As many people can relate, after moving, we have to find a new hairdresser if the old reliable one is too far. In my case, Cynthia is in Chicago, and I was forced to find a new hairdresser in Florida.

I am picky with who I trust with my hair, so I asked for referrals from my neighbors and read some reviews. I found a hairdresser and went to see her for the first time, and she was good, pricy, but the location was convenient, so I thought it is worth it. I booked my second appointment, and I was not happy with the service and did not like my hair after the appointment either. However, being nice by nature and disliking confrontation I booked my third appointment while paying and leaving the salon. Needless to say, I got home, and started to think that why would I go back, pay a lot of money and walk out of the salon with more anxiety and stress than what I had when walking in. 

I decided to break up with them

I sent them a note through their online contact form canceling my third appointment and specifically asking them to contact me and confirm they received my note. The following day, I literally got that; a note saying that they have received my cancellation message. No questions asked, no rescheduling suggestions, no nothing. 

I don’t think they know that I broke up with them and I started feeling bad

Almost every time, after receiving horrible service, I get frustrated and mad in the situation, and I make the decision to never use their service again. But then afterwards I feel really bad because I know how costly it is for them to lose a customer, and I also know how they could fix these little issues that are so often overlooked.

I emailed the hair salon, not to get free service or because I would go back there, that bridge has been burned and I would not trust them with my hair again, but they might get a new customer and perhaps with my breakup story, they could learn from it and make someone else a lifelong customer instead of one-or-two appointment visitors. 

This is what I sent to them:

“Dear Hair Salon,

Hope my email finds you well.

I recently moved to the area, and I’ve visited your hair salon now twice. My first experience was good but my second was not so good, so I cancelled my third appointment with you. I was expecting to receive an email/survey/questionnaire from you to ask me why, but have not yet received one, so I thought to reach out to tell you that I broke up with you. 

And why I am reaching out is not to come back, I simply just wanted to let you know how you could possibly improve your process and not lose customers like me in the future.

1. After the 1^st appointment: send the customer an email asking how their service was and did they like their hairdresser. Especially important if you have a new client, and perhaps that person didn’t quite like the hairdresser. You can still point the customer to another hairdresser within the salon without losing them completely.
2. When calling to the customer prior to the next scheduled appointment you confirm the date and time. In the future, please also confirm the service. In my particular case there was a miscommunication as I didn’t receive the service I had booked after my 1^st visit. So then on my 2^nd appointment I had an expectation, which wasn’t met, and the hairdresser was rushed, which I felt. End result: I left the salon with huge disappointment and hating my hair.
3. If a customer cancels their appointment, offer to reschedule and if they do not pick a new date ask them why. That is the only way you ever know why some customers are not coming back. 

Hope my feedback helps you to keep other customers happy and coming back.

All the best, 

-Jonna”

I’m not sharing the hair salons or the hairdresser’s name, because this is not about bad mouthing them. This is a learning experience about customer experience, communication, and simply caring. I am set in my ways and if I break up with a company/brand/service, I am not going back and that’s it, but that does not mean that I would not care for the company. We need all kinds of businesses to keep the American market economy going and I will root for them to be successful in their journey. In this case, yes the break-up happened, but I still care and wanted to let them know how important it is to:

• communicate
• ask why to understand what could be improved, and then 
• execute on it

Thanks for reading.