If you’ve drafted polices, but you don’t make clients aware of your house rules, you might as well scrap them. The easiest way to communicate salon policies is to list them on your website and, if clients book online, add a section where clients must acknowledge and accept any policies, including cancellation and no-show, before booking an appointment. From there, you can take a 360-degree approach, like Candice Idehen, owner of Bed of Nails Nail Bar in New York: “We relay policies and procedures via the phone when clients book appointments, face-to-face when clients walk in, via email with appointment confirmation and via our website.”
Katy Hancock, owner of Sugar N Spice Nail Salon in West Valley City, Utah, and author of Start to Success: A Nail Technician’s Guide to the Industry, requires that first-time clients sign a salon waiver that outlines policies and legal terms so that they’re aware of and accept any rules and risks associated with the service. After you draft your policies and procedures, “make sure the agreement is legally binding by having a legal representative look over and adjust the documents as needed,” says Hancock. Though some policies may have legal implications, be sure to relay to your attorney that you simply want her to review legal ramifications and appropriate wording—not rewrite your policies in legalese.
Finally, clearly communicating your policies, explaining their benefits and being open to questions will help with any blowback you might anticipate from clients. “Educate your guests if they have questions on your policies and procedures to help them understand how they, the clients, benefit from each policy being in place—and then stay true to those policies,” Hancock says.
Have you implemented any policies or procedures that have streamlined the salon experience for you and your clients? Let us know in the comment below!
-Karie L. Frost is a New York-based freelance writer with a proclivity for all things beauty and fitness.
This article was first published int the March 2018 issue of NAILPRO
[Images courtesy of Getty Images]
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