I had a team attend a seminar that was held by the most well-known salon in the commercial capital of NZ, in Auckland. At this particular salon you could easily spend $300+ for a shampoo/conditioner cut & blowdry service, (we were only asking half that!) At our usual weekly meeting we discussed what they had learnt and they presented us with a mini seminar, which is a great way of cementing what was learnt and sharing and for developing skills to use as future educators etc. After talking through their experience of how things were done in an "up market" salon it was immediately obvious to me what we were doing differently. I told them then why they, as first year student stylists were better than these guru stylists.. our consultation system. They didn´t have one! I explained that simply by following the system of consultation that we used for every client, every time, (even the ones that had been coming for years,) they were in fact giving better service than a $300+ an hour hairdresser! You can imagine how good that made them feel. I can teach anyone how to cut hair, the basic theory is not that hard, but that´s not what people want. You go to a hairdresser and say you want a haircut, that´s what the hairdresser hears, (or if they don´t speak your language well, that´s what they "assume" you´re there for,) so that´s what the hairdresser gives you, but that´s not what you want and that´s why people have bad experiences. When you go in for a haircut you want an interactive conversation about what isn´t right with your hair and how to fix it.
It´s too...thick,curly,wavy,straight,dry,oily,limp,dull,long,short a GOOD HAIRDRESSER can communicate an empathise with you about what is wrong with your hair/look and discuss ways to improve/correct them, punto. This is why we were always busy, this is why we could charge $160 an hour, because the money became irrelevant, this is why we were producing good stylists and why they were staying with us once they finished the "studies," give people what they need and they will get what they want. More on our consultation system soon.. Good waves & hair days, R