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The Art of Salon Small Talk

Posted by Kate
Dated: September 24, 2007 3:26 PM

At the launch of the forthcoming Diploma in Hair and Beauty Studies, one of the main themes that kept recurring was the difficulty young people have communicating with clients when they first arrive on the shop floor.

It's not that they are deliberately rude, just that they don't have the confidence or the know-how to start a conversation.

Yet in many ways those skills are just as important as the styling skills learned in NVQ training - after all, hairdressing is just about as sociable as an industry can be.

Like most things, social skills are naturally picked up with experience. Plus, they become much easier when you have a client/expert relationship; but if if you find it tricky, there are always the top five hairdressing small talk questions to fall back on...

  1. Have you been/ are you going anywhere on holiday?

  2. Are you going out tonight/ any plans for the weekend?

  3. When/where did you last have your hair cut?

  4. Did you see the X Factor/ Big Brother/ Strictly Come Dancing (delete as appropriate) on Saturday?

  5. How are you getting on with your Christmas Shopping? This one, of course, is not the most useful in the spring and summer months!!!!!!!!

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Comments (2)

Posted by emil mcmahon
Dated: September 24, 2007 10:34 PM

I believe Kate has touched on something very relevant here. Young people are losing the art of communicating, mainly due to technology.... text messages and emailing do not need social harmony and interaction... they are just shortened dialogue...and this has had a dramatic impact on their ability to communicate with people on a one to one basis.
BUT.... we must remember that clients, from many differing age groups, expect hairdressers and assistants to talk about hair (and looking after it) as a matter of fact; this is a part of the clients visit, therefore young people need to understand hair and products so that they can find some common ground that makes the client feel like they are in the hands of a professional at all times.
'Junk chat'...holidays, X factor etc naturally have a place in the salon.... but only when all the service elements are satisfied for the client.
We need to push our younger team members into having 'good old fashioned' communication with the client if we want her (or him) to return to us...and if we do that, we will ensure that our assistants become good, busy, popular hairdressers.

 

Posted by Kate
Dated: September 25, 2007 9:19 AM

Thanks for your comments, Emil. Do you have any thoughts on what can be done to help nurture these skills?

 

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