VIP salon event - advice on drama queen client

[alpina]

I'm in the planning stages of a vip night to be held in the salon. I will be inviting a limited number of vip clients to the event and they will be receiving some mini treatments and will be mingling in the salon with drinks and nibblies.

I'm trying to choose my guest list now and have a potential issue with one client and would appreciate some advice. Client X was one of my first clients and has been a regular for many years. She has referred many of her friends and family to us also and they have also become regular high-spending clients. The problems are that she is very high maintenence and a half hour treatment with her can often take over an hour. She is very full on and stirs up a bit of drama whenever possible, she also seems to go out of her way to make things difficult when it comes to booking appointments, purchasing product, etc.

I can handle her and keep things running smoothly, however I'm quite worried about inviting her to this event as I wont be able to keep the reins on her all night and I wont have time to deal with her all night as she wont be the only one there that I need to focus on.

She has also had a falling-out with some of her friends due to the same type of problems she was causing them and these friends will also be invited to the event. They are all polite to each other now as this happened a few years ago but I don't want to spend the whole night making sure she isn't causing anyone to feel uncomfortable.

I don't think I can not invite her, she will know because it will be written up in the newspaper and I have every intention of inviting her close family members. She would be very hurt and put-out to not be invited and I can't do that.

Has anyone else been put in a similar situation and how did it work out?

 

[SammiC]

Ouch! These are *unpleasant situations and I'm feeling for you! I've been in a similar situation but not on a professional basis. Apologies for the essay!*

A close girlfriend said she would love to hold a baby shower for me prior to the birth of my second child, but (my) Girl X was not welcomed. I ummed and *ahhhed as our mutual friends were invited and I wasn't sure how to tackle the situation, made worse by the fact that I use to live within the same apartment building as her only 3 wks earlier where most of us resided. Anyway this Girl X was also*high maintenance and had pushed 1 too many of my buttons and was ultimately too rude to both myself and friends alike and because of this I'd been quietly (successfully) distancing myself away from her without involving our mutual friends and avoiding any uncomfortable situations todate.

My*decision, which in hindsight, I could probably of handled better, was to agree to my friends little ultimation and NOT invite her. Inevitably she found out on the day of my baby shower and so I received, all day and for over a week, a barrage of abusive and crude text messages and I refused her phone calls. She continued to try to drag my name through the mud to our mutual friends fortunately to no avail. I never informed or involved any of our mutual friends on why she wasn't present on the day and why we had a falling out and no one questioned me either. Over time and after loosing sleep and feeling rotten it faded into the null n void and *I've never seen her since of which without sounding horrible I'm thankful for. The baby shower was a wonderful day!

Not saying that this is going to happen to you and I don't mean to sound negative but I think in hindsight I really should have phoned Girl X and explained the situation to her and my reasons for not inviting her but i didnt have the heart or the guts and felt deep down it wouldn't *have made a difference either way (she probably would have gatecrashed the day!) Some would argue that I should have politely declined my girlfriends offer to host my shower if all my friends were not invited but I truly did not want her there for fear of her ruining my day and causing a ruckus and I'd gotten to the point where I was reluctant to call her a friend.

I know there is a lot more involved when it comes to your business hence I can imagine how difficult this decision will be for you. I don't really have the answer for you but I guess you'll just need to do what's right for you, your business and your clients and put that first. You may have to bite the bullet on this one and invite her if its going to create in a loss business/clients and a headache down the track but you'll also have to weigh up the cost of inviting her as well, is she likely to cause trouble which may result in the same way? It's difficult, to say the least, *being 100% truthful without hurting someone's feelings even with the right intentions people don't like hearing it let alone hearing it second hand. I hope it works out well for you, as silly as this sounds, maybe write a for and against list and take the path of least resistance.

Im sorry about your situation. Good luck with your decision and with your VIP night, what a lovely idea! *Let us know how it turns out xx

 

[jacquelineanna]

You are right to say you cannot NOT invite her!

Is it possible to have a split event, say a morning, afternoon and an evening session?

Or as its invitation only, could you select the clients you want together in 2 hour slots? Have a thirty minute or an hour clean-up-and-replenish break before the next 2 hour selection come in?

Good luck lovely and a happy new year.

Jacqui xx

 

[tigi]

I was going to suggest a 2 evening event or a staggered day event so you could divide up your clients a bit more and then you could choose whom to place in her time .

Tigi
Xxx

 

[fizzy10]

You could phone her up and say that as you have limited space you are trying to restrict invites to new potential clients, however she's been such a loyal customer that you would like to offer her a free treatment on her next visit?

 

[dandelionpoppy]

Either find out when she's going on holiday,choose a date within it, then look disappointed that she won't be able to make your event (sneaky I know!)
Or, ask her to "help" in an "executive" position; maybe meeting and greeting, giving out drinks.

 

[jacquelineanna]

You could phone her up and say that as you have limited space you are trying to restrict invites to new potential clients, however she's been such a loyal customer that you would like to offer her a free treatment on her next visit?

If I was such a good client and read in the papers that this was a vip event I would be seriously unimpressed with this suggestion.

Fizzy - this isn't personal my lovely :hug:

xx

 

[Pinkprincess73]

Either find out when she's going on holiday,choose a date within it, then look disappointed that she won't be able to make your event (sneaky I know!)
Or, ask her to "help" in an "executive" position; maybe meeting and greeting, giving out drinks.

I like this idea too, she will feel wanted & be kept too busy to be any trouble, tell her how much you appreciate her help etc & how important her being there to help is. Hope it goes well hun xx

 

[fizzy10]

If I was such a good client and read in the papers that this was a vip event I would be seriously unimpressed with this suggestion.

Fizzy - this isn't personal my lovely :hug:

xx

At least she'd get the idea she wasn't very important, lol!
I'm always wary of posting on here as scared of being shot down in flames as these threads can get quite nasty so thank you for the end bit xx

 

[shedunlop]

I think it depends on how many regular clients you have and who you are inviting. I would worry that this sort of VIP event would be devisive anyway and would upset some anyway, even without this lady.

Where do you draw the line at VIP? I am not trying to be difficult my darling but I know what people are like and you will have the borderline clients who think they should be VIP? xxx

 

[jacquelineanna]

At least she'd get the idea she wasn't very important, lol!
I'm always wary of posting on here as scared of being shot down in flames as these threads can get quite nasty so thank you for the end bit xx

Lol.

Your opinions are as welcome as anyone elses. Other people then have an opinion on YOUR opinion and that's where it can get mean.

Don't be scared though, if someone is rude to you and tries to shoot you down in flames be very gracious back to them and make them look what they are!!!

And when people are too rude there will normally be someone around to help you out. You are not alone lovely xxxxxxxx

I would be very happy to see you post more on this site .. how about it in 2012? :wink2:

Peace and respect xxxxx

 

[jacquelineanna]

I think it depends on how many regular clients you have and who you are inviting. I would worry that this sort of VIP event would be devisive anyway and would upset some anyway, even without this lady.

Where do you draw the line at VIP? I am not trying to be difficult my darling but I know what people are like and you will have the borderline clients who think they should be VIP? xxx

How true is this .. in fact the least important ones (for the owant of better words) will be the ones who think they are the most important. That's the way of life sadly.

 

[Tomme]

How true is this .. in fact the least important ones (for the owant of better words) will be the ones who think they are the most important. That's the way of life sadly.

Lol the once in a blue moon clients who flit from place to place are usually like that,they are doing u a favour by returning after buggering off to 3 other salons? Yeah rite!
They should be pointed out that if they stay loyal and polite then they will become VIP.
But there will be a fine line between regular and VIP, try making a list of what qualifies for VIP clients... 3 treatments per visit? £x per month spent? Weekly clients or twice to 3 times a week clients etc... Make the list and then see if this woman is classed as VIP then. If she questions u then say I'm sorry but the criteria to be called VIP was X Y and Z, I was really sorry but you didn't for the criteria xoxo

 

[Susie H]

Or, ask her to "help" in an "executive" position; maybe meeting and greeting, giving out drinks.

I agree, this is how I would handle it, yes she will be fussy, but she will be so determined to make your VIP night the best in the town that she won't have time to make trouble:hug:

 

[Tigan]

I would worry that if you asked her to help out she might become even more 'dramatic' lol, i agree with Jaquelinna that you do have to invite her though, anyway they are all coming to see you, and you are bound to have more than one client who dislikes another one. If she becomes too demanding you can always say you've got to mingle i'm sure you understand

 

[Pinkbunny28]

Either find out when she's going on holiday,choose a date within it, then look disappointed that she won't be able to make your event (sneaky I know!)

I like this idea best hehe x

 

[alpina]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, there's lots of food for thought now. I do like the idea of having a morning/afternoon split event, this could help control the flow of all clients too as I'm not really sure yet how many will be attending.

Shedunlop, I hadn't even thought of the possibility of upsetting other clients. I was so focused on this particular one I didn't stop to think about the others. I will have to decide on the criteria for who to invite. I don't just want it to be long-term clients because I have some newer clients who I would like to invite and maybe some clients who only ever have waxing or haircuts done but I would like to introduce new treatments to them too. This could get tricky, lol.

At this stage I'm planning on charging a fee for the event and making it redeemable on product purchased on the night so I may invite a lot of clients with the hope of only a limited number accepting. I may invite everyone and limit it to the first so many clients to book, I think that would work well.

The client I was concerned about isn't a troublemaker by any means she is just very draining of your time and patience and likes to tell long exaggerated stories so I think having split sessions would work very well as we could control when she would be in the salon and the other clients who know her could have the option of coming to a different session.

I still have a lot to work out for this event but I would like to hold it towards the end of January if all goes to plan. I'll definitely post an update in my blog when I get some proper plans in place.

 

[alpina]

Pinkbunny I love that idea too, I seriously considered it but I'm not sneaky enough to pull it off lol.

 

[nickij]

I think the split session idea is a good one. t.hat way you can perhaps keep her sperate from the ladies she doesnt get on with... but id def invite her, esepecially if shes the kind of client who currently sings your praises and recommends u to friends... Word of mouth is very powerful and i wouldnt wanna do anything to switch it from positive to negative stuff. i have similar clients who altho loyal, punctual and generally lovely are very time consuming and lead to me having to book out extra time coz i know they talk for ages, wanna try samples, cant quite sort their diary out when bookin in etc... but hay ho, c'est la vie haha. to get back to the point... id invite lots of people... as youd be surprised how many will be offended as not being considered important... every clients important... but do it so they buy a ticket and its first come first serve. i did an event like this v limited space and was a little gutted when alot of the spaces got filled up with clients that are not genwrally high spenders... but some of them supried me and bought quite a lot of product. good luck whatever u do