what do you do if you have a home salon...

[Tashaonline]

and the next client is early or you've run over and still with the client before, do you trust them to sit in your living room/other room

what do YOU do? or do you always allow plenty of time between clients?

 

[hippy-chick]

what some places I've worked at do is allow a buffer - so allow 15 minutes between each client, this allows for setting up and running over.

also, if I client is late for their appointment, don't allow them the full time, still finish at the allocated time. a) its not fair to your other clients and b) it teaches them to respect your time and turn up at the proper time.

so if you start at 10am and do an hour, your next appointment will be at 11.15.

 

[cabinkel]

To be honest, I very rarely run over my time, and I always encourage people to show up on time, not early! As my salon is a cabin in my garden, I do have a decked area where they could sit, but if its raining they tend to sit in their car! Its not ideal, but it is such a rare thing that it has never posed me a problem. I do allow enough time between clients however to change towels, wipe sides down, sweep floor etc so this helps to make sure no overlap.
A therapist that I go to for treatments works from an upstairs room in her house, and if she runs over I just sit on her couch in her lounge. Hth,!

 

[ladybgemini]

I have a seating area in my nail room upstairs and they are more than welcome to sit there while I finish my service. I rarely run over but have the few odd clients that insist on turning up early so I dont mind keeping them waiting.

HTH

Rachel x

 

[angel fingers]

i have an area just outside my nail room with a seat and a table that has a stack of magazines. its rare that i run over, but sometimes people do come early dont they.
unless i knew them very well i wouldnt really want them sitting in the private areas of my home.

 

[hippy-chick]

I'm usually spot on with my timing, but occassionally you get a client that doesn't stop talking,and, usually its an emotional release, its difficult to go "really well thanks bye"! so its a godsend to have either a waiting area or a buffer system up and running.

Luckily my clients know that I usually run on time, so are quite forgiving off the odd 5 minutes.

Except for the time when my fob watch was running 15 minutes slow! OMG!!!

 

[Ruth Mills]

I go to a lady at a home salon for my waxing and lash/brow tinting; I've never been in a situation where I've had to wait for another client's treatment to finish. I think she times the treatments carefully though, and allows time in between in case a treatment overruns.

Normally, there's someone else in the house though when I'm there - usually her boyfriend or one of her sons. So I guess if there was a rare occasion when she'd overrun, I'd just wait in the living room and chat.

 

[VHunter]

I always allow for a teensy bit of time in between. So I can go to the loo, or makeup for time lost with late arriving client or whatever.

In any case, my 'station' is set up in the front living room, right off the front door. So there's a couch there for them to sit on, tv and magazines while I finish up.
They aren't left to wander about my house.

My "family" room is in the basement.

hth's:hug:

 

[Brandywine]

I allow half an hour between appointments. If someone comes for an hour massage then thats what they get in massage time, there is then extra time at the end and beginning for them to get dressed and compose themselves (this may be 10 minutes either end of massage sometime.) I also find that people often come at least 5 minutes early, so as I've got my half hour spare window I don't have to worry about the next client banging on the door.

 

[blossom]

I allow 15 mins between appointments, and this is usually enough to avoid the overlap situation.

Where I go for waxing/facials etc, she puts a note on her front door "treatment in progress" and the procedure is to wait in your car till you see someone emerge - I don't mind this at all and she does overlap fairly often by a few minutes. However, when I overlapped at home once, and I asked a lady to wait in her car, I felt very rude (which is odd, really, since I don't consider my therapist rude lol)

I work in my sitting room so there are sofas and magazines, so I guess it would be reasonable to bring someone in while I finish off a client . . . but it hasn't happened yet.

An interesting thread, it's nice to read what others do in this situation.

 

[Tracey Park]

I allow 15 mins inbetween appointments but to date have never over run !!!!

But I guess there is always a first time lol.

 

[alpina]

In my old salon I had a separate reception/ waiting area where I had my nail desk also. If I did run late (on occasion), they could sit on the couch out there with a magazine.

In my new place I only have one room to work from so I have to time everything with a 15 min buffer also like Hippy-Chick. The new room is lots bigger than my old rooms though, so I'm having a wall put in soon to divide off the treatment room like I had before.