What makes a great hairdresser – and a great business?

I have a new hairstyle – I no longer look much like my pic at the top of this blog. Here is how I look now!

I have been visiting my current hairdresser for 23 years ! Wow!  She and I have sort of grown up ( old?) together. She runs her own salon and in the time I have been visiting her her staff of up to 5 stylists has barely changed.

The reason this came to mind today was that I old her that my husband and my 25th anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks and she styled both mums hair for the wedding (at that point  I was still using a selection of random city centre sylists at great expense!).

So why have I stuck with her? Well I guess it is that

• I have often arrived with a photograph of some glamorous model saying I want my hair like hers and she tells me that my hair is the wrong texture for that so she will adapt it ( have fine hair – all models seem to have thick luxurious locks)
• she will regularly check with me that it is going the way I expect – so that at the end I don’t dash screaming from the salon
• we chat about the usual stuff like holidays – which means that we know what is going on in each other’s life- and which fosters trust
• sometimes her appointment system goes a bit awry and when this happens she makes a cup of coffee for the ladies who are being a bit held up and gives them a magazine to read. I have never heard anyone complain.
• when I am in the chair she makes me feel like the most important customer she has

So by listening to what I want and managing my expectations, checking in with me regularly during the process, taking an interest in what I am doing, taking care of me during the time I am with her and treating me like a princess she has had a loyal customer for 23 years.

Not a bad lesson for any business really is it?