If you run a beauty business long enough, you and your team will run into unhappy or difficult customers. If you’re lucky, it won’t be too often. But it happens. A critical skill for a beauty business owner, manager, or professional is knowing how to handle difficult salon and spa customers.  

Although salons and spas typically hold themselves to high beauty standards, they may not always meet the peculiar expectations of potential and existing customers, even with the most painstaking of efforts. This can lead to legitimate or unwarranted complaints that can quickly degenerate into conflicts.

You must handle these conflicts effectively to maintain your business’s reputation and customer loyalty. In this article, we’ll see four common reasons for conflicts and explore 12 practical tips for handling challenging customers.

How to handle difficult salon and spa customers [8 practical tips]

Tip 1: Remain calm

If the guest is calm, stay calm. Should the guest get angry, remain calm. You’ll gain nothing by losing your cool. 

You run a business that employs staff and serves other customers; they don’t. You’re a professional; they aren’t.  If things get out of hand, your salon has more to lose. No customer wants to visit a beauty establishment that fights with customers. 

Additionally, most angry customers are often diffused with calm responses. 

Tip 2: Take it somewhere private 

Take the disgruntled customers to a private area, away from other customers. You can opt for your office, a free treatment room, or any other private space. 

This is crucial for two reasons: 

1. Angry customers tend to calm down faster when there are no customers around to “perform” for.  
2. Taking them to a private space gives you more control over the situation. 

Besides, you don’t want to allow any customer to cause a scene in front of other guests. It won’t look good for your salon and spa. 

Tip 3: Listen to all parties involved 

There are usually two sides to a conflict. In this case, the customer and member of staff. 

The customer 

First, let the customer in question tell you what happened. Listen to all parties without interrupting. Don’t argue, get defensive, or be so anxious to respond that you miss what they’re saying. 

Sometimes, when clients are being difficult, it’s simply because they feel they’ve not been heard and understood. This is your opportunity to make them feel seen as well as understand what the customer is angry about. 

The staff 

Once the customer is narrating their side of the story, invite your employee involved to tell you their side of things. This will give you the complete picture of the conflict. 

NOTE: It’s advisable to do this in an area separate from where the customer is. The last thing you want is an argument over contrasting versions of events. 

Tip 4: Protect your team

From the jump, make it clear to the aggrieved customers that you won’t entertain abusive behaviour or language towards anyone on your team. 

Avoid the all-too-common practice of beauty businesses siding with customers even when they are wrong. Don’t allow anyone to threaten, abuse, or assault your staff. Your staff must avoid the same. 

If the customer continues to behave unacceptably, ask them to leave the salon premises. Ask security to eject them from your salon’s property if you have to. 

NOTE: If you take the side of a customer who’s in the wrong, your team will never forget it. As a leader, it’s your job to have their backs.

Tip 5: Attempt to resolve the situation

If the customer agrees to participate in the resolution process, the next step is to try to resolve the situation. 

Apologise 

Start by apologising, even if you think you have nothing to be sorry for. A simple “I’m sorry you’re unhappy with your experience” can go a long way to pacify even the angriest of customers. Be sincere and enthusiastic about it. 

Now, this doesn’t mean you must admit to wrongdoing even though you’re in the right. You’re just sorry they’re unhappy with the way things have gone. 

Ask the customer what they want

Ask the client how they’d like to see the situation resolved. 

Now, you don’t have to take their suggestion, especially if it’s unreasonable. But you have to make them feel a part of the resolution process. 

Aim for a win-win

Your resolution should strike a balance between minimising losses for your salon and placating your customers. An example can be a complimentary treatment or discount on their next visit.

While you may not be able to resolve every situation despite your best efforts, some might require some follow-up.

Follow up 

If it’s a conflict you can’t resolve on the spot, let the customer go home with plans to follow up with them later. During your follow-up, restate your apology and suggest the solutions you’ve come up with. Don’t ghost them. You can use Splice to automate the follow-up.

Tip 6: Take notes

Make a note of the details of the conflict and attach it to their customer profiles. If you promise to give them a discount or complimentary service on their next visit, add it too. Also, keep your team informed if certain customers are no longer welcomed at your establishment. 

Taking details like this will help to prepare your team to handle previously aggrieved customers in the future, avoiding further conflict. 

Splice, our all-in-one salon and spa management tool, has a note feature that can help you keep up with every customer. 

Tip 7: Cut off unrepentant customers 

The five tips above are for one-time or occasionally difficult customers, not repeat offenders. 

There’s no reason to continue to entertain unreasonable customers who look for every chance to be angry, no matter how much they might be bringing in. If they abuse or threaten to assault your employees, they’ve got to go.

At some point in trying to resolve conflicts with customers, you may have to say enough is enough and tell the client to take their business elsewhere. Otherwise, it won’t be fair to your team. 

Tip 8: Learn from the experience

Customers can behave badly and still have legitimate reasons to be pissed. 

Whether or not you are able to resolve a particular conflict, your next step of action should be to see if there’s something to learn from this.

Ask yourself the following questions: 

• Does the complaint have merit? 
• Could the situation have been avoided? 
• What can be done to prevent the same or similar issues in the future?

Conclusion

Conflicts may not occur every day, but they happen. And when they do, you must be ready. That’s why knowing how to handle difficult salon and spa customers is a critical skill for salon owners, managers, and even employees. 

This article contains everything it takes for you to master how to handle difficult customers and prevent future conflicts, including staying calm in the face of the storm to cutting off badly behaved customers if you have to.