Learning to keep clients happy with peter lunn

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Peter bounded on stage to an enthusiastic response from delegates and began his presentation with a bold promise: "I guarantee that you will take something away from the next hour that will make a positive difference to your salon."

The theme of his presentation was how keep clients happy by learning to listen - and ensuring staff share your vision.

"In British hairdressing we haemorrhage clients," said Peter. "We lose so many opportunities to grow client numbers. As managers, we may have high expectations by can we manage our people to deliver them."

Continued Peter: "A client expects your staff to be experts in terms of their skills, knowledge, advice and the service they offer. Clients are getting more and more educated - but we should be the ones getting educated and giving advice."

The aim, said Peter, should be to make all hairdressers hair review specialists - skilled at interacting with the client, engaging them mentally and emotionally and making them feel valued.

One of Peter's pet hates is hairdressers who talk to the client through the styling mirror. "Who else talks to people like that? It constantly puts people in a position where they feel uncomfortable."

The secret to getting staff to offer a more skilled service is to build their confidence, said Peter. "When you start new staff part of their initial training should be confidence building."

Peter's other major piece of advice to delegates was to ensure every one of their clients had a personal hair plan, including advice on what products to use and a schedule of when to return to the salon.

According to Peter just 20% of clients actually visit the salon every eight weeks, while 80% probably average no more then three times a year - a trend that could be turned around by an effective hair plan for each client.

But change must start with the salon owner/manager, said Peter. "If we don't improve our management skills, we will never improve the people that we manage," he concluded.