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Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.
Tracey Franklin:
So my salon has always had a cancellation policies every since we first opened. And you know, regulars are really good about honoring it. Once you've established that relationship with your client and your client learns to value the salon that they're going to on a regular basis, they're usually really good about honoring a cancellation policy, new clients not quite as much it's, I say, oftentimes, like, I feel like we're seeing this huge decline and consideration of stylist in our industry. Like there's just not the same value and respect that we used to receive. I saw a huge decline after COVID. And I hate to keep bringing up COVID. But it was just such a huge transitionary time. And when we first opened after being closed, it was like, everyone was so relieved, they couldn't wait to get back into the salon and see their stylists get their hair done, feel good about themselves again. And then that's just started to slowly trickle away. And to be perfectly honest, I feel like it's worse than it's ever been. So enforcing a cancellation policy that isn't really clear is very problematic. And honestly, it wasn't until we started collecting credit cards and really had a process instead of a policy that we were able to really make some headway with it. So most salons require 24 to 48 hours notice for cancellation, I've seen some do 72 hours, which in my personal opinion is a bit of a stretch, like I mean, do you know what you're doing in three days, I don't, that to me is probably a little bit more than I feel comfortable expecting from my guests. I do however, understand the value of having more time to fill in those gaps. Just not sure that it's very accommodating to the guest. Our current cancellation policy is 24 hours notice, if you cancel your appointment less than 24 hours of your appointment time your card on file will be charged 50% of your schedule services. Now a no show and a cancellation are two very different things. And I'll get into that in a minute. But a no show is a complete lack of respect for my time, and I have zero chance of filling that spot. There's nothing that I can do at 10am when you call at 958. And let me know you're not coming or you simply don't show up at all, and I have no idea where you are. And time is money. And now I'm making $0 per hour. I think that every stylist or beauty professional should have a cancellation and no show policy in place. It is up to us to bring the awareness to our clients and our future clients. Our industry can and should be held in the same regard as any other profession. But it's up to us to make it happen. So what kind of verbiage should you use as a stylist for your no show policy, you should be professional and you should be clear, there should be zero confusion about what your expectations are. And I like to use the word policy. So it doesn't feel like this personal attack on their character. You know, an example would be like, Hey, Susan, I totally understand that these things happen. It's just our policy, it's not personal. So anytime a client gives us 24 hours notice they are allowed to reschedule their appointment without conditions. However, this is still something you should be monitoring because this also can become a problem if it happens a lot. Again, 24 hours is not a lot of time to fill a spot, especially if it's one of those really long appointments where they're getting color and extensions and cuts and other services with other providers in your salon. So you need to keep an eye on that. And even though they're not technically breaking policy, it's still a conversation that should take place if it continues to happen a lot. When repeated often money is lost and you will definitely need to evaluate other conditions and other processes needed for that client. actually enforcing these policies can be a little bit tricky. We have a new client welcome packet that has an acknowledgement form about our cancellation policy and we email this for them to read and sign before their reservation is even complete. So if a client calls the salon collects all the information books the appointment and then fails to return that Acknowledgement Form back to us the reservation is not complete and that appointment is not booked. You need to make sure your cover your bases legally. Or you could be dealing with an angry client who's disputing charges, causing problems, leaving negative reviews on social media and things like that. So you need to be very, very clear. And having something in writing is a great safety net, I've had problems trying to enforce my cancellation policy before, just like any other salon owner, we had a really hard time keeping up with the offenses. When we first came up with a policy, this made it really hard to know when to enforce it and when not to, we had nothing in writing and my front desk really wasn't clear on how to handle things. And this was my fault. As a salon owner, the policy wasn't clear. And we didn't require any acknowledgement from the guests. So clients would get really upset and rightfully so they were confused, all of us were confused. So a stylish should be considering what is actually lost when they're creating their cancellation policy, this is probably going to require a little bit of math, they should consider the value of the time and money lost. When a client cancels with little to no notice, decide how much notice you're gonna require that's going to be the first step like, what is your schedule look like? Typically 24 to 48 hours, but what's going to work best for you? Maybe you give them a chance before enforcing it. I mean, for us, it's circumstantial. If a client gets in a car accident, yes, this has happened on their way to an appointment, I'm obviously not going to charge their card, I'm gonna be a good human about it. Another thing is, are you prepared to store card information, this is going to require very specific software on your computer, your clients are not going to feel comfortable about little pieces of paper floating around the salon with all their information on it, are you going to just take the loss for that appointment, but then require them to pay in advance for future appointments, because that's something that a lot of stylists do if they don't have that particular software, or they're simply not comfortable being responsible for that kind of information. So maybe you're wondering if you should contact a lawyer before posting or beginning to enforce your cancellation policy? And I think if you have access to one sure, I mean, if not, you're good to use Google to find out what your state's requirements are. What if someone does file a credit chargeback against your cancellation fee. This is why it's so important to have your agreement in writing. Although it is still not a guarantee that you'll ever get your money. It is a legal contract that they've signed, accepting your conditions and agreeing to pay for the services that they don't show up for that will really give the client pause. I mean, they know they signed that. So are they really going to go through all the trouble of calling their credit card company and going through all this trouble and definitely sabotaging their personal relationship with you. If they've signed that piece of paper, I think they're going to think twice about it, I would most certainly contact a lawyer for anything over a couple $100 and at least see what's possible. We've only had this happen once and it was before we created the Acknowledgement Form, you are gonna get some pushback from clients on this cancellation policy. I mean, I have some understand that this is how a lot of businesses operate. But some people are completely offended when you ask for their credit card information, especially if they've never missed before. So an example is a faithful client that's been coming to us for years cancels less than 24 hours of her notice. So there's no consequences for that cancellation. But in order to book additional appointments in the future, a credit card does have to be kept on file. And unfortunately, that is just going to offend some people. And that is okay. Not everyone has integrity. And it's important that people are held accountable to the agreements that they make, it does not mean that they're going to like it, we have lost clients over it, the new clients probably weren't going to stick around anyway, if you think about it, if they didn't show up for their first appointment. That's not a relationship I want to try to maintain. But we have had a few clients that have been coming to us for years that were appalled when we enforce this policy and left because of it. And that is also okay. Setting clear boundaries from the beginning is the best way to avoid any complications. So what's my message to stylists about cancellation policies? Well, in order for this to become normalized, we all have to start doing it. And by it I mean enforcing something, come up with something, a policy that works for you and your business and enforce it. If we want people to see us as professionals, we have to act like professionals. Do not let people walk all over you. This is your career, how you sustain yourself and possibly your family. If you don't have a current policy in place, I urge you to do so rise with me. Let's demand the respect that us as individuals and our industry deserve.
Morgan Franklin:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of anytime soon. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post-production by Mike Franklin. Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com