Only Your Hairdresser
"Only Your Hairdresser Knows For Sure," is a popular phrase in the United States - it is widely accepted that a lot of the time we hear the "truth of the problem." In any one week working as a Hairstylist in the west end of London, I have to be a style guru, confidant and armchair psychologist as well as on occasions adviser on health and DIY. I first came across NLP in 1994 when I returned to England from the USA. It seemed like it would be a good tool for the hairdressing industry, and so it went on the goal list to "become an NLP practitioner." There it remained until the millennium. I had achieved a modicum of success in my career as well as looking after two elderly parents one of whom, my mother, had Alzheimer 's disease. In early 2000 my mother died and so I came to be reviewing my list of goals.
When I came to the bit that
said 'NLP Practitioner' the postman arrived and lo and behold there was a leaflet
for a practitioner course in
London in February 2001.
Not being one to ignore
those so called coincidences,
I picked up the phone and paid
my deposit.On the first day of
the course I was a little nervous
as I was not sure what to
expect. My fears were soon
laid to rest and by the end of
the first day I was buzzing and
by the end of the course I was
in excitement overload.
I have to admit that some of
the therapy applications were
tempting, as I came out -as did
most of us -with the intention
of changing everyone, including the cat.
Of course, thank God, I soon
realized it was not appropriate
to practice change techniques
in the salon, although they
helped me personally to change
myself. How was I going to
apply my new knowledge in
the work
place?
Rapport
skills are
invaluable as they enable me to
get to a decision point in
the consultation. Even
though I have always been
very good at putting my
clients at ease, I find
that I am picking up
on small cues that I
used to miss before.
Of course, once you
know this it seems
incredible that you ever
missed these things in the first
place. For instance, I had a
client the other day who asked
me, "How much do you think I
should have cut off?"-and
then tagged on the end of that
"about an inch." I replied, "I
think about an inch" and she
said, "You must have read my
mind." She wasn't aware that
she had told me the length she
wanted cut off, and a few
years ago I probably would
not have been aware either.
The result of this is that my
salon takings have increased
and my working week has
decreased -which is an added
bonus.
I have been able to apply
NLP in other ways when doing
my consultations. It has been
fairly standard hairdressing
practice to ask a client, "How
do you feel about your hair ."
Of course, I now realize that
this is like talking a foreign
language to some customers.
These days I might start a
typical consultation with, "Are
you happy with your current
hairstyle?."
If the answer is yes, and the
client seems congruent, then
fine -and I concentrate on
building more rapport and
selling the next appointment.
If the answer is yes and the
client is not so congruent I will
ask more questions, such as,
"What do you like about this
hairstyle, and what don't you
like about it?" This might seem
a bit simplistic but it 's very
effective for me.
Some of the more advanced
techniques of NLP are fantastic,
and some of the stuff around
metaprograms is applicable
when it comes to convincers
and I am sure I could use it if I
wanted to.
The things that have been
of most use to me have been
language patterns ,rapport
skills and sensory acuity.
When I first finished my
practitioner I thought I had
to change everything, my job
included, and that I would be
the next NLP guru. I 'm thankful
that I waited 18 months before
doing my Master Practitioner
because it gave me time to
integrate NLP into what I was
already doing.
I went through the "NLP
Wally syndrome , " as my trainer
refers to it, when I used to
bore people silly with this new
technology that I had learnt.
For me, NLP has been most
effective as a tool to improve
something that I was already
pretty good at.
Just the other day I had a
customer in the salon and she
said, "I want a trim -I would
like a change, and feel I should
have one, but perhaps I had
better have a trim ".
I might add at this point that
this type of comment is fairly
common, and in fact a lot of
the time we do not even get a
verbal description, just a lot of
arm and hand movements
when trying to describe a
hairstyle.
The interesting thing is that
you begin to understand the
non-verbal descriptions fairly
well, which adds credence to
the theory that only 7%of our
communication is verbal.
Back to my customer. If I
do just a trim, technically I
have done what she asked
and she will be satisfied with
the service. But one thing I
have found out is that there
is a big difference between
satisfied and delighted.
Take into account that I think
the customer feels under some
pressure because she has said
'should have a change '
however she is not willing to
commit at this point. So I take
the pressure element away by
saying, "I know you are not
having a change of style today,
however if you were this is
what I would do ".
I then go on to describe in
detail what I would do using
visual, auditory and kinesthetic
descriptions, finished by,
"So how much do you want trimmed ".
So far not one customer has
had a trim, so something must
be working. Also, now when
customers say, "I don 't know
what I want "I sometimes
reply, "If you did know what
would it be "-and I usually get
a positive response.
Now I know all this good stuff
I sometimes have to keep
from smiling at some of the
comments I hear and I have a
couple of favorites. "I want
my hair cut badly" and
"Nobody has hair as bad as
me." I could Meta model my
clients to death but I think for
me I will try to keep it simple.
"One thing I have
found out is that
there's a big
difference between
being satisfied and
being delighted"
