A client’s first impression of your salon is the appearance of you, your colleagues and your work environment. Your clients come to you to make them look and feel good about themselves. If you greet them with untidy hair, dirty clothes and dirty hands and nails you won’t inspire them with confidence. If you don’t care about your own appearance they can hardly expect you to care about theirs!

You should always present a well groomed, and friendly appearance. If you have a uniform it should always be clean and ironed. Hair always needs to be clean and well presented. If it is long it should never get in clients way or cover your face and prevent eye contact. Jewellery should be kept to a minimum and make up should be appropriate and not outrageous.

Many salons will have an established procedure for greeting clients. In many cases this will be the job of the receptionist, however if the receptionist is unavailable, the client should not be left unattended. Normally any other member of staff who is free, or carrying out general duties that can be left (restocking, sweeping or tidying after a previous client) should greet the client as soon as they walk in. If you are with a client and a person walks in an nobody is around rather than leaving them unattended, excuse yourself from your client to greet the new client. You may be able to deal with the enquiry quickly, for example book or cancel an appointment, or you may have to ask the client to wait to speak with another colleague. Whatever the case, at least the visitor will appreciate being dealt with and not feel ignored.

As well as looking professional you have to always act in a professional manner. Your behaviour will be a reflection of the business and as such needs to be of the highest standard. You should be mature, sensible and polite at all times. As well as being friendly and well informed you must always be sensitive to the client’s needs.

Client’s need to feel that they are getting your full attention, show them that you are interested and that you value and respect their needs and opinions

Good communication skills are essential whatever your position in the business.

Work related conversation

Good communication skills are particularly important when assessing a client’s requests and managing client’s expectations. During initial consultations be clear about identifying the client’s needs then explain and reassure clients during treatments. If clients ask for styles and treatments that you may think are unsuitable, be tactful and sensitive in your approach and suggest alternatives that that you feel would be more appropriate.

Social conversation

Always try to keep conversations light and avoid controversial subjects such as religion and politics. Consider the needs of the client when talking them during treatments. Older clients might not want to hear about the music and films you like while younger clients may only want to talk about those things. Be careful to about the content and type of conversations you have, make sure they are appropriate for the client you have. And remember some clients may just want peace and quiet!!