Learn to be ok with Criticism

By Kristie Kesic

Acknowledge it, accept it, learn from it.

I don’t like my hair. It doesn’t look how I thought it would look. It’s too dark. Oh, those dreaded words that make your stomach sink.

No one likes to hear their client is unhappy with the service they’ve just received, (especially if it actually looks amazing and you’ve just spent 5 hours on it), BUT the reality is, there is no way you are going to go through your whole career without hearing the above words, so the sooner you learn to accept it and learn how to deal with it the easier those situations will become and the less overwhelmed by them you will be.

I’ve heard a lot in my time from clients and colleagues so I’ve compiled 3 categories that will help you work through these situations.

ACKNOWLEDGE IT:

Firstly, I’m going to start with something I think some hairdressers are horrible at, and it’s something I think we should all normalise and become good at admitting. Admit when something isn’t looking right.

If you notice something about your client’s colour, that you know isn’t how you expected it to look or you know it’s not what they are expecting it to look like, own up to it. If you can see it’s not right, they are looking at the exact same hair and they are going to notice it too. It’s about having pride in your work. As soon as you notice it, fix it then and there, rather than sending them back to the chair with wet hair hoping when it dries, they won’t say anything, or hoping they are just too nice to say something and just leave the salon saying they love it, when you know they don’t.

We are human, mistakes happen, toners go to ashy, or you play it too safe, and blondes are still too warm. It’s so much nicer for your client and for you, if you just say, I’m sorry the toner has grabbed a bit too much for my liking I’m going to give it a detox to remove some of it so it’s the colour we wanted to achieve. Or I’m sorry the toner isn’t quite strong enough, it’s not quite the colour I envisioned yet, I’m just going to rinse this one and put another one on to make sure we achieve the colour we set out to achieve for you.

TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS……. It’s better to be able to fix something while your client is at the basin or still in your chair. Don’t wait for them to complain, they will respect you so much more for it. Never try and hide the bad outcome but simply not acknowledging it.

Worst case scenario is, if they leave your salon and then someone else notices something is wrong with it. Everyone naturally wants to be told their hair look amazing by someone else so if they get told something negative, they will react and that comes back on us. They will be angrier when they call up after they’ve discussed it with their gf or their husband etc.

It’s natural to go on the defensive and not want to admit fault, or your so busy in salon you don’t have time to fix something then and there, but my 3 Biggest pet hates I hear and something I know clients HATE hearing are.

1. Oh, it’s just the toner that will fade after a few washes. Go home and wash it and after a few washes it will fade. Clients don’t pay money to walk out with a colour they don’t want and be told to wash it themselves and it will fade in a few days. They pay to walk out feeling amazing then and there. If you see something not right. Acknowledge it and fix it before they leave.

2. It’s just the lighting in here. Yes, we all know lighting plays a part is the perception of colour but don’t use this as your excuse if you know it’s not true.

3. They’ve gone home and then have rung up or come back in with a complaint and you say, it didn’t look like that when they left, or you didn’t notice that when they left. When you know yourself, you did notice you just hope they wouldn’t. Now you’re left with an awkward situation because they know you, we just hoping they didn’t notice.

When a client makes a complaint, whether in person, on the phone or thanks to this wonderful world of social media we live in, by letting the whole internet know they’re not happy with a rant and a 1-star view, you need to firstly ACKNOWLEDGE the complaint.

With a few exceptions of people that just will always complain and never be happy, it normally takes a lot for a client to complain, and they don’t want to be ‘that person’. It is extremely important to thank them for their time and acknowledge the situation. Let them speak in full and then apologise. Yes, even if they are a little on the angry side, normally this will help calm them down because you’ve made them feel heard and you have taken ownership for the situation. You then need to make them feel comfortable that you are going to fix it.

Now those few exceptions I mentioned above, yes, we all have had them, the people that no matter how incredible the service was, or their hair is, they are never going to be happy. You can normally pick these ones because they will always straight away ask for a refund. Let me tell you, if anyone straight up asks for a refund, I can pretty much bet they have more of a problem with the cost of the service rather than the outcome of the service. The reason I have a fix before refund policy is, to me giving a refund is an easy way out. Here’s your money back, then you’re no longer my problem.

The problem is, they will have their money back, but if their hair is so bad, they’ve complained, they are still then walking around with shit hair, so the refund hasn’t fixed the problem, it’s just made it go away. This is also a great way to weed out whether it’s a problem with the service or a problem with the price.

Now, as much as I can harp on about acknowledging complaints it’s also important to not ever let a client intimidate you. Some people if they see they are getting to you thrive on this and just keep going because they think they will break you. Don’t let them. You can run out the back and have a moment after (we’ve all been there yes) but they are in your space, you need to remain in control.

ACCEPT IT:

We are dealing with humans and human emotions. People get their hair done to feel the most beautiful version of themselves. As business owners and staff members, we know how each staff member responds to criticism so we adapt our methods and teaching to each person so it’s done in a polite and professional manner and in a way in which you know that person will respond positively and can learn from.

Clients don’t have this same deminer and many just react without thinking. Now let me tell you, if a client is rude or abusive to my staff member, they no longer deal with them, they have me to deal with. I will personally fix their hair up because I never want a client being left with bad hair or hair, they aren’t happy with but then they will never step a foot back in my salon again. It’s taken me a LONG time to be ok with banning clients, but just as we need to accept criticism from clients, clients need to accept its not ok to treat anyone in an aggressive, intimidating way no matter how angry they are.

Criticism comes with the job, being treated badly by a client doesn’t. It’s also important to accept that sometimes no matter how good the hair is it’s not about you doing anything wrong, they just don’t like the service, the outcome, or the salon and that is totally fine. There’s a reason there is so many salons and so many hairdressers in this world because there is a salon and stylist for every person. Don’t take everything personally or so seriously. The only thing you need to take away from each piece of criticism you receive is a lesson.

LESSON:

How are we meant to learn and grow if we don’t make mistakes along the way. The best lessons you’ll ever learn or the biggest break throughs you will have creatively and within your career will come from making mistakes and learning from them.

We should never let a client leave our salon with hair we aren’t happy with. It’s our work and our brand after all.

All in all, we are in the hair, beauty, and customer service industry. Clients are so spoilt with options. Whether we like it or not we are being judged every single day and our work is being criticised. Before they even make an appointment, they are scrolling through our socials, checking out our reviews and listening to feedback from friends. They then choose to come and see us and will judge how we look, how we talk and how the salon looks and feels. Even if the smallest thing doesn’t live up to their expectation, they will let us know.

You are naive in thinking every client you ever do will love your work.

A great hairdresser will acknowledge criticism as part of our job (remember if its constructive not aggressive), accept that we are all going to receive negative feedback throughout our career and learn how to deal and react to each situation. If you know you are a person that doesn’t deal well with criticism and negative feedback, I challenge you to speak up and talk to your boss or colleague and ask for help in ways with dealing with negative feedback, so when it does happen you are better prepared.