clients hair thanks to her!

 

[hairdresser18]

hey, rang up this morning to the client and she answered, I said hey mrs connely whats happening in a soft concerned voice and she started crying saying im sorry I dont want to speak to you I said we have to talk to see what you want me to do and the daughter came on. She said she is the type that used to say something if she didnt like her hair but now doesnt anymore. I said well the cut is fine I did nothing wrong its nice and choppy and it suits her. she goes yea......yea. I then said I know she doesnt want to speak to me but if she wants me again she can have her next cut half price and I apologise if she didnt like it. The daughter said you can ring next week if you would like and I said no she can call me if she wants to talk and the daughter said ok, and said her sister is coming in to see if there is anything she can do cause of the wedding today. I mean..... its a huge thing over nothing! absolutaly nothing. It has got me worried that the daughter will ring up and have a go today. Its not her hair.

 

[daniella]

Dont talk to the daughter she is not your client.If the client is having props she has your celnr.Girl have a nice day dont worry:hug:

 

[Fuzion]

Dont talk to the daughter she is not your client.If the client is having props she has your celnr.Girl have a nice day dont worry:hug:

I agree! Plus tell her you need to see it, to know what the problem is. If she doesn't call forget her, I know it sounds harsh but you've done all the right things contacting her. I don't actually know what they want you to do, screaming and shouting at you, then won't speak to you?? It sounds like they just want to have a go at you, as the client isn't happy with her style, BUT they don't want you to do anything, they just wanted to have a go, try to forget them, you'll have a lovely client next week who will be really happy, they will soften the blow you've had

 

[HairSquared]

Awww, hugs to you, you handled her beautifully. It really is a bummer when someone wants change, then isn't happy with the result. We are expected to be mind readers, psychic, and all the rest.
Dont let it rattle you, for every client who reacts that way, we have a hundred or more who are delighted with the job we have done.
Confidence is so hard to build yet so easy to shatter! If you get the chance to do her hair again, remind her that she had always been pleased with your work before, and maybe encourage her to be a bit conservative until is grows back to length shes more comfortable. Also remind her that is HER hair, not her daughters, and that your aim is to please her and no one else.
Onward and upward:hug:

 

[hairdresser18]

ok thankyou guys, i feel alot better now. I know I shouldnt worry and I am bound to have more like this. Just a shock as it was my first one and she just kept yelling.
ThankyouXXXXX

 

[NoLimitNails]

Hi Not a hairdresser, just came to have a look in the hairworld.

Boy this was a hard one, and you have handeled it quite well. As a nailtech I have to make sure people like my job to. I think what you should do in the future is to tell your clients " I do the job as I hear you describe for me. If you are not happy please let me know so I can change it for you if you feel I got you wrong" or something like that.

I would, if anymore trouble also tell the daughters "your mum said she was happy with the treatment several times when asked, and I don't know her personality so how should I have known she wasn't happy if she didn't tell me? I am responsible for a good haircut, but my clients are responsible for letting me know if they are not happy. Otherwise how will I know?"

I think they have been so rude to you, if there was a problem then they could have either been polite or get another hairdresser to sort it out. If she didn't go to the wedding, then it gotta be other problems than a haircut she wasn't happy with!
:hug:

 

[Tess Warwick]

I've been in hairdressing for almost 40 years and I came to the conclusion, a long time ago, that clients expect their stylists to be mind readers. How many times do you hear 'oh, you know ...'.
No I don't know! You have to tell me!

I tell my girls that if there's a problem with client communication and the client doesn't get what they want, it's their (my girl's) fault. Sounds harsh, eh? Not a bit of it. Because the client seems to think we have a sixth sense we have to ask questions. I expect my girls to ask questions ... if necessary, again and again and again ... until we know what the client wants. In my opinion, if the client goes away with something they don't want it's because we haven't asked the right questions. Of course, that comes with experience. We've all had the 'disasters' and the unhappy clients that we didn't get quite right and we have all had our confidence knocked when we didn't quite get it right.

This is called 'experience'. Everything we do teaches us something and as long as we learn from it we win.
I feel for the OP, but I think you have to learn from it, put it behind you, stick your chin in the air, and believe in yourself again.

It is painful - I, certainly, have laid awake at night and wondered if my client had put her head in her oven only to find out a couple of days later that the client hadn't had a problem with her cut/colour/whatever.
We are creating, changing, making a difference. Sometimes it's just not as important as we might think.

If a client is unhappy - and here I do mean 'a client' as opposed to one of her relatives - it's up to them to contact us and discuss it with us.
Hairdressing ias a two-way relationship. It's not a 'them and us' ...

Ask your client if you can do anything to put things right (as she sees it). If you're keen to keep her as a client offer her a complimentary treatment next time you see her. Frankly I wouldn't bother.

 

[minky]

I do agree up to a certain point about making sure of the clients wishes are being met then checking back again with the client at each point etc etc
..
But !.... in this case hairdresser18 said she did all of this checking .... and unfortunately the client still didn't seem to communicate much .

Even now she is getting her Daughters to argue over her and communicate for her ! .....
which in my opinion is just not right!...
Speaking as a Mum.... I love my Daughter so why on earth would I want to see my Daughter/ Daughters arguing and getting themselves upset on my behalf ... over a haircut or whatever else went wrong that day ? ....
it's silly,
as the last thing you want to see is your family upset !

This woman has now already upset four other people !....
Although I must say her husband sounds like he is used to it all ....
and it seems like he is the only one with some sense.

I would say that If someone finds it very hard to communicate with someone else !... then they should make sure they take a good photo or a picture along with them !...

or perhaps the hairdresser should have some style books handy.
Personally I think you have been very brave hairdresser18 at having to contend with her whole family x