Dealing effectively with a customer complaint

Remember the last time you had a bad customer care experience in a service industry. Did you complain? Probably not if you’re in the vast majority of the population, according to Penny Etheridge of the Radiant Hair Consultancy. Speaking at Salon London, as part of the NHF Business Workshops, Penny revealed that a whopping 91% of clients do not complain - they simply do not come back. So for your salon, that means that if you get one customer complaint each month there are probably another eight or nine disappointed clients. To compound the problem, a dissatisfied customer may not tell you about their experience, but they will tell between nine and 15 other people about it. And it gets worse. It will take 12 positive experiences to counteract the damage of one bad experience and in the vast majority of cases that bad experience was based on how the person was made to feel. The good news is that there is a quick and easy way to stay on top of the problem: making regular courtesy calls. Penny believes that picking up the phone (rather than texting or emailing) gives you a chance to discover the niggling doubts a client may have about your salon and do something about it. If you do come across someone who was unhappy with their experience, always offer them something extra rather than giving them a discount. So what could you do to get a client back on side? “You have to do the extraordinary,” Penny explained. “It’s about creating something that she would not expect and something she will tell all her friends about for the right reasons.” Penny Etheridge, founder of The Radiant Hair Consultancy, has more than 30 years’ experience within the hair and beauty Industry. In that time she has won numerous industry accolades both for her own company and companies she has worked with. An active member of the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs, and the Hair Council Steering Committee Penny empathises with the challenges salon owners face today.