Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva:
What is up, and welcome back back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host Britt Seva, so stoked to dive into the re-do roadmap today. We’ve talked about redos before on the podcast, but I wanted to just give you a nitty-gritty, straight to the point, how to navigate redos, how to prevent redos from the start.
Because for me, when there’s ever a problem, I’m always like, let’s go back to the source. You know how if you have an ailment, you can treat the ailment, but if you go back and treat the root of the problem, the ailment will never happen again? I’m super into that. So what I want to do is go back to the root of why redos happen, how to negotiate your way around them, out of them, and then how to prevent them from the future is my ultimate goal.
This episode was sparked by a rating or review left from a thriving sales podcast listener. If you want me to answer your question here on the podcast, you can go to the Thriving Stylist Podcast wherever you listen. If you go to the iTunes ratings and reviews and leave me any feedback about the show, give me a star rating, and then ask your question. I pull a lot of future topics from there. This is one of them.
This listener said, “Britt, I’m curious. Some days I feel like I kill it, and other days there will be one little thing that a client nitpicks about. Where do I draw the line between bringing them in for a redo and charging them for a service change?”
This is such a great question. Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt that way before, too, where some days you’re like top of the world, I’m the best I got this. I’m amazing. Then some days you’re like, maybe I should just hang up my shears and never do this again because you question everything you’ve always done. Very typical.
I can remember times in the salon where clients would call and be like, Ooh, you know, I think I need to redo. You missed a highlight, like a strand. It’s like, oh, okay, you want to come in for a redo so that I can place a singular highlight in your hair? The answer was yes. It was things like that where you’re like, oh my gosh, what are we even talking about here?
It makes you wonder, is there an actual problem or are you just bored, and do I have the time to entertain your boredom? All these things go through your mind. I want to talk about redos as whole, how to navigate that client who feels like you missed a highlight, whatever that means, and then how to prevent this from happening in the future.
One of the ‘real talk’ moments we have to have at the top of this episode is the reality that redos are always your fault. I know it doesn’t feel that way. When we think redo, we think annoying client. It’s like those two phrases are synonymous with each other. A client calls for a redo, and you immediately see red and you’re so angry.
It’s because the ego gets in the way. I think when we hear the word ego, it always has this negative connotation. It doesn’t have to be like that, though. All of us have an ego. It’s just part of how we’re wired. When somebody asks for a redo, it essentially feels like, Hey, you didn’t do a good job. Nobody wants that call of, Hey, something’s wrong. Hey, you didn’t make me happy.
When we hear that somebody needs a redo, all of those emotions come up for us. As service providers, we never want anyone to walk away feeling unhappy. That’s great and that’s what makes you excellent as a service provider. But you’re also a human being, and so it’s going to happen. You will have redos for the rest of your life, and so it’s important to know how to navigate it.
The reason I say the redos are always the stylist’s fault is because you didn’t set the expectation correctly from the start. When I talk about setting the expectation correctly, under-promise and over-deliver is always the key rule. Don’t say that you can knock it out of the park if you can only get a line drive. Be really realistic about what is achievable within any given service visit.
Then the other thing is too, often in our mind we know exactly what we’re going to do. But if what lives in our mind and what lives in the client’s mind are not the same thing, you won’t get the right result. I’ve had to learn that the hard way.
The women who work with me in my business will tell me–I hear this from them every week, Britt, we can’t read your mind. But in my brain, I’ll say a sentence and expect them to put all the pieces together. Well, can’t you guys just figure it out? Can’t you just fill in the blanks? No, they can’t.
We do that as stylists too where, in our mind we’ll say, oh yeah, let’s do this. Let’s make it really rich. We’ll add some golden undertones. I think you’re going to love it. In our mind that might make complete sense, but to the client, they’re like wait, what? Even if you’ve shown them swatches and pictures, it might not be enough. So we’ll talk about what to do to navigate that to ensure that it is enough.
But if you haven’t done a thorough consultation–and not just the pre-service consultation, but actually the post-service consultation, because that’s a thing–if you haven’t done both correctly, you’re actually setting yourself up for a redo.
Now, I know some of you are already like, well, sometimes a client’s just crazy. I don’t like that word “crazy”. I don’t think we should label people like that at all. But sometimes we’ll label our guests like, she was just one of those that can not be pleased, or something like that.
If she was somebody that can not be pleased, you should not have done their hair from the start. Almost always, when we walk into a guest visit, you know in the consultation if it’s going to go well or not. I have definitely done some clients where I’m in the back lab formulating and I’m like, this is a real roll of the dice. I feel like this person is being combative with me. I feel like our communication is strained. I feel like they’re talking in circles.
If you have somebody who’s in your chair who talks in circles or says they want one thing and then three minutes later, they want something else, why are you putting anything on their hair? Why are you putting a chemical on their head? Why are you bringing shears anywhere near them? Why are you bringing them to the shampoo bowl?
Do that gut check. If anything in your gut is like, whoa, this is not feeling right. I feel like there’s a disconnect between me and this client, then don’t do it. I have 100% had a client in my chair; they drove from however far to come in and find me, we sat there, started the consultation, and I will just halfway through say, you know what? I can tell. I’ve been doing this long enough to know we’re not a good fit and I’m not gonna be you doing your hair today.
Might that client be upset? Definitely. But are they going to be more upset and take up twice as much of your time if they call back for a redo? Yeah. Then you start going down a rabbit hole with them when they want a refund and you’ve already done all this work. I’d rather not get the money today and not have to do the work than do the work, have to refund the money, and have to do a redo. That to me is the worst case scenario.
If anything in your gut is like, ooh, I feel like I’m not on the same page with this guest. Instead of labeling them as this, that, or the other thing, let’s just label them as not a good fit for our business. It’s okay to invite them to leave your chair. It’s much better to do that than do a service that you’re not sure of.
When I say redos are always your fault, generally it’s lack of effective communication mutually and/or some guests can not be satisfied… then don’t do their hair. When you start seeing those red flags of–and here’s some of the red flags: the guests is like, well, the last three stylists I’ve seen weren’t able to get it right? Part of our ego is like, well, I’m going to be number four and I’m going to crush it.
It’s a roll of the dice. If you want to throw your hat in the ring, you can do that. But when clients start talking like that, if nobody ever gets it right, this is always a challenge for people–is it a challenge for people or are you just somebody who’s not clear in your expectations and can you bridge the gap with the person?
For me, even when I’m seeing those red flags, I will attempt a consultation. Cause listen, maybe they have just had poor experiences in the past. But I can’t set myself up for a future redo. I can tell pretty quickly through consultation if I can bridge the gap or if this is just a guest who is too challenging for me to try and do that with. Definitely make sure in your consultation that you get as much out of it as you can and set yourself up to not have a redo.
All that being said, there is a really fine line between a guest who needs a redo and a guest who’s just bored or picky or wants to be difficult. What I want to do is walk you through, covering your butt from the start, through effective consultation so that no matter what a guest is coming in the door with, you’re always set up for success.
The first thing we want to do is have a redo policy in place. When I look at a redo policy, I’m looking for who, what, when, where, and how. We don’t need the ‘why’. The ‘why’ is because they’re unhappy. We know the ‘why’. But a good redo policy is going to cover who, meaning who is eligible for a redo, what that redo encompasses, when they need to let you know that they need the redo by.
I’ll never forget. There was a guest who called the salon. It had been five weeks since she came in and got her roots touched up. She was like, I think I’m due for a redo. My greys are coming in. I was a salon director, so I was the person who took the call with stuff like this. I would say, well, five weeks is certainly when we’d be expecting to see some regrowth. The regrowth has probably actually been there for some time. So we can get you on the books for another service, but this is not a redo.
She would say, oh, with my previous stylist, the outgrowth took longer to come in. My response was maybe your hair has changed? That part I’m not certain about. But what I do know is by human nature, by the way our bodies are built, within five weeks your hair will have grown about a quarter of an inch to a half of an inch depending. So I would expect to see some outgrowth at that point. That doesn’t qualify for a redo.
But if I didn’t have a policy in place, which in our salon you had to let us know within seven days if you weren’t unhappy, which is actually a really long time. If it’s past the seven days, you’re ineligible. So it’s the ‘when’, having that timeline in there.
Where, and the reason why ‘where’ is so important is if you work in a team-based salon–have you ever had a client call and say, Cali really messed up my hair. I don’t want to see her again. I want to see the owner for a redo. In some salons, that’s cool and that’s the policy.
Definitely in our salon, there were times where a stylist did a client. They didn’t like the client, the client didn’t like them, but then the client came in and had to redo with somebody else and the visit was perfectly fine. Some clients, like I said before, just aren’t a match for any given stylist and sometimes it works out okay.
But you don’t want the client in the driver’s seat. You don’t want the client saying, I don’t want to see Cali. I want to see the owner. You need a policy where it’s like, if you don’t want to see Cali, you can see another equivalent stylist. But the owner is not of that same caliber so that’s not on the table. You’re within your rights as the salon owner to say those kinds of things.
When I say ‘where’, what chair would that client sit in for that redo, what are their options, and what options don’t they have? Then ‘how’, how is this redo going to get done? Is there going to be a partial charge, no charge at all? What are the terms of that?
Now here’s the catch. If you’re going to have a redo policy, how many of you are pre-booked out more than three weeks? By pre-booked out, I mean I couldn’t get in to see you anytime within the next three weeks. You have a problem, friend, because you are not set up to do things like redos. You’re not set up to call out sick, not set up to do a lot of things.
But you can’t tell a redo, okay, I’ll get you in for a redo, but my next available is in four weeks. By four weeks, the window for you to do a redo is essentially closed because now you’re dealing with things like regrowth and all kinds of other things. You’ve actually made a mess for yourself.
So then your option becomes, okay, I’ll stay late. I’ll come in early. I’ll come in on my day off to do this redo. Is that really the business model you want to be running? Probably not. With this redo policy, make sure that you are also set up with a scalable business model so you have the capacity to fit those redos in.
Okay. Then number two, we need an excellent consultation. For me, excellent consultation has to embody all four of the key learning styles. We have visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic. You have to include all four in every single consultation, and we explain how to do that in Thrivers Society. But everybody learns differently. Everybody communicates differently.
Here’s what you can’t do. You can’t say, are you a visual learner? No. You just have to hit all four. You just have to have a structural system where you do all four things. Because some people learn by touching. Some people learn by writing. Some people learn by reading. Sometimes some people learn by hearing. Some people learn by speaking. Some people need to touch hair swatches in their hands. Because everybody learns a little differently, your system should be to hit them all.
For me, I don’t learn by hearing. It’s essentially impossible. You could tell me anything. I’ll sit there and nod and smile and I can hear it, but I’m not going to retain that information well at all. I can learn by speaking it back to you. I can definitely learn by reading it. But if you were to just talk at me for a consultation, guarantee I’m not going to be happy because it’s too hard for me to learn that way. So you have to make sure you’re meeting your guests where they’re at. If you’re not, you’re setting yourself up for a redo.
Number three, repeat the desired result back followed by the plan. Again, for those of us who are auditory learners, you need to repeat in full exactly what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, what the execution is going to be, how much it’s going to cost. Yes, we talk about price in the consultation. You need to clearly express the plan before you take them to the bowl, go in the back to formulate, put bleach in a bowl. Anything like that, do not do it until you’ve repeated the plan back and you’ve explained the pricing.
Number four, make notes about what was discussed. I actually have a fairly good memory, but I’ll forget the nuances from time to time. I’ll have flashes of memory of certain things. So for me, when I was in the salon, I would make really detailed notes about everybody. I’d write down, complained that 10 years ago she had highlights that fried her hair. I would make notes about things that were even insignificant because if a guest came back for a redo, I’d be able to say, listen, you mentioned that 10 years ago, you were feeling the same way. Does it feel the same as that? Or does it feel different than that?
Just by being knowledgeable, it actually covers your butt. It actually makes people you in a different way and it sets you up for success because if a guest calls and says, this turned out cooler than I expected, but in your notes you say, when we were looking at swatches, the swatches that you pointed out liking was the 5-NA swatch. That’s a natural Ash. That’s incredibly cool. So based on what we talked about, I did deliver that result.
If you don’t have those notes–let’s say somebody calls a week later, you might not remember the exact swatch, but she might. By having those notes and those key points, it makes it a lot harder for a guest to challenge you on what is a redo, what is not.
Then number five, close the visit by saying, so what’s your favorite part of your hair today? That’s the post consultation that I think a lot of time gets missed. Because then again, you’re kind of greasing the wheel.
If they say, oh, I love the movement or I love the way that this looks so natural. Then if a guest calls back for a redo and says it looks too blended, say you know, I’m really surprised to hear that because when we talked at the end of your visit I actually made note that you said your favorite part was that it looked so natural. So then explain to me where we missed the mark.
Again, it’s like you’re creating these talking points where you sound very well-educated versus if you go into a call about a redo and you start saying things like, I feel like I gave you what you asked for. That’s defensive versus having a conversation where you said, you said X, Y, and Z. I delivered A, B and C. Tell me where we’re missing the mark. It’s a more elevated level of conversation and you’ll navigate it so much more seamlessly.
Okay. So then what do you do if somebody does call and ask or redo? First of all, I always say, take a beat. You can take a beat, you could take a breath, you can check your ego. You have to, and just listen.
Have you ever heard there’s a whole science to conversation and anybody will feel a conversation went well if they did most of the talking? If you’re in a conversation and you get to do most of the talking, you walk away and you’re like, man, that felt great because we love to talk.
So when you’re on the phone with somebody who wants to redo, let them talk. Don’t try and interrupt. Listen to it the whole way through, even if you think they’re wrong, it doesn’t matter. Let them talk. It’s important. It’s a part of their process. So let them talk, listen to what they’re saying.
Any call about a redo or disappointment in service is a trust exercise. When we look at the marketing funnel and the retention funnel, trust is at the very top of the retention funnel. For somebody to give you the opportunity to have a redo or make something right, they’re trying to build trust with you. It’s your option to build the trust or not build the trust. That’s up to you. It’s a relationship. You can always decide, but they’re trying. You need to understand that even though they’re upset, they’re attempting to build trust. Keep that in mind as part of what is happening here.
I want you to think of this as a restaurant example, put yourself in the shoes of the person asking for a redo. Have you ever gone to a restaurant and you order something and what shows up is wrong? It might be a little thing, like you ordered hash browns and got home fries. Or it might be a big thing, like you’re a vegetarian and your omelet has bacon in it.
There are some things where you’re like, well, I like home fries. I’ll eat them anyway. There’s some things where you’re like, no I can’t eat this. When something shows up wrong, it’s essentially a redo, but it’s a restaurant redo.
Now here’s the thing. I tend to think that the server and/or the cook didn’t say, you know what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna put bacon in here. I’m going to make it really tricky. They weren’t out to get you. There was a miscommunication somewhere. I don’t think the server intentionally did you dirty. However, often we get mad and we’re like, oh, if they would just listen.
Your clients feel that way too. They feel the same. If he or she had just listened. Meanwhile, maybe the waiter was having a really rough day and was going through it. Or maybe they have a hearing issue and you just didn’t understand. They’re not a bad person, it’s simply a mistake. I want you to think about that too.
When a client calls for a redo, they just didn’t want the bacon in their omelet. They’re trying to figure out how do we get the bacon out of here? I still want to eat and I’d like to eat at your restaurant, but I can’t do bacon. So what are you going to do for me? Try and think of it that way. The fact that they’re even calling for the redo is they’re trying to make a partnership with you up to if you want to get into it. But I would at least give it a chance.
Then what I want you to do is to ask yourself, okay, listen, is what they’re asking for legitimately a potential redo, or is this something where they just changed their mind? Here’s an example. For me, we had a couple people who would call and they’d say, I did this haircut. My husband hates it. I need you to fix it. They’d want that as a redo though.
No, that’s a mind change. You were excited about your haircut. You left happy, but your partner didn’t like it. I understand they didn’t like it, but I’m not going to fix that for free. That’s something between you all, and it’s not something that I’m going to be taking on.
Or somebody who was blonde who decided to go brunette and went home and somebody said, oh my gosh, I don’t even recognize you. Then calls you and says, I need you to take it back. You didn’t tell me it was going to be this dark, and they start to spiral and spin. Well, I told you in the consultation this was going to be a huge change.
You should be saying these things to your clients. If somebody wants a major color change, you should prepare them and say, I’m happy to take you from blonde to brunette. Here’s some of the things that are going to happen; people are going to say, whoa, I’ve never seen you look like this. Wow. This is a shocking change. Mentally prepare them so that if they come back to you with those things, you can say, I told you that was going to happen.
Because if you don’t, it’s like ammo for them to ask for the redo versus you just saying, yeah, I told you that was going to happen. So make sure that in your consultation, you’re covering those sorts of things. Those are things where it’s, you changed your mind. I can’t do it.
If somebody feels like the tone is off, the cut is uneven. The color’s not what they asked for. I want you to take that beat and step back and say, did I really do right by that client? Do I really– think back to the consultation and say, did I really hit the mark on that one? Or does it look beautiful? It’s just not what they really wanted. Check yourself.
One of the things I know to be true about redos is that if you execute the redo and it goes well, that’s a client for life. Because it is a trust building exercise, if you execute properly, that person’s going to be with you for years. Ask yourself is this a rational request, or is it not?
If it is somebody just being picky; if it’s like, okay, I could see they wanted an additional highlight, but I didn’t do anything wrong, that’s a matter of educating them to say, I understand you’re used to seeing a highlight every quarter inch on your head. Let me explain why I didn’t do that and why that’s not standard practice in my business. Sometimes it’s a matter of educating your guests on the flip side.
Then, even with that, decide did I like Kelly? Do I want her to be a part of my business? If so, maybe you bring her back in and you do a foil, if that’s what she needs. If, to you, it’s totally ridiculous and silly then just say, I can do another mini highlight. It’s probably going to be a dozen or so highlights, not just one piece. It wouldn’t be a blended effect for me to just do one. So if we were to do an additional mini highlight, the cost on that is X. Is that something you want to book today?
Often it’s just educating the guest. Whenever we hear redo, we get super defensive. I want you to think of redo as the opportunity to educate yourself, educate your guests, and expand upon your business. How can I make sure that I’m not in this position ever again? Redos are learning opportunities, and if we see it that way it really changes the course of the conversation, the consultations in the future and how you navigate these guests.
Okay. I hope this has helped you. I hope you have some new, fresh perspective and verbiage in your pocket. As I said before, make sure you leave me a rating or a review on iTunes and you may just be featured on an upcoming episode. You guys so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next.
