Get Precious Feedback From Salon ClientsMay 7, 2020Many salons tend to ignore the importance customer feedback holds in improving customer care, salon services, and brand goodwill. They believe that they have the capacity to fully understand what the client might like and dislike and make decisions accordingly. However, this is rarely true! Without genuine and honest feedback from clients, you can never know if the changes you’re making have their best interest at heart. Moreover, constant feedback can keep you up to date with changing trends and the evolving demands consumers have. This will help you to upgrade your services to meet their expectations. What’s most important is that you learn to take criticism positively and address each client—no matter how difficult—with the same cordiality. Mind you: clients can be ruthless at times. It’s important to balance keeping the morale of your staff high with keeping the client happy so that the quality of their service doesn’t get dampened. How do you get useful feedback from clients? We’re glad you asked! First off, you can gently ask your clients to fill out a feedback form or drop their suggestions in a suggestions box. But while in a hurry, clients might skip this step. They may even take it negatively if you pressurize them into filling lengthy forms. A better way to solicit feedback is through an informal chat while you’re giving them a manicure or a hair treatment. It’s important to maintain a friendly, casual tone during such conversations. Otherwise, clients may be put off by intrusive questions. These snippets can be invaluable for the business because they’re more insightful than feedback forms. Here’s what to do once you’ve collected the data from all the feedback. Step 1: Set Customer Feedback Goals You have to realize that you’re dealing with a variety of clients who come from diverse backgrounds. This means that each client is on a different schedule. It might be hard for them to spare time for an hour-long talk, so keep it to a maximum of 10–15 minutes. Since you’re short on time yourself, make sure you have your questions clearly outlined. Some examples could be: How was your experience of booking an appointment (over the phone, in the studio or online) How would you rate your salon environment and services How well were we able to facilitate you How impressed were you by our social marketing and website While asking these questions, keep it current. It’ll be overbearing if the customer feels like they have to give a summary of every time they visited. Restrict your focus to the most recent hair or skin service they availed and revolve all your questions around that. Follow a structure while interviewing: begin with their experience of calling to book a slot and end with billing. Step 2: Pick Clients For The Interview As a business owner, you know that not all clients are easy to please or talk to. This makes difficult clients a bad sample for the interview. It’s important to know who your ideal clients are so that you can focus on them. These are clients who: Love your services Are easy to please Visit regularly Bring more contacts along Are a regular source of revenue If you’re a fairly successful startup or a long-standing business, chances are that you’ll have a considerably large pool of ideal clients. You need a maximum of 5 clients per service to identify a pattern and devise a corrective strategy. To further narrow down your options, you can pick a diverse group of different ages, genders, regularity of visits, and spending patterns. This will give you a holistic view of the overall services of every department and help to upgrade your business accordingly. Step 3: Ask For Help You might have many apprehensions before approaching a client and requesting feedback. But you’ll be surprised to know that not all of your clients are averse to conversations. In fact, quite a few will be pleased to answer all your questions because it makes them feel acknowledged and special. A smart way to start the conversation would be to attract their attention through an incentive. If they’ve booked another appointment for a massage or facial, offer an extended service or a complimentary one to go with it if they could spare a few minutes for your questions. Step 4: Interview Once you have a sample of clients on board for the interviews, make sure you make the process as easy and hassle-free for them as possible. Remember: this is not a one-time practice, so it’ll be best if the chosen clients agree for future feedback too. Offer them a private space where they feel comfortable being honest. Assure them about the confidentiality of their information. Make them believe that you’re a neutral party who’s not going to communicate any criticism to the intended stylist. Show them your gratitude by telling them how obliged you are to them for getting their feedback. Address them by their name to make the chat seem more personal and informal. A formal demeanor or setting can affect the quality of feedback. Don’t dive headfirst into the pool of questions you have ready. First, make the client comfortable by offering them tea or coffee. Ease them into the conversation before shooting questions at them. Don’t stick to the questions you’ve made in advance if the conversation takes another course. Let the client navigate the chat the way they want; you might be surprised to find some useful information expectedly. Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. Leave them open-ended so that the client is pushed to give a more elaborate answer. Build on their responses to each question before jumping on to the next. This will make the conversation flow smoothly. Don’t ask leading questions. This might influence their answer and you don’t want that if you’re looking for honest feedback. Looking for ways to upgrade your customer feedback system? The professionals at Salon Income Booster assist in increasing hair and beauty salons’ incomes by upgrading salon retail merchandise and increasing revenues. From marketing strategies to income generation, they offer complete support for budding businesses and guidance for those in a crunch. They also help new investors with their investment plans and consulting solutions to kick start their salon business. If you need to invest more in getting customer feedback and enhance the system, get in touch with us!