Customer Complaints: How To Make The Best Of A Bad Situation Both Online & Offline

Effectively dealing with either unhappy clients or simply difficult customers is a key skill whether you own a salon or work freelance in the industry. Within the hair and beauty business, you’re bound to encounter displeased customers from time to time, so this blog looks a little into best practices on how to make the best of these situations, both online and in the salon environment.

client and stylist not happy with hair outcome

Listen & always remain calm

Whether it’s to your face at the salon, over the phone or online, when a complaint comes in, listen from start to finish and try to never interrupt. Staying calm at this frustrating time will help to diffuse tension and once the customer has had their opportunity to rant and be heard, they are often much calmer themselves.

Never take it personally

It’s easier said than done, but try not to take it personally. If it’s your salon, your treatment or your staff that is coming under fire, try to remember that it’s just one customer out of many and it’s not a personal attack on you.

Don’t argue

No matter how negative or heated the complainant gets, never argue back with them. Remaining professional at all times will impress the potential customers that can overhear the complaint and sets a good example for your other staff.

Find a suitable resolution

Do the best you can to find a suitable resolution as quickly as possible that is both reasonable for your client and your business. If you need some time to decide how best to proceed with dealing with the complaint, take the time to explain this to your client and set a deadline for a resolution. This way, there is an endpoint to the conversation and you can make your decision on how you’d like to deal with the problem without feeling under pressure.

Don’t take abuse

Never accept abusive language or behaviour from a client. No matter how upset they may be, this is a professional environment and you’re within your rights to ask them to calm down and return to talk to you when they can have a conversation about how to resolve the problem.

Don’t let it happen again

The main thing to take away from complaints and bad reviews is how to prevent them from happening more than once. Look into how the problem arose, who was involved, what the actual issue was and work out the best ways you can put practices in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

No matter how great your salon and staff are and how fabulous your treatments can be, unfortunately, dealing with complaints or bad reviews are a way of life. Hopefully, it’s few and far between for your business, but having a process in place for when these things occur will help to diffuse the situation quickly and a resolution to be presented calmly and effectively, leading to the least amount of disruption to the salon as possible.

What are your top tips for dealing with complaints? Share your experiences with us in the comments on Facebook and Twitter.

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