Was I professional? RE Trainee set of nails

[amirose]

Hiya,

So I recently got my student insurance sorted for nail enhancements and after a few trials on friends and familiy decided to take the plunge and offer the option to callers about nail enhancments to have a set of 'student' nails (just for christmas). I made sure everyone understood they were 'student' nails and if they wanted 'perfect' nails to go elsewhere (blunt I know but wanted to be as upfront as poss) I charged them £20. I actually only had one taker which was fine

Anyway the lady - mrs x - wanted french manicured gel nails and as i say I charged her £20.

I done the nails and was relativley happy. I used LCN products (phasique) and used FM pearl white for the french tips. The thumbs could have been better and I should have put the white down lower but they were ok and was rather impressed with myself. Mrs X is a nail biter so I booked her in for infills in 10 days time.

10 days later - NO SHOW I rang the mobile which was switched off and didnt have the option to leave a message then rang the house phone and there was no answer again no option to leave a message. Was obviously going to be a no show so packed up AND THEN STRESSED THE REST OF THE NIGHT THAT SHE HATED THE NAILS AND THEY HAD ALL FELL OFF!!! :lol:

Anyway the next morning I thought about it and thought no they were good she was happy have some bleeding confidence. So I decided to pop her an email - not too 'in you face' - this is the email I sent

"Mrs X
I'm not sure wether you realised but you actualy missed an appointment with me last night. I hope there wasnt a problem with the nails however if there was I would really appreciate it if you could let me know as I am still training and would be grateful for your feedback.
Kind Regards,
Ami
AJ Nails"

Anway to my dismay the reply was

"Hi
So sorry I forgot, I thought it was tonight and was just about to cancel, the application of your nail tips was fantastic - but I think that the gel was far too thick and unfortunately very bumpy, I think maybe they needed to be buffed more - I tried to do them but that was difficult with the gel, they felt too heavy and I have had gel before and they are normally lighter, I hope U you dont mind me saying this, when I asked for french manicured nails I thought you were going to use french manicured tips - they look great and save you time - and look more natural, you were very kind and made me feel very comfortable, many thanks
Mrs X"

I know many of you will say its not that bad and some of it was actually was positive but some of you will also understand how vunerable your confidence can be at the beginning and the email actually really upset me.

Then I decided to be a porfessional and replied with this

"Hi Mrs X,

The thickness of the nails is something I could easily rectify for you. It is hard to judge the ideal thickness for each persons lifestyle. Really you should have contacted me rather than trying to alter them yourself as the sealent would need to be replaced after you filed over them to retain thier strength and shine.
If you did want to rearrange your appointment so we could discuss your requirments better and get your nails so you are happy with them I would be more than happy to do so.

Kind Regards
Ami
AJ Nails"

Anyway just wanted to ask wether I dealt with this correctly and how you would take this criticism. I have not been taught to use french white tips but do believe thats more of an application preference then a fault. The nails did not need to be buffed as I use a sealent which was a high gloss though they probably did after shed filed over them :lol:.
I do not think the nails were bumpy the phasique sytem I used is self levelling and I worked very hard on them. Was a little upset by that and the fact she said they are FAR too thick - I think that was an exxagerattion HOWEVER I KNOW I have to take her feedback seriously.

Its a shame I dont have a picture to share with you Im going to be getting a digital camera soon so will start posting pics when I can however at the moment I would mainly like some feedback about how I dealt with this situation.

Thanks ever so for taking the time to reading this :hug:

Ami

 

[Tracys Beauty]

hi hon
you did well to email her and explain, as she knows you were traininig she should of rang you and told you if there was any problems. i remember when i was training i used star nails fibre glass and i charged £5 for a set(this was in 1999) well the nails was bumpy i had lumps of resin on the clients skin and allsorts but you will get there in the end, but sounds like you did a good job from what you say so keep practising .
im doing a gel course end of jan as i only do fibre glass and acrylic at the mo
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[angel fingers]

it sounds fine.

its good to have the feedback from your clients and i think you responded professionally.
do try to put up some shots for professional feedback on the site though. its good to have the clients feedback,but after all they dont really know what they are looking for.

she said they were bumpy, no big deal, but maybe you need to do a little more file and buffer work. thye could become more smooth with just a little more effort.

she said they were far too thick, but she was comparing to a previous set. who knows if the other set she had were a good set ? they might have been far too thin, some techs think gel is just like a polish when applying and give no strength in the stress area at all. for all we know they could have been very thin but snapped off 2 days later. try to make sure that the tip area is tapered rright down thin to the free edge. this way you will retain the strength but give a nice fine tip which is the place that the thickness shows.

 

[Kelpie]

I think it's fantastic you got feedback. So many clients don't want to say anything so this is a good situation.

If anything, I would recommend that you not take feedback personally. It doesn't matter what you feel about the lumpiness, you have been given the opportunity to view this with a technical eye. If the client feels they were lumpy then it's up to you to change her mind by performing what she believes is a service suitable to her. Because there is money involved, she has a right to expect a certain standard, even from a student, because you are charging. Customer service is also a skill and one that will keep your clients coming back.

When I first started doing nails on clients, oh boy I had lumps, thickness, length of time issues and some clients were really cranky. I looked on this time as a huge, real life learning curve away from the safety of my college and the lessons I learned at that time have stood me in good stead.

Keep going. It'll get better. :green: