// June 1st, 2011 // 2 Comments » // Our Prices, Sergio Giannasso online, Services, Special Offers, The Salon
Ciao a tutti,
I was at lunch over the weekend, with some friends, and their friends.
As comes with the territory, one of the guests, a beautiful lady who shall remain anonymous, was telling me about the awful experience she’d had when she took up a ’70% off’ offer she’d found online for a Brazilian Blowdry at a well-known and respected hairdressers in Hampstead that she’d never visited before. She paid £70.
She was not pleased because the treatment that should have lasted up to three months hadn’t lasted three days. She’d also left the salon unhappy (my tip – never leave the salon unhappy – sometimes we make genuine mistakes and we want to correct them, not have you walking around miserable)… Worse was how she was treated when she called back to complain. Speaking to the manager, he told her after a few minutes that she was boring him and then put the phone down! Twice. Even with the discount, she’d still spent £70 and come away bitterly disappointed.
What shocked me most, though, was that the lady would still consider a massive discount voucher again, despite her experience. The hunt for the deal is apparently, sometimes, worth the risk.
And there’s the issue.
It’s tough out there for any kind of service industry, including hairdressers.
And we’re trying to build a reputation for service. We want our customers to look great, and feel special. We want to spend time with them, we want to understand what look they’re after, how their life is – how much time they have – or not – to get ready in the morning before rushing out to a busy life.
And we want to give them a little lovely respite from their busy lives.
Clearly, we want them to be happy, and for them to come back, again and again, and tell their friends! And if we mess up (we really try not to, but we are not always perfect) we want them to tell us, so that we can put it right. Before they leave the salon.
But for how long can a salon give best service, the time that clients deserve, and the experienced staff member they deserve, at 70% off the list price?
The temptation is huge in these credit crunch times. The crisis of needing more people through the door, more customers, even if they’re not paying much.
My advice would be check first whether you are actually getting 70% off, or whether the stated “normal price” is inflated to make the ’70% off deal’ look great?
And also, ask yourself how you’re going to get the best service for such a reduced price?
The danger is this. If a business discounts that much, there is a chance it won’t feel so motivated to deliver great customer service when it comes to redeeming your voucher – especially if there’s a full paying customer sitting in the next seat.
It’s all about mass marketing so don’t be surprised in this recession if there are some businesses taking part that are way more interested in the cash, than they are in you. A small business trading at a 70% discount may well think: “A thousand vouchers is loads of work for not much profit; and we’ll never see them again ‘cos they’ll just move on to the next discount voucher somewhere else.”
We know a bit about this because we did a big voucher campaign through a voucher site called Groupon last year and we know how difficult it can be to maintain service at such reduced rates to such large numbers. On the one hand we welcomed the new customers that came and especially those that come back time and again. On the other, a lot has changed in the past year and an ad that used to sell a few hundred vouchers can now sell closer to a thousand.
We still do vouchers from time to time. Like any business, we always want to attract new clients so we can make them feel amazing when they leave and welcome them when they come back. And when do, it’s with www.Wahanda.com – a site that works well with both the users and the businesses involved. But we can’t and won’t go to bargain basement prices… How would we look after you and your hair properly with such heavy discounts that drive the prices down and take the service with it?
In the end we’d be selling both ourselves and you short.
In a nutshell, we are a service industry; we’re not selling sofas, or peas. We’re here to look after you, to make you look and feel the best you can.
And so we’re sticking to our guns, in the hope that you stick with us.
Our advice is:
Yes, check out the prices and make sure you’re not paying over the odds.
Then, before choosing, tread carefully before accepting that too-good-to-be-true voucher… Check you’re not saving a few quid in return for some insultingly poor service.
Always stick to genuine word-of-mouth recommendations.
Don’t trust the blurb.
Find a salon you like the look of and ask if the the owner actually works there – somebody who genuinely cares about the reputation.
Ask about loyalty schemes.
See what kind of personal touches there are to customer service.
Read the pricelist, website, salon blog, salon newsletter, reviews etc. Who’s going the extra mile for their clients these days? How does the salon handle clients with a complaint?
And if you want to ask me or a member of my team about any of the above feel free. Pick up the phone and we’ll be more than happy to help.
Have a great week (looks like the sun is back by Friday:)
Un bacio,
Sergio”
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