The two-part consultation

Don’t neglect the closing part of your consultation, warns Penny Etheridge of the Radiant Hair Consultancy. I am passionate about delivering fantastic client consultation consistently. All too often hairdressers are blamed for poor hairdressing skills when it’s the delivery of the consultation that has not been skilled enough. For a client consultation to truly work hairdressers have to lead the consultation and manage with both authority and politeness a client’s expectations. Generally, I believe that not enough time and resources are spent on training in consultation skills for stylists and technicians by salons. However frustratingly, as a business coach, I also experience that even when salons do provide training it’s the more experienced hairdressers in the team who will sit back with the attitude “consultation training is too basic for me now “. Unfortunately, here lies the reality. It’s often these more experienced hairdressers who have, over the years, kept taking corners off their consultations to the point that home hair care, styling advice, new hair trends, future planning, in fact all the issues that should form part of a professional consultation are simply missing. For me a great consultation has two distinct parts. The first consultation is when style /colour is discussed and agreed upon. This is the consultation that everyone is familiar with and even then can leave a lot to be desired in questioning techniques, vision sharing and generally putting “oomph “in the consultation process. Remember “what are we doing today?” is not delivering a skilled consultative service it is taking an order! The second part of the consultation process is the final consultation which takes place at the end of the visit. To clarify, a final consultation is not a review of what you have just done but a forward planning conversation with your client. It will include the service you have delivered but only in brief, as all of your service delivery should have been discussed at the beginning within the first consultation and whilst you were actually delivering the service. The final consultation is the icing on the cake as far as personalising your service levels go. Clients love to feel special, by giving them a tailor made plan for the next two of three visits at the end of their current service will ensure that you have become prescriptive to their needs rather than someone who just colours and cuts their hair. Use prescription cards or style planners to write down your suggestions for their next visits.  Remember to use special occasions, seasons and hair trends to “pin “your plans to.  Doing this will make sense of your forward planning and therefore clients will be more likely to buy into their own commitment to the plans you have suggested. Guaranteed, adopting this final consultation approach will build you a loyal client following. Loyal not only to your hairdressing skills but the knowledge you impart in looking after their hair forever!