Boost Tickets with Creative Hair Color Consultations

Written By Kristina Rosato from the Rebel Academy

Personalized hair color consultations are the key to successful hair color! Educate yourself on how to professionally present hair color options and you will see your hair color service sales grow.  You will often deal with a client's hair color 'fear factor'.  It may not be that they are actually afraid of hair color.  They may not have the confidence to make a decision or they may be afraid of what an investment in hair color may cost.

Understand that hair color is the most important and scary investment any client will possibly make to positively affect the way they look and feel!  To maximize your success, follow these six simple steps:

1. Look at the Hair color Variables
   
   Ask questions while building a level of confidence and trust with your client. Start by asking each client, Do you have anything specific in mind or do you have any hair color suggestions? Do not begin by quickly suggesting your strongly desired hair color idea. Keep the conversation open-minded by asking, What do you like and why? as well as What don't you like and why? Ask clients to explain their feelings about hair color. Say, Tell me about your current hair care needs and your future hair color desires? Your clientele comes to you for expert hair care and professional hair color advice.  Begin to build trust through personal communications and consultations.
   
   
2. Analyze Hair Condition
   
   Carefully analyze their hair condition. Present the various classic and creative hair color options available to them. Never jump to quick hair color solutions without collecting all of the necessary facts from each client. Do not say things like, Your hair is damaged. Avoid discussing the negatives and what will not work. Analyze everything; yet only discuss the positive hair color options.
   
   
3. Discuss the Options
   
   Build rapport! LISTEN carefully to their needs!  Clients may say one thing, yet mean another. Repeat back their requests and needs in your own words. Discuss how you will achieve the various presented hair color services. Look each client in the eye. Hold yourself back from first touching their hair while talking to them through the mirror. Sit face-to-face right next to your client. Explain your planned options and how you would do them, as a preliminary step to gain more client confidence. This will earn you the permission to touch their hair. Do touch their hair after the opening dialogue is complete. Share your excitement while avoiding any negative energy. Most clients do not like hair designers that start by flipping their hair around while talking to them through the mirror.
   
   Explain how you will customize a hair color look -- just for them! Recommend what will look best on them; based upon desired hair color, hair texture, percentage of gray, porosity, eye color, skin tone and lifestyle as well as their home hair care maintenance abilities.  Some hair color requires high maintenance and the client needs to be comfortable with that, or you risk creating an unhappy hair color client.
   
   Whether or not your salon has a separate hair color department, discuss the haircut shape and design as well as how the proposed hair color will work with their haircut. Explain where you are going to take their hair color as an important new hair fashion design accent. Discuss suitability with their lifestyle before closing the hair color service sale.
   
   
4. Discuss Price Options
   
   Before beginning any hair color service; professionally present the potential end results with the price. Do not keep hair color service prices a secret or you will have the potential of shocking and losing the client. Give them variable service options with several price options, in a range that they may be able to afford. You may have to take a step-by-step process starting with something they can afford now, while working your way to something at a higher price point later. Avoid having a client hating their hair color service based on a price that they feel is outrageous, or they will leave you and your salon and never to come back. Achieve a verbal agreement to the service and the hair color service cost before beginning their services.
   
   
5. Discuss Hair color Guarantees
   
   Continue to build your client's confidence by sharing realistic factors like potential hair color fading; regrowth and the professional home hair care maintenance products.  Explore if they swim in a pool or have certain factors that will affect the hair color services and products you suggest. Teach how to take care of their hair color between salon visits with the correctly prescribed shampoos, conditioners and styling tools.
   
   Teach clients that you personally guarantee their services and products, if they follow your professional home hair care advice inclusive of using the proper products! Offering a solid service-oriented guarantee will build additional confidence in your artistic abilities, technical quality and creative options.
   
   
6. Keep Communications Ongoing
   
   Make a client consultation last from the time they sit in your chair until you say goodbye. Make each consultation an educational opportunity to share new hair color concepts, so they will always have something fresh to look forward to. List the positive benefits for each professional product, to meet the specific needs of their personal hair care and home maintenance challenges. Talk about happy things, them and their total beauty care options.  Avoid all personal conversations. Always keep it professional!
   
   Assure clients that they can call you for anything, especially if they face any hair care surprise or hair color challenge between salon visits. Offer to be there for whatever they need. You want to avoid the possibility of them becoming so unhappy, that they are afraid to tell you. This will eliminate the potential of having them go to another salon for hair color correction work complaining Look what Sue at the XYZ Salon did to my hair for $150!!!
   
   Get your clients really excited about hair color! Successful hair color consultations with open dialogue will ensure successful results! They new haircut and hair color may be great, yet perception is reality.  If a client feels it isn't exactly what they expected or that they may have paid too much by surprise and your work will be worthless.  We are in a professional service industry where it is our job to make people look and feel their absolute best. It's NOT about achieving a great new hair color that makes you happy!
   
   These are simple, yet important consultation tools to make your hair color services successful! Use your own words to personalize this approach and to make it work for you. Add personal energy and passion. Success happens by making each client happy one salon visit at a time -- so they remain your hair color client for life!