Making the connection with your salon client

Did you ever stop to wonder why a client returns to a salon year after year? Is it the warm welcome from the receptionist at the front desk? The new check-your-e-mail-while-you-process Internet Cafe? Is it the mini neck massage you delivered at the shampoo bowl? Granted, these are all fantastic amenities and marketing efforts, targeting new clients as well as keeping your existing ones excited. And I honor the fact that providing the latest trends in services and products are a great way to lure the client in the salon doors. But what really brings back the client year after year is the one-on-one human touch connection between the client and the stylist, the relationship that transpires out of trust and personal experience. It's that very human and irreplaceable connection that makes or breaks the client's experience.

Clients come to us for so much more than our expertise. They come to receive validation for who they are and where they are in their life. The most important skill they never taught you in beauty school was how to deal with the many different personalities you come into contact with daily. When clients come to you, they have a story to tell, usually about what is happening in their lives. Their hair is a huge reflection of what is going on! You have the golden tools not only to make that client not look good, but also to make him or her feel magnificent. Clients look to you as a role model with all the necessary goods to "fix" them and their self-image. Wow! What a thought! Your work on their head plays a significant part in their life's events.

Think about it. How many times have you had to comfort clients to help them feel better about what was going on in their life? Clients come to us because they place value in what we have to offer them spiritually. We add a rainbow of color to people's lives that few others can provide. This, I believe, is the gift that we have to offer, our personal touch that comes from our heart to theirs. This service cannot be bought, nor can it be eliminated. It is the sunshine that you provide to another human being. The connection and the time you spend with them personally are what they treasure.

One day far in the future you might wonder why you are still standing behind that chair, and then you'll reflect back on all the lives you have touched and the ones that have touched yours, and you will remember. Be proud to be a hairdresser!

Kathy Jager is a 25-year veteran stylist who has been both a salon owner and school educator. Look for her valuable feedback on our FirstChair message board, and go to her website at www.lulu.com/pros-grapevine to purchase her books.