How to Handle Difficult Guests with Confidence

Strategies for Every Tough Situation

Raise your hand (figuratively, not literally) if you have ever dealt with a difficult personality? Handling difficult personalities in our personal lives is one thing. Handling them with grace in a professional setting is another ballgame and I’m going to give you all the winning strategies to hit a home run. No matter what the situation, if you can navigate difficult guests with a bit more ease, it will make those tough conversations that much easier and leave everyone feeling a bit better (and hopefully help you to avoid a negative review too!).

Before I begin at the end; and what I mean by this is, before I start with what to do at the end of an appointment when you have an unhappy guest, let’s start at what you should do at the beginning of the appointment so that these situations are mitigated. If you need help with your consultation (or even if you think you don’t…check out my Substack post on “The Power of a Great Consultation” below….

The Power of a Great Consultation: How to Win Over Guests in 10 Minutes or Less.”

Now, even with a great consultation, I have seen an array of different difficult guest types in my time as a salon owner. Here are the most common ones I have found and the strategies for handling them:

The “I Want It Free” Guest

This is sometimes called the “I Want a Refund” Guest. We usually see this request after what the guest deems as unfit for the value. Perhaps this guest is someone who doesn’t like the end result of the color or doesn’t like the type of cut they have. Maybe they didn’t like their experience with you or the salon. Either way, it doesn’t matter. If this is something you are currently experiencing, you need to put clear policies and boundaries in ASAP. What kind of policies and boundaries? At my business, Kate Lane Salon in San Clemente, we understand that not everyone is going to like the end result, but I have implemented the policies and boundaries that safeguard both us and the guest. The first policy we have is an “insurance policy”. Our hair insurance allows the guest to reach out (the policy states within one week) if they are unhappy with their service and we are happy to adjust it to their liking for free as long as they contact us within a week. What does this cover? Things like not being bright enough or maybe some greys weren’t covered, or the fringe of a cut needs to be shaped differently. What isn’t covered? Adjusting the service to include additional services that weren’t originally paid for (like switching their mind from a face-frame blonding to a full balayage). When someone calls 4 weeks after their grey coverage experience with us and says that they are seeing grey at the root and want a freebie, this is not covered. But when someone says they think their glossing service got a bit too warm and they’d like to curb the warmth a smidge more, we are happy to welcome them back in with the same stylist (this is key!) to adjust the service.

The “Chronically Late/No-Show” Guest

We all know this one. She walks in 20-minutes late complaining of traffic with a latte in hand. Or maybe she is super apologetic but no-shows 3 out of 4 scheduled appointments with you and then later says there was an emergency or maybe she was sick. Now you are scrambling to fit in a 3-hour experience into 2 hours or maybe you’re simply out the hundreds of dollars of revenue, either way, this doesn’t work! And listen, I get it…things do come up - but, have a policy in place so that it protects everyone involved. My salon policy is that guests need to cancel with 48 hours’ notice. Otherwise, they are charged a fee to reschedule with us next time. They also go onto a list to not book if this becomes a chronic situation. You’ll need to check with your local laws to see if you can implement things like a deposit held, rebooking fee or even a cancellation fee but I do recommend having these things in place.

The “I Don’t Like It, But I Don’t Know Why” Guest

When a guest can’t pinpoint why they don’t like something, or they are always complaining about what you’ve done…sometimes it’s simply not a good fit…for either of you! In this situation, it’s important to stay calm and keep control of the situation. Go back to your consultation skills that I shared in my previous post here and try to dig in and ask open ended questions about what it is they don’t like and what it is that the do like so that you can narrow it down. If this is a repeated situation, there is nothing wrong with letting the guest know that, although you are trying your best to accommodate them, you may not be the best person for the job. You can then make a recommendation to another one of your co-stylists or just bless and release them.

The better you are able to handle challenges like these, the stronger your business will grow. I’ve mitigated many difficult guests leaving negative reviews or even leaving our salon by having these things in place. Let me know which one of the difficult guests you encounter most in the comments below.

**Side Note on these policies - all policies and boundaries should be clear and repeated. Let me repeat that…all policies should be clear and repeated. What does this mean? For my salon, all policies go out in a confirmation message via text or email and then again during the reminder. I have put in place automatic messages for those guests trying to cancel last minute and although I am sympathetic when life happens for our guest, I do stick to my policies anyways.