We never like to have those uncomfortable conversations with someone who is ultra-demanding, disrespectful and mean to us.
We always seem to lack the confidence to say anything to a client no matter how disrespectful they are, because “they are paying our bills”, “they are a family friend”, “I am just starting to build a clientele” and my favourite “the customer is always right”. Well, hopefully by the end of this blog you will be able to find some sort of courage within yourself to change the situation.
When we go into that dark place we call the “fear zone” when a client is being rude, rushing us, being mean and ultra critical, we naturally have a dialogue with ourselves that gives us excuses as to why we shouldn’t say anything. I’d like to take a moment to debunk those fear zone messages. If you have never struggled with these, I applaud you, but for the majority of technicians, we truly don’t want to lose the clientele no matter how bad they treat us.
Fear Zone Message 1
“They are paying our bills” This is a fact, every client that walks in your door IS paying your bills. At what cost will you allow people to treat you poorly for that $35 service? If someone is paying me thousands of dollars and I only see them once a year I could probably let it slide. However, they are not, and the truth is there are many more potential clients out there willing to pay for that $35 service and will be thankful and appreciative of what you do and your time. I love nothing more than seeing a client pay $20 for something and they are jumping up and down because they are so happy, what a great feeling!
Fear Zone Message 2
“They are a family friend”, this is a hard one because you truly don’t want to cause any hurt feelings especially amongst family. However, I would like to gently remind you that even though someone is family they still need to treat you respectfully.
Fear Zone message 3
“I am just starting to build a clientele.” Being new can be difficult, we are just getting our bearings together, the books are starting to get busier, then you get slapped with a doozy of a client. There are probably a million things running through your head at the moment, “they could ruin your business”, “spread the word of how terrible you are and you’ll never get busy”. Well, here is the reality, you actually cannot make every single person, 100% of the time happy, so, with that said let them go, be thankful for the learning curve and continue building your business. Your business isn’t built on just that one client, and we have all had those experiences, take your time to pick yourself back up after that crappy experience and keep on swimming!
Fear Zone message 4
“The customer is always right.” This one drives me crazy, we are told from the get-go, the customer is always right. Even though, on the other hand, we are the professionals and KNOW better. So if that coffin or stiletto shape cannot be done on super short nails then we need to say so. Worst case scenario, they get mad, storm out and never come back, the reality in this situation, they have probably sat in worse chairs, had their cuticles cut, got burnt multiple times and they still went back because they felt like they had no other choice. The truth is at the end of the day your client will respect your honesty, and be thankful that you are honest for not giving them weird looking nails, and will be a life long client and that my friend is something you cannot go wrong with.
Now we will let those thoughts simmer, and if you want some tips on letting go of that difficult client, watch for our next blog! Follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter to get a notification when it's ready!