Building trust and a relationship with your client

Hey, you guys welcome to Blueleaf connections, where we bridge the gap between the student and the licensed professional. I just want to say, I've missed you guys. I have had some things going on. So it's been awhile. I will fill you in on everything that I've had going on later. But tonight I wanna talk to you. One-on-one face-to-face well, not really face to face, but I want to talk to you. One-on-one about the importance of a thorough consultation. The consultation is the most important part of the service that you will have with your guests. The consultation gives you the opportunity to build trust and explain expectations to your guests, not just their expectations of what they want you to do, but you know, you're going to explain to them your expectations, uh, you know, what you can do for them. You want to make that consultation very personal. You want to make sure that you are in a place where you can pay close attention to the guests, because they are coming to you for a certain reason, whether they called over the phone, they saw your work online. They walked in regardless the universe, and that person chose you to perform a specific surface on them. So you want to make sure you are all in when doing a client consultation, one of the first things that you want to do, um, you want to make sure you're greeting is very, you know, open and warm. You want to make that guest feel comfortable during the client consultation. Um, I don't know if I stayed at before, but this is this. The client consultation gives you the opportunity to build trust. So you don't want to be abrupt with that guest. You want to greet them with a smile eye contact. You want to make sure you exude confidence, a level of humility. You want to, you're going to be given off a lot of things, a lot of different vibes when doing a consultation, but you want to make sure that the vibes that you give off to that guest to the new guests or at returning guests are positive vibes. Once you have introduced yourself, you got to know the client a little bit and you know, sometimes they'll start, you know, talking to you before you can even answer questions. If they do that, just go ahead and listen. So once the introduction is set in place and you know who she is, or he is vice versa, you want to take out an intake form. You know, when you go to the doctor, they give you this form and it's 5 million questions on the form and you, them out, you check yes or no, or, um, I've had this, or I haven't had this. Well, your intake form is going to be a little bit like that, but it's going to be geared towards the hair. Um, it might be some things on there that really had that. It might not have anything to do with the hair, like when the client's birthday is, or, um, some, some intake forms we'll ask if the client is on any specific medications, because sometimes that alters the hair and certain, certain medications do. Um, and if you're familiar with certain medications, that's great. Um, usually the guests will tell you, you know, my doctor said that this is a side effect and it may cause thinning, or it may cause some shedding. So these are the things that are going to be on the intake form. So you're going to give your guests ample enough time to fill out that intake form. Once they have that intake form complete, you want to stay, you know, to your guests. Can I have a few minutes to read over this? So you want to go and read over the intake form. You want to read over it carefully and thoroughly. So you have an understanding of the history of your client's hair, but I guess that's right, because when you go into the doctor's office, they get a history of your health. So when you have your client fill out the intake form, you're going to get a history of their hair, which helps some stylists don't use intake forms. I like to use the intake form because on that form, depending on, you know, what you have going on, sometimes you can't remember every question that you may need to ask that guests. And then they leave me like, oh man, I should have asked him them. When was what type of shampoo they use? I don't know. It could be anything, but the intake form helps you remember what to ask that question. So you've gone over the intake form. Once you've gone over the intake form, it may be some things on there that you don't understand. Make sure you ask open-ended questions about the things that you might not understand, um, to be clear. So you've gone over the intake form. So you're going to talk about the styles, the cuts, the colors, the extensions, the expectations of the guests. So you're going to listen to what that guests, what she wants away. He wants. You're going to thoroughly listen. And once you listen to what they want, you're going to go back and you're going to repeat back to them. What they told you. Once you repeat back to them, what they've told you, then you it's your turn to use your license, use your professionalism to say, yes, ma'am. I can do that. Or no, ma'am I don't think you're here strong enough for that service, but we can, I can offer you this. You want to always

Have an alternative. You want to be truthful about the time that it may take you to get them to that style, or it may be a technique that you have no idea about doing don't agree to something that you don't know or you don't understand. You want to make sure that if you are performing a service that you are well-trained and performing that service, you want to make sure that if you perform that service, that the guests, that the integrity of the hair of the guests can take that service. The client will respect you. The guests will respect you more for being truthful with him or her about what you can do, what you can't do about what can be done to their hair and what can not be done to their hair. They just don't want you to agree to everything that they say, you know, in a perfect world. Sometimes you get that perfect guest to where, you know, you can do that technique and you know, you can do that style and you knock it out of the park. Other instances, you know, it, it's not a perfect world. Maybe I want to say 70% of the time, you're going to get a guest that has some challenges or that, you know, might need a color correction. You can eventually get them to that, but explain to them the journey. So once you have done that, and I will say this, when you are doing a consultation with the guests, having your look book, which means you, that, you know, your pictures that you take on Instagram, that you can kind of show them your work. A lot of times, a client will bring in a photo. And that photo has been filtered, has been tampered. Um, it's from another stylist, that's posted it. You have no idea what technique they use. You're just guessing at it. So sometimes it helps. If you can pull up a picture of your own, that's similar to what the guest brought in. And then you guys go back and forth with that. So once you guys, once you and your guests, you guys have agreed on the style, agreed on a color, agreed on a technique. You want to talk to them about maintenance and upkeep. You just don't want to do that service and let them go. You need to let them know how often they need to come back and get their rates routes done. You need to let that guests know how often they need to come back and get their extension, the maintenance on their extensions, or for anything that they get. You need to let them know what the cost is, how often they need to come. Not only that you need to let them know what take home products. They need to take care of their hair, how to comb their hair, how to style it. You know, don't put your flat iron too hot. Don't make sure you have heat protection. You need to make sure that you go over all of these things with your guests. And one of the most important things, when you're sitting there, you want to make sure you quote a price before you start on their head. You don't want to start applying the color. And you say, oh, by the way, this really is a color. Correction is going to be$400 or$500, or it might be$60. You don't know what that person's budget is. So you want to make sure that before you start any service, you quote a price. So to kind of recap and, and talk to you, go over what I'm saying. You want to make sure you built a good, strong, solid relationship with that client with a returning client. Just because you've done someone's hair before. That does not negate that they need a consultation. They might want something different. You want to treat your new guests, just like your, oh gosh, your, oh gosh, just like your new guests. You want to give each person who comes in to visit you. You want to give them that wow factor. You want to make them feel special. You want them to know that they are special because they're coming to you for a service. Not only just for a service, but they are coming to you. Not just to look good, but they're coming to you to feel good. Because if you can make someone look good, you're going to make them feel good. And sometimes it's not even about the service that you're performing. It's about someone listening to them because sometimes people don't have someone to actually listen and hear what they're saying. A lot of times in our industry, our job goes a little further than actually being a hairstylist or a barber. We are counselors sometimes. And sometimes being a counselor means just sit back and listen to what that guest is saying. One of the things that I like to do when I'm doing a consultation, I really don't like, consultating where the guest is looking in the mirror and I'm standing behind them looking in the mirror. I like to come around to the front of the chair and give eye to eye contact as if I'm having a conversation, because it makes it more personable for me. It does. I like to look in your face. I don't want to look in your face through the mirror. So, you know, that works for me. It might not work for everybody, but that's something that I really feel comfortable doing because I feel like I'm making it more personable, actually taking the time to look in your eyes and understand what you're saying and tell you, yes, we can do this. This will be greater. You know, explaining the process to you. My goal when I'm doing a consultation is to make sure that I build trust because that person, you know, as new, when you're doing your first consultation, that that's a new person. You want to build trust. When you build trust with a person, referrals will come. So the consultation, just like I stated at the beginning, the consultation is the most important part of the service. The consultation will set you up for success, or it will set you up for failure. Blueleaf connections podcast. We want to set you up for success. So the things you want to do, you want to listen. You want to have them fill out an intake form. You want to tell them about at home maintenance. You want to let them know how often they need to come back into the salon. You need to quote that price. Don't be scared to quote the price. They're either going to say yes or no. And if it's something that's a little too expensive, give them an alternative. Don't just say, Hey, this is what it is. Give it alternative. And you know, maybe they'll build up to that price. So you always want to definitely hit every angle, have compassion, be humble, build trust. Those are the things that you want to do. You want to do a great consultation, make a great first impression and be great for that guest. My name is Tamika Morgan, and this is a blue leaf connections. Hopefully I'll be talking to you guys soon. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. If you have ever have any questions or comments or concerns, my website is www.tomakeamortgage.com or find me on Instagram, or you can find me working at blue Lee salon. Thanks. You guys have a good night.