Friday 18 May 2012
How do you deal with your highly connected clients?
I was walking by a local hair salon this morning when something caught my attention: clients using their phones while having their haircut.
Crazy? Normal? Antisocial? The 21th Century?
I guess one of these words came straight to your mind while reading this sentence and you already have your own opinion about the subject.
Nowadays, and above all since the uptake of smartphones, being reachable everywhere and all the time has become the norm. People are always on the move, clients are more demanding, you gets text messages, emails and tweets at all hours - here are the reasons why people stay connected even when they are taking time for themselves. Mobile phones, touchscreen tablets and even computers are now so portable that your customers can easily bring them to your salon with them.
It is probably more likely to happen in hair salons than in beauty salons or spas as the treatments provided in those places offer less possibilities to use these devices. It's pretty hard to use your iPhone when you're having a manicure for example. But I guess this must happen from time to time anyway (as the photo proves it) and that some of you would have stories to tell!
In absolute terms, I am not against the idea to be reachable "everywhere" as some situations require it. Let's imagine that, in the worst case, one of your close relative is in trouble and needs help. Well you probably want to be informed immediately and be able to help rather than learn it 6 hours after!
However, there are some moments you need to relax and escape your daily stressful, busy life. It is therefore good to "disconnect" and veg for an hour whilst getting a treatment.
The truth is that the use of a phone, for example, in a salon isn't only affecting the person that owns it, but also the staff and other customers.
It is never nice to be delivering a treatment to a client who is texting, it’s degrading. Not only that, but if you have a question such as: “is that length okay?”, you feel like you’re interrupting the client from his conversation. Let’s face it, you decided to work in the beauty industry because of the appeal of meeting interesting people and really getting to know your clients, not be disregarded.
You can also forget about the relaxing atmosphere when a mobile phone rings every five minutes. Your other customers, those who aren’t on their phones, could therefore quickly become annoyed and never come back to your salon as it ruins their experience.
A quick look on the Internet showed me that many salons are already equipped with free wifi. For a high majority of them, it's just seen as another service provided that can influence people in their choice and bring in more clients.
However, I spoke to some beauty professionals I know, and they told me that they would prefer to cut their own arm off than to have that kind of equipment! For them, the presence of such wifi connection would change the atmosphere in the salon and go against their principles.
Conclusion? Well, as in any situation like that, there are pros and cons.
Choose your side of the fence depending on the atmosphere you want to create in your salon and the kind of customers you want to attract. You can then create an environment which will communicate this to the customer.
If you welcome the use of electronic devices then invest in wifi and some plugs so that they can charge their phones or tablets. Don't forget to add a "free wifi connection available" sign in the front window! A decoration resolutely modern will also help them to understand that you follow the latest trends and offer that kind of additional service.
Unfortunately, it is a bit difficult to prevent clients from using their phone and sometimes the best you can do is put a password on the wifi (if you have it). If it's not enough, just tell them that some of the products used could damage the phone and watch how quickly peoples iPhones will go straight back into their pockets ;)
As it's not an easy topic to deal with, do not hesitate to share any good, bad or surprising experience you may have had with some of yours "highly connected" customers below. This could greatly benefit other professionals.
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