Are Automations, Boundaries & Systems a Buzzkill for Client Experience?

So imagine an independent hairstylist, one that is working in a salon suite, has a fairly successful business. Nothing insane, right? Like a couple new cli- client requests a month, um, three weeks booked at a time, you know, doing the hair mostly that she likes, right? And she maybe works four days a week.

Maybe one of those, maybe one day on top of that is, like, an admin day, and it's the middle of her week, and she has a couple days until she has another admin day, right? She's in the middle of doing hair. She has a fully booked day, and she is, you know, has to stay on top of... She's having to stay on top of things to take care of all of her clients in the day.

She's cleaning the salon. She's taking count of the inventory. She's giving the client an excellent experience, you know, pulling out all the tricks and all the tools and all the things to make this person's hair look amazing and then make their client experience fantastic as well, right? Doing all the things, and that person gets a DM or they get an email or they get a phone call or they get a text and they get multiple of all these things, right?

But they can't really answer, nor do they really have the energy to answer throughout the day because they're booked back-to-back with clients, right? And so this person adds up to maybe about, like, four communications from clients all throughout all of these different platforms, right? And it's the end of the day, and this person knows that they should probably get back to all of them, but they go home and they are absolutely just exhausted, right? Because they just spent an entire day doing hair and they need to save some energy to pour into their family, which is, like, the most important thing to them.

And so they have work the next day, they go into work the next day, and they haven't answered these communications yet because of just, like, "Oh, like, I'll get to those later. I'm really tired right now. Like, I'll take care of them. Whatever."

Then the next day, same thing, back-to-back, booked all day, clients and no time to get back to any of them. They get m- two more messages, right? Two more messages. And she is just completely overwhelmed with the fact that now she has six texts, emails, DMs, ca- phone calls, voicemails to get back to, and they're all across the board, rescheduling, new client, consultations might need to happen, have no idea who this person is, um, this person wants a redo, yada yada yada.

And the stylist is just completely overwhelmed and now doesn't even wanna look at these communications. Furthermore, is not gonna be able to fully give each and every one of these people the attention that they probably deserve to create a great reputation as a business owner, right? And to create trust through communication and to really take care of people. This is the stylist that does not have automation and boundaries in their business.

This is the stylist that is going to lose new client requests because they're gonna fall through the cracks because that independent stylist has so many responsibilities on their plate that they cannot handle all of the things and conveniently get back to people within a reasonable time. Furthermore, get back to them in a way that's caring, loving, and, and it makes sense for everybody and is convenient for the client as well too. So you lose out on new client requests because there was another stylist that got back to them more, uh, quickly, right? Maybe these people prefer to book online, but you don't have your booking, your online booking set up for success, nor do you have a process that makes sure that that new client understands what they need to book to make sure that they have enough time with you, et cetera, et cetera.

And you just lost an existing client because you took way too long to get back to them and so they're like, "Okay. Well, Suzy has, uh, Suzy down the street, she charges a lot less and she does a great client experience and I need somebody who I can get in with conveniently and do business with me conveniently." So then she dips, right? This is the experience of somebody, of a hairstylist, especially an independent one, who does not have automation and boundaries and systems set up in their business 'cause here's what next happens, right?

Especially with boundaries. Now you have all these six people who are looking to get in with you, right? And you're like, "Oh my freaking god. I have, I don't have no idea where I'm gonna fit these people in in my book, but they really need to get in with me."

And so you end up coming in early, staying late on your days off. You go on vacation for the weekend and you wanna have downtime, but guess what? You have to get back to all these messages and you have to somehow squeeze everybody into your days in the middle of the week and then all of a sudden you're working 12-hour workdays and it's a whole freaking mess. It's just a mess because, don't forget, you have to post on your social media, then you have to do your inventory, then you have to deep clean the suite, then you have to worry about whatever the next trend is and, and whatever the next education is and then you have to spend time getting education because that's really important, right?

And then you have to make sure that your taxes and your financials and your bookkeeping are in place It is too much. It's too much. And I feel like recently, and I know I'm biased, you know? I mean, I know that this is coming from the person who teaches systems, automations, and boundaries, but there's a reason why I teach it and it's because of exactly what I just shared with you.

I was the booked and busy stylist, yes, but I would have never been able to be the booked and busy stylist who had a work/life balance and was able to conveniently serve my clients and still have that thriving business if it wasn't for me setting up systems in my business. Because all too often I wouldn't send the digital onboarding packet to my new clients to create that excellent client experience. I wouldn't be able to clean the suite as deeply as I wanted to. I wouldn't be able to go back home to give my family and my friends the energy that they deserve so that way I could fill my own cup, feel really great about what's going on in my life, so that way I could pour that great energy back into my business.

And it didn't make any sense. It was simply unsustainable. And so what I'm hearing nowadays is people being really nervous about losing the human interaction in a client experience and this is a really fair and important thing to consider. And I completely understand it and I want you to make sure that you're doing everything in your capability to serve a person in the way that will make you most successful.

But the problem is, is that when we try to add so much human touch into our business, when we try to overdo ourselves with every single one of our clients, you end up doing them a massive disservice because you just simply cannot handle the pressure You cannot handle those responsibilities. You are one human being with one life and a very short amount of set..... time given to you to use. So the large misconception of the fact that automations, boundaries, systems, whatever it may be, are causing an awful client experience for the client is just simply not true, and surveys and studies will share with you that that is not true at all, across the board, across multiple industries, including our own.

I've recently done a lot of research and surveying myself to random groups of women who get their hair done in a salon of all age ranges, and guess what? They prefer this stuff too. Why? Because they understand that it makes their life convenient and yours.

It's a mutual s- two-way street, and it allows you to furthermore personalize the experience, because you now have the bandwidth to do so, and you have the systems in place that allows you to do that consistently. So I know I'm going on a rant. I'm really passionate about this stuff, and I just hate it when people take this stuff for granted and don't understand the power of it and then gets fearful of it and then just say, "Oh, well, I don't, I wanna g- make sure that I'm giving a really great concierge experience, so that's gonna take away from that," instead of embracing it and figuring out how can you give a really great concierge personalized experience with the power of automations, tools, and boundaries? And that's exactly how you can get to the next level in your fucking business.

I guarantee it. How can I guarantee it? 'Cause I've done it with hundreds of stylists, if not thousands at this point. So if you wanna learn the T about why automations and boundaries do not harm your client experience and only elevate it, then you are in for a ride with me, my friends.

Let's go. What's the T, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay. So first, let's talk about the concerns, right? So again, like I said in the intro, I do agree that you should be taking into consideration your client's experience in every single thing and every single facet that you do in your business, and I totally understand how, you know, adding technology could seem like it could ruin that human touch that we all love and we all know and that your clients are craving nowadays.

We are craving human experience. We are craving that interaction with people, right? And that is a total valid concern, but I think where the misconception comes in is that technology, automation, and, like, tools somehow can ruin that, and it can if it's not used responsibly and strategically, right? So that's the, that's the kicker here is that I think people will automatically assume just because it's technology, then that means that it's going to harm that, that human touch instead of enhance it, right?

And I think it's all about your perspective here, and I think it's about how you actually use these tools, and I think that the difference between what I may teach you and what, like, a consultant that teaches people how to streamline their business would, would, uh, teach you is that I'm teaching you how to make your experience even better and even more engaging and even more connect- connective, um, especially in between the visits with technology instead of the other way around. I'm not teaching you how to send bland automated messages. I'm not teaching you how to send text r- con- confirmation reminders and bullshit like that, and by the way, you should not be doing that stuff manually. You literally don't have time, and it does not make any sense.

But what I'm teaching you is how to take advantage of these tools to make more possible, to get a lot done by doing a little, to streamline the process of you creating that humanized and personalized experience without you spreading yourself too thin or not even having the time or energy or space to be able to do so. So for example, um, what I teach in my programs is a really complex post-visit experience, but it is so effective, and it's the thing that we all want to do but we just genuinely never have the time or energy to do or we forget to do, which is send multiple post-visit emails and have that post-visit communication with your clients, but make it personalized. So how do we do this, right? So by filling out a very, like, a very easy form, you can send three personalized emails that completely have the specific client in mind and your own personal, um, interactions and your own personal recommendations for that specific person in that email, and it'll make it very obvious that you put the time and attention into sending those people that email, right?

So the things that are included in this email are things such as a personal note from your, uh, your experience with them, right? So maybe they're going on a cruise and you're like, "Sally, I hope you have so much fun on your cruise. Cannot wait to see pictures of you and your family when you come back," right? Like, that's so beautiful, and that obviously proves that you have, you know, put some time and effort into that email, because how else would a robot know that, right?

Furthermore, you put your own personalized retail recommendations, your maintenance instructions, what to book and where to book next time, right? Any, any other details that this specific person needs to know so that way they are set up for success in between now and the next time they come to see you, which simply would be s- so much better laid out in this type of format where you just plug and play all of those little personalized details into a pre-written email versus if you were to text it to them, manually have to write this email. Even with a template, just being able to put things into a form field and to upload them into that personalized email and then automatically have it sent is so brilliant. Furthermore, if this person doesn't pre-book the appointment, you can even set it up to where, and this is what I teach in my programs, you can set it up to where this person will get an email four weeks before when you...

When you recommend they come back in to see you, maybe not even four weeks 'cause it's gonna depend on your business model, you can customize it, but you can send this beautiful email saying, "Hey, friend. Long time no see. Just as a reminder, I recommend that in four weeks you come to see me for this service to make sure that we're keeping up with your hair the best we possibly can. You can go ahead and book that online right here.

Make sure to book before we fill up with appointments." Right? Which then increases your retention, and it is a personalized email te- telling this person specifically when you wanna have that person back and exactly what they need to book to be successful with you based upon your recommendation. Furthermore, as we know, industry average for a new client retention rate is 30%, so 30% of your new clients are willing to actually come back to you on average, 30%.

Do you know how much of a time waste that is? I talked about this in, in my podcast, Episode 5, Unique Metrics to Track the Health of Your Business. You are wasting a stupid amount of time if your r- new client retention rate is low, and if you don't follow up or do something with these clients to make sure that they understand that you care or give them the opportunity or chance to feel taken care of, right, then that, that number, that r- new client retention rate is never gonna raise. It's never gonna change.

But we don't have the time or the energy to be following up with every single person in our client book that we see. We just don't. So, what this can also do is, is follow up with a new client automatically seven days later, seven days later, and say, "Hey, Suzy, I just wanted to reach out. I know that you, this was your first visit with me and I'd just like to reach out and make sure that everything is cool, if you have any questions, um, and I'm really looking forward to getting to see you back in the chair, but just let me know.

No judgment whatsoever." Right? That is going to raise your new client retention tenfold, and instead of this person just ghosting you and never seeing you again because they were kind of feeling weird about something or they had a question or a misconception, you can address it immediately, and then you can really, really increase that new client retention rate. This is all automated, and it's with you doing very little work, right, very little work.

This is called scalability. This is what businesses do, okay? This is how you create a better client experience. This is how you create the client experience that nobody else can create in your area, is by creating these systems and automation, and yet you create them.

This is not just a done-for-you situation. I give you all the templates and the tools and the resources and the, uh, paragraphs and the step-by-step tutorials. I walk you through all of the things, right, to make it plug and play, but you're not getting this in a booking system. You make this yourself, and that brings me to my next point, which is the fear of technology not doing what you want it to do or what it needs to do to be as efficient as possible, right?

So, what would you rather do? You'd rather just spend all of your time doing it yourself for the rest of your life? To me, that's not sustainable. That's not a business that brings me joy.

I do not have time to be doing all this extra client experience shit. I want my client experience to be next level. I know that it's, it's necessary for me to survive and for my business to thrive and to make the money that I wanna make, right, but I know that it's unrealistic for me to be the one who does all this stuff all the time, and does it consistently, most importantly, right? A consistent experience is really important.

Studies show that nearly 80% of consumers will stay loyal to a brand if they have a history of positive and consistent experiences with the business. How are you supposed to stay consistent when you're only one human being and you have a million clients on your plate to manage, and so many appointments, and so many responsibilities? It does not make sense. So, using technology and automation to make these things more consistent will increase your customer happiness, your loyalty, and your referrals, because it creates trust, and somebody does not wanna leave a brand that they trust, okay?

It's hard for them to leave a place that they trust. I know for me, I have places and services that I pay for that I would have a really difficult time leaving because I trust them so much, right? So, what this automation does is allows you to stay more consistent, systems allow you to stay more consistent, and show up in places where you may not have been able to before, furthermore setting you apart and adding that extra sprinkle of love and connection and trust to that client's experience with you and their feelings and their impression about your brand. So, using these systems, using automation, and setting boundaries, and we'll talk about that in just a second, can allow you to really enhance things and allow you to show up in other places that you may not have been able to before, such as the places that grow the business, right, such as your marketing and your social media that you know that you need to be showing up in and you know that a lot of the times only you can be the one who does that stuff, right?

So, the things that can be maintained, that bring your things to the next level, that keep things maintained and moving and create a more convenient client experience for the client, right? That stuff, if you delegate it as much as possible so you don't have to be the one who spends all the time doing it, you will have so much more time and energy to focus on the things that actually move the needle forward, such as social media, such as getting education, such as making big decisions and initiating new projects and adding maybe possibly new services that you've been thinking about, or improving your craft, whatever it may be. Those things, those high-level CEO tasks, the visionary tasks, that is what grows your business, and the more that you get dragged down and pulled back into these main t- maintenance things, into these things that could be done in such a streamlined and way more hands-off way, it's always pulling you back from taking a step forward in your growth in your business because of your inability to put that t- your time, and space, and energy into those tasks.So that's what automation and systems allows you to do.

It allows you to show up bigger and better for your clients, and your clients will appreciate it. But you do have to set it up strategically. You do have to make sure that it looks personalized and it feels convenient to the client. And I teach you how to do that, and I'm very big on that, and that's why I always say in the podcast, like, you can try this stuff DIY, but it's hard to make sure that it's set up in a way that is optimized for the client experience and it doesn't mess up things.

And that's where we talk about your boundaries, right? If you want to use automations and systems to create boundaries in your business, so if you wanna enforce online booking, right? Um, if you want to enforce your policies, whatever it may be, you have to do it in a way that is still upholding the professional reputation of your business and that is convenient for your clients, right? So how do we do that?

We make sure that we take responsibility as the customer experience designers of our business to make sure that it matches up with the client's expectations of how they would want to approach these type of things, okay? And after you've taken all the responsibility that you possibly can to run your business how you want to run your business, because your clients aren't running your business, you are running your business. After you've taken all the responsibility that you possibly can, you will attract and you will retain the clients that matter and that will grow your business and will stick around with you, and that will be the majority. But you will lose the little people who will not stick around for the price increases, the people who are inconvenient, the people who don't fit into your ideal client avatar, right?

And good riddance, but truly, that is so mitigated, your loss of people when implementing these systems, is so mitigated when you set things th- these things up strategically. So taking into consideration and maybe even asking your clients, facilitating real data and feedback, "How can I make this more of a convenient process for you?" If you wanna have a process in place, right? If you wanna enforce a boundary or whatever it may be, what do you believe is fair for you?

How can I make this as easy as possible? How can I make sure that you know how to navigate this, right? Asking those questions and then asking yourself those questions and making sure that you're taking that responsibility is how you can have those boundaries, have that work/life balance, have off time, completely off time, when you're not working, right? Be on a vacation and not have those emails and DMs and phone calls piling up and then you missing out on new business and you losing your existing client base because you don't have the bandwidth to be able to keep up with that, right?

That is the power of systems and automation. It allows you to create a much more convenient and much more personalized experience without you having to do the labor, which then frees you up to focus on the growth of the business, and then furthermore, the growth of your life and you filling up your own cup and reaping the true benefits of you building this career and this, this business for yourself in the first place. So, if you enjoyed this episode of the Modern Hair Stylist podcast, I'd appreciate it if you leave a five star review. It'll allow me to reach more and more people with this message of sustainability, of not burning ourselves out, of not being on this constant hamster wheel of bullshit It just does not make sense and it's not sustainable, and as an independent stylist myself, in my experience, I understand where you are and I understand wanting to make sure that you're setting up your business in the best way possible to make sure that you are getting the most amount of money and the most clients.

But I promise you, if you set this stuff up strategically and you lean into it and you use it consistently, you can create a beautiful business for yourself, you can get the clients, you can get the referrals because you now have the energy to do so. So, so much love to you. Peace out, girl scout. Bye bye.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.