Complete Guide to Salon Customer Service in 2024

Salon customer service needs to be one of the top priorities for any salon owner. When customers visit the salon, they don’t just want beauty products and hairstyling services; they also want to have a pleasant and positive customer experience.

Those who receive good customer service will be more likely to come back and become loyal customers. But those who encounter poor salon customer service will start looking elsewhere for haircuts and styling services.

In effect, salon customer service can be a genuine “make or break” factor for your business. But how can you improve your levels of customer service? And how do you ensure all clients receive a great salon experience? This guide will provide essential salon customer service tips you need to know.

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1. What is Customer Service in a Salon?
2. How Do You Assist Your Clients in the Salon Before Giving Services?
3. How Can Salons Improve Customer Service?
4. Post Service in a Salon
5. What Makes a Great Salon Experience?
6. How Do You Deal with an Unhappy Client at a Salon?
7. Conclusion

What is Customer Service in a Salon?

So what exactly do we mean by the phrase “customer service” in salons? The concept of customer service covers all the different ways in which you treat and interact with your clients. Good hair salon customer service is about taking care of your customers, ensuring they have pleasant experiences, and feel satisfied with the services you and your staff provide. Good service can incorporate many aspects, including friendliness, politeness, and preparedness, too.

How Do You Assist Your Clients in the Salon Before Giving Services?

Provide Convenient Booking

The client experience begins with the booking phase. It needs to be easy for clients to find your booking system and make their appointments and change them if required.

Offer Consultations

Offering consultations via text, video, or over the phone can help customers feel valued. It makes them feel special and cared about if you provide this kind of personalized service.

Send Appointment Reminders

Issuing appointment reminders via text or email can be another good way to make clients feel special and make their lives easier, so they don’t need to worry about missing a booking.

Make It Easy to Reach You

On your salon’s site or social media, you should provide instructions on how to get there. A simple map and some parking information can be a great way of helping people find you and start their salon experience on the right foot.

Improve the Waiting Time

When it comes to waiting times, the shorter, the better, but if clients have to wait, make the wait pleasant by providing drinks, reading materials, etc.

Get Prepared for Returning Customers

Before a client comes back, check your notes to remind yourself of their name, previous purchases, past services, and so on.

How Can Salons Improve Customer Service?

Prepare Your Work Station

The first thing to do before working with a client is to ensure the workstation is fully prepared. Stations should be clean, too, especially post Covid-19.

Make Thorough Consultations

To avoid any disappointment for your client, carry out a consultation to get as much information as possible about what they want. Ask about their hair care routine, what result they’re hoping for, any potential issues, etc.

Offer Knowledge

The average salon customer wants to feel like they’re in expert hands. They need to see you as a true professional, offering knowledge and being up-to-date on trends and styles.

Use Client's Name

For the personal touch, be sure to use the client’s name as you talk to them. This can make you feel more like a friend and help them feel good in general.

Smile

When it comes to good people skills in the hair care business, smiling is so important. It’s a simple gesture, but it can make all guests feel more comfortable and relaxed on a biological level.

Be a Good Listener

Clients often like to talk to stylists. They’ll need to tell you all about the cut or style they want. But they might also want to speak to you about other things, too. Ensure you listen well, asking all necessary questions, and showing interest.

Be Polite

Politeness is all-important in the beauty industry. Modern clients especially expect to be greeted warmly and treated politely. Avoid any controversy or rudeness, and make sure to say sorry if anything goes wrong.

Be Genuine

For people to like you, they need to feel like you’re honest and authentic with them. An excellent way to do this is to be warm, approachable, and maintain eye contact.

Love Your Customers

It’s a lot easier for owners to provide the best customer satisfaction and care levels if you genuinely treat your customers as cherished friends. Focus on the positive aspects of every guest to establish the best relationships with them. And if a client is difficult or unhappy, find out what’s behind their frustration and try to fix it.

Post Service in a Salon

One of the first things to learn about customer service is that it doesn’t end when your clients go home. The post-service experience is significant, too. Even after clients head home, you can carry on helping them feel good.

Offer Treatment Advice

If your stylist gives a customer a new look, offer them tips and tricks to recreate the same effect at home. Or if they got a new color, share some advice to help them maintain it so they can continue enjoying it.

Ask for Feedback

Show customers that you care about their opinion by asking for some feedback via email, a website form, or a social media review. And don’t forget to read the feedback, consider any idea your customers have, and act on it.

Keep in Touch

Keep in contact with visitors by sending them relevant information, such as articles from salon professionals, gift cards promo offers for their next booking, or haircare info. By tracking salon customer visits and past purchases and storing their name email details, you can also send out reminders to their email address for new products or when it’s time to book again.

Loyalty Programs

Rewards and referral programs are super successful in many areas of the service industry, including salon businesses. Offer samples, discounts, or freebies to a loyal clients to give them potential things to look forward to and reasons to return.

Collect More Info

Send out surveys and contact your salon guests on social media to learn more about them and what they want. The more information you gather (with an adequate privacy policy), the better prepared you’ll be to provide good customer service in hairdressing and make your business a genuine 5-star salon.

To learn more please check out our post on How to Talk to Clients in the Salon.

What Makes a Great Salon Experience?

Service is a massive part of the overall client experience. But it’s not the only thing that counts in the expectations salon. You also have to think about other aspects of what do clients want in a hair salon. Consider the general layout and design of your salon, for example. Ensure that the workspace is comfortable and relaxing for people to be in, and check that guests enjoy the space.

Think about things like music and sound to avoid irritation in your clients. Consider providing amenities and extras like water coolers, coffee machines, reading areas with bookshelves and magazines, and so on. You also need to ensure that the salon is kept clean and comfortable. And even outside of the salon, customers need to have good experiences viewing your website in their browser, making reservations, and so on. Find out more here.

How Do You Deal with an Unhappy Client at a Salon?

Stay Calm

It can be worrying for any owner or team member when facing an unhappy client at a salon. But it’s vital to stay calm and professional. If you have a private space in the salon, it may be wise to take the client there and talk things out one on one.

Apologize Sincerely

Even if the issue at hand wasn’t your fault or you feel that the client is unreasonable, it’s best first to make an apology.

Listen Carefully

Owners should listen closely to what unhappy clients have to say. Take them seriously and show genuine care and concern for their problem. Just being heard can mean a lot to many people and help them calm down.

Define the Problem

Be sure that you know what the actual problem is so that you and your team can think of a way to fix it.

Offer Solutions

Suggest possible solutions to fix the issue at hand. Or, if that doesn’t seem likely, try to think of a way to satisfy or please your client and retain their loyalty, like a discount or free service.

Make Sure You Understand Each Other

Be sure that you and the client are aligned on your vision of the issue and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

Follow Up

After the issue has been resolved or addressed, follow up with the client to see how they feel.

Conclusion

It’s clear to see that customer service is a real difference-maker in the hair and beauty business. Good customer service can keep people coming back, raising loyalty and retention, helping your business get more referrals, and ultimately boosting your profits, too. Poor service can have the exact opposite effect.

So you have to take salon customer service seriously. And that goes for every member of the team, from the receptionist at the salon greeting clients as they enter to all of the stylists and professional team members who offer haircuts and styles to your guests. We hope that this guide can help you get off to the best possible start with service at your salon business, or take the next step and bring your existing service to the next level.

Citations

Customer service: the key to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and market share
https://search.proquest.com/openview/c4f1440c30f5a75f4be5b1575a8dc848/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=36584

Customer orientation: Effects on customer service perceptions and outcome behaviors
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/109467050133005

Defining and measuring the quality of customer service
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EUM0000000001086/full/html