ist magazine February 2023

Feature

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Par Excellence! By Joe Schuster

W hen was the last time you received great customer service? Not just good or acceptable, but great ? Your recollection of the best or worst probably involves a restaurant. Now, I’d imagine there are few “tips” given to your staff, but what makes your salon guests’ experience “tip worthy?” When a restaurant server is spot-on with drink refills (including water), prompt and friendly, then combines that with a tasty meal (hot food hot/cold food cold), I start my tip at 20% and adjust from there. (Side Note: “Tip” means “ T o I nsure P romptness or P erformance.” Now you know, if you didn’t.) Personally, I want my salad to be chilled, not room-temp, and all entree elements hot if meant to be. I know the meal I am served probably won’t look like the photo in the menu (or QR code, as the case may be). I work hard for my earnings and I’ll be slapping down that hard earned cash for a decent meal. If the server is having a bad day, I don’t want to see it. Sorry. Leave it at the door. Last week, my wife and I had a great experience when the meal service for our party of eight was delayed. The server stopped by our table several times to apologize, give us an update and check for

beverage refills. The food came out hot and was really good. The guy got more than 20% for sure! I can also flip it around about a week prior to that experience. Different restau rant, but the food arrived late and was not even warm. The salad seemed like it had been sitting out waiting for me all day. I think the server went to the original source What makes your salon guests’ experience “tip worthy?” Check out Sun is Life to raise your customer service level. for both water and distilled beverages. As the meal tab hit the table, there was no “thank you.”Certainly, there wasn’t a 20% bonus left as the gratuity. Now, let’s insert you, your manager or staff into a customer service scenario. We’ll change it around a bit to fit. Your salon guest arrives about ten minutes early for her appointment or scheduled sunbed ses sion. She is greeted simply by a “hi” and a nod as she finds a seat in your lobby. There is zero effort to suggest a lotion product or to confirm she has FDA-compliant eye

protection with her. The guest is then told that the tanning room is ready and as she walks in, notices greasy fingerprints on the sunbed (and even toe prints on the upper acrylic shield – yuck). The wastebasket is full (just with paper towels, let’s assume). Once the session begins, the guest can see through her compliant eyewear that four lamps in the sunbed canopy are not operating. The 15-minute session doesn’t end soon enough as she gets dressed and leaves the salon with the comment to your staff, “four bulbs are out.” The staff replies with, “Yeah, I know. They’ve been out for a while.” Ouch! That guest’s social media com ments about your business are going to be painful! So, set the bar high for customer service at your salon … and don’t forget to say thank you. n For additional info on this and many other indoor tanning topics, check out sunislife.com today!

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February 2023 istmagazine.com

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