Front counter staff are the first and last point of contact at an establishment like a hair salon -…read morewhich is exactly why it is CRUCIAL for these staff to be properly trained on how to handle unusual/difficult customer service situations. I find all too often that front counter staff are pretty good at handling the day to day customer service interactions - throw a curve ball at them though, and, more often than not, they completely drop the ball!!!
I am currently growing out my hair and only require a trim and some touch ups every 2 months or so. Since I absolutely love the more dramatic cuts and colourings I have received at Roxx, I didn't mind too much coughing up the $65 bucks for a trim to support a business who had been good to me thus far, so after procrastinating for way too long, I decided it was time for a trim. On Friday morning I call them up to book an appointment for 4:45pm that day.
I work literally across the street from this place; so by the time I left work at 4:30 and got to Roxx it was 4:32. I checked in (even mentioning that I knew I was a bit early) and then proceeded to take a seat (on the couch right in front of the front counter). At about 4:45 or so, another lady walks in to check in for her appointment. Immediately after she checked in, the stylist I ALWAYS am assigned to comes out, immediately recognizes the woman, and takes her to the back for her appointment. Thinking nothing more of it than it being interesting that I wasn't getting the same stylist as normal, I continued to wait.
At 4:55pm (10 mins past my appointment time), I go up to the front counter staff to ask what the delay was - again keeping in mind I am sitting right in front of their faces so it's not like they didn't know I was STILL WAITING! My question
"soooo, is the stylist just running a little behind or.....?" took the young lady completely off guard as she immediately agrees with my assumption with a look of bewilderment on her face; "oh yes, just a bit late, shouldn't be more than another 5 mins." I go back to sit, as the same lady walks past me saying "you know what, I am just going to check."
She comes back to tell me that it is going to be another 15 20 mins (keeping in mind it is already 15 minutes past my time). At this point it was quite obvious that someone had screwed up somewhere along the line and the appointment scheduled for after me was taken before me. This is not the problem - these things happen and I can understand that (being that I have worked in customer service my entire career so far).
The problem is that I am now completely frustrated that you had wasted my time when I would have loved to be anywhere but there on a sunny Friday afternoon. An apology is nice, and she really did seem to feel bad. But here's where it all went wrong:
Her: "Would you like to wait?"
Me: "No, I think I'm just going to cancel"
Her: Ok, would you like to re-book?"
Me: "No thank you"
Her: "Ok, well sorry about that."
Since I am not one to make a scene in these types of situations, I am quietly thinking 'Dammit, now I need to find a new hair salon." Had the nice young lady come clean, told me that they had made mistake, and had she done something to make up for it (discount, no charge for the wash, anything......), I would have said, "yes, I'll wait" or "sure, I guess I'll just re-book for next week." Instead, I will likely not be back.
We have all heard the saying that actions speak louder than words; in this case, (im)proper customer service training speaks louder than a fancily decorated salon.
