How Would You Handle this Client Situation?
Last Tuesday I'm at home getting caught up on paperwork and the phone rings. It's the gal that works at the salon below my Center. There's a client there waiting for me. Hmmm....there was no one on the books. There was someone scheduled but she had canceled the week before. It was a new client from an AmazonLocal deal I ran for the Esty that recently started working for me.
I got on the phone with this client and very politely apologized that she made the trip but that we had taken her off the books last week when she called. In a very stern voice she stated that she did not cancel and that I had better stop wasting time, get off the phone and get down there.
I can feel ya'll getting hot...I certainly was!! I hung up the phone and started throwing some clothes on to run down there. But then I stopped and went over to the phone to call back and tell her...well, you probably have an idea where I wanted to tell her to go. I stopped myself, took a deep breathe and decided I would go kill her with kindness.
I got down there pretty quickly, politely introduced myself, had her fill out the consent form (definitely had her do that. I already don't trust her!) and proceeded to give the best facial treatment she has ever experienced. When she looked in the mirror afterwards, here exact words were "Just like magic".
I thanked her for her business and said have a lovely day but I did not ask her back.
There are many ways this could have been handled. I have my reasons for why I did it this way and will share them later...but I want to know how you would have handled this situation?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by coldsalineplexus on
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It's probably in the best interest of your business that you proceeded the way you did. She sounds like a Yelp risk.
That said, I personally do not do well working on agitated or belligerent clients. That has been where most of my esthetic mistakes have taken place, because I am intimidated and shaken up, therefore I choose not to put myself in that situation any more.
For me, the deciding question would be, did my receptionist accept the cancellation, or did I? If it was cancelled via a receptionist, I would have accepted the possibility of a mistake, and considered going in to do the treatment. If I had a clear recollection of accepting the cancellation personally, I would have handled the call as politely as possible, but not gone in.
In either case, had I declined to go in and do the treatment, I would have use the following language, "Oh, dear, I am so sorry that there was a mix-up. Our records do show that you cancelled your appointment, and unfortunately, having received that cancellation, I have have made other plans and am booked for the evening. I do understand your frustration. My next available appointment is Friday at 3:00, how does that sound?"
As a sidenote, I do employ receptionists to cover our entire business hours, and I do not answer client calls after hours (although I will correspond with clients by text if they are having a skin issue after a session). That's my personal boundary, and in that scenario, the receptionist present would have known to deliver the apology (and offer the session with another esthetician if possible). Again, over the years I've learned how much of my personal attention and energy gets tied up with providing a great service to my clients, so I have taken these steps to insulate myself from the occasional unpleasantness of the business side.
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Permalink Reply by NBSkinCare on
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Ooh, a tough one.
If I had taken the cancellation and knew she had, indeed canceled, that would change the situation some.
I don't do well with rude clients, and I prefer to not work on people that are so negative. Anyone that would come into my place of business and order me to do a service on them is not worth my time and I don't want their money either.
I just went through this 4 days ago. A client from a groupon deal called 15 minutes after her appointment should have started (and 25 min late because she was supposed to come 10 minutes early for paperwork and consult). It was a microderm appointment, which only takes 30-40 minutes and she was getting on 25 min late, so I wasn't able to see her. I was going to discuss it with her and allow her to reschedule, but she flipped out.
F- this and f-that and a VERY loud F-you. She demanded that I give her her service RIGHT NOW and ACCOMODATE her right away. She called me names and screamed about how unprofessional I was. The only word I could get in was "ma'am" over and over, but she wouldn't stop.
When I finally was able to speak I told her "ma'am, I will not reschedule you. Your only option is to try and get a refund from groupon. You are never allowed in my studio, and neither me nor my staff will give you service. I do not need or want clients who cannot respect me or my time. Have a nice day"
Will I get a bad yelp review? Probably.
But some people are not worth trying to appease, IMO. Plus, had I give her service, I would have been tempted the whole time to, like, microderm her skin off or something, LOL ;)
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Nicole, how dreadful! Was this on the phone or in person?? I certainly hope this did not take place in your establishment!!!
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Thankfully it was on the phone, but I could see her right outside my establishment sitting in her car yelling. I had the thought of what would I do had she been in my place of business, though... I probably would have threatened to call the police. She was that out of line, and wouldn't even take a breath!
The funny thing was, I looked her up online after the fact and, drumroll, she RUNS a drug rehab facility and is IN CHARGE of providing care and aide (mental and otherwise) for the patients! I couldn't believe it.
Ahh, I can laugh it off now, but I was shaking after dealing with her!
Luckily the crazy ones are so few, it just makes all my awesome clients stand out more!
I applaud Shelley for how she handled her situation - I don't think I could have done it! :)
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Wow. I think I would have locked the door! BIG hug to you after that nonsense.
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I like Christine's answer, too, btw. Any normal, reasonable client would accept her apology and reschedule.
I wanted to add, though, be sure that you 'redeem' or whatever amazon local does, that lady's voucher for the service. There is a lot of fraud going on, where bad clients purchase those deals,come in for service and act unreasonable, put the service provider on the defensive or try and get freebies and then complain to amazon local/groupon/etc about the service to get their money back.
It happens.
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Shelley, in retrospect, how do you feel about your decision and execution?
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Permalink Reply by Miss D on
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You handled it very well. Also you probably avoided a possible bad Yelp review. With being upstairs and able to run down and accommodate that client your lucky to be so close to make it happen in a timely manner where I am 45 minutes from my office and my conversation would have been a bit different but still professional. All in all, GOOD JOB!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Shelley Hancock on
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I sure wish I was just upstairs.....no, I'm about a 17 minute drive away in the middle of the day!!
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Thanks for your replies gals!! There are two reasons why I went ahead with her appointment. You may want to get comfy, this is going to be a long one! :-)
The first had more to do with me than her. My husband and I always say to each other as we leave the house in the morning "Remember to prepave". I'm sure you are wondering what the heck that means, right?! Each day many things happen to us by default because we're not consciously thinking about what we would like to have happen......actually, I think we are hardwired to think more about what we don't want than what we want. If we spend a moment prepaving an event (new client, tough phone conversation, job interview...you get my point!), thinking about how we want things to turn out, those events are more apt to go just the way we would like them to go. So, as I'm driving to see this woman, intead of letting my mind run rampant about how nasty she is, I was prepaving how I wanted the whole thing would go down. I wanted the appointment to be pleasant, I wanted to feel in control and not nervous and I wanted to WOW her. The appointment went down just as I had prepaved.....it was a lesson for myself to see how grounded and focued I could be. I felt that I passed with flying colors.
The second reason: There have been two times (thank goodness only two) in my 25 year career that the relationship with a new client has gotten off to a very rocky start and they both ended up becoming very good long term clients. We don't know what is going on in someones life at that moment to make them act out. I actually did have a pleasant time with this woman...she turned out to be okay. Swearing such as Nicole had to deal with...well, that's just not acceptable at all.
Will I pursue this woman as a return client? Nope, not interested in seeing her again! But I do feel that I learned something valuable for myself. I would love to hear more thoughts from ya'll!!
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That's a great reason for handling it the way you did, Shelley!
I don't know that I could have done it, but its something I'm working on. I'm a newbie still (less than 3 years in the biz) and only just recently grew that backbone and assertiveness that we need to deal with some clients properly and not get walked all over, lol. Next step... learning to kill em with kindness! ;)
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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on
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I would have prevented the situation altogether.
We email any cancellations a notification of their cancellation so there is a paper trail of the situation. If they don't respond acknowledging the cancellation, we call them to let them know it was sent.
I know you don't get anywhere by making the client wrong -- even when they are -- but you need to have the facts on your side.
But we don't always prevent every calamity -- and right, wrong or crazy -- you have to deal with the client.
if we CAN accommodate such clients, we will. Since you could -- and did -- I think you went the right way about it.
I have become less concerned about YELP and the like -- those who pay the least are likely to complain the most and are usually unconsolable when they think they have been wronged. When we have the facts on our side, I am happy to reply to YELP reviews stating the facts -- time stamps on emails an on our voice recorders -- to demonstrate we are professional and we do have standards for dealing with our clients. Most people will figure out what is really going on.
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