Color Consultation Questions – How to Do a Hair Color Consultation in the Salon
How to do a color consultation in the salon and what kinds of hair color consultation questions should you ask?
There are 4 categories to asking questions about hair color and get an accurate idea of what your client wants.
1- General Questions About Your Client’s Hair
2- Questions about Your Client’s End Goal
3- Questions about their Lifestyle
4- Questions about Hair Maintenance Habits
What is a Color Consultation?
A color consultation is when a client comes to your salon and wants to change the color of their hair. Whether it is drastically different than what they are currently wearing, or it could be a touch up of what they already have.
The purpose of asking color consultation questions is so that you, as the professional, know exactly what your guest’s expectations are and this gives you a good idea on how to help them achieve their desired look.
While talking to your guest during a hair color consultation you are getting information about-
✔️ What your guest’s goals are for their hair
✔️ What your guest’s end-vision might be for their hair
✔️ How to price the service accurately so that you don’t undercharge and sell yourself short
✔️ You can give your guest a reasonable quote on how long the service might take and if it might take more than one visit to achieve their goal
Why is Asking Color Consultation Questions Important?
Being on the same page as your client is absolutely imperative when preparing to do a color service. You as the salon professional need to know what your guest’s expectations are regarding
👉 Your knowledge and expertise
👉 The price of the service
👉 What they want to look like when they step away from your chair
By asking color consultation questions you are establishing trust with your guest. You are communicating that you know what you are doing and will help them achieve their goal to the best of your abilities.
Be open with your clients about your thoughts. Whether you believe the look they want to achieve will take several color sessions, or whether that look would cost more than their budget. Or even, if you know their lifestyle won’t fit the necessary maintenance of the after-care of the particular color they are wanting.
Break Down the Color Consultation Questions
All color consultation questions can be broken down in to 4 categories-
1- General Questions About Your Client’s Hair
2- Questions about Your Client’s End Goal
3- Questions about their Lifestyle
4- Questions about Hair Maintenance Habits
General Questions About Your Client’s Hair
- How do you feel about the overall condition of your hair?
- What is the biggest challenge that you have with your hair?
- Look at your hair in the mirror, what do you see that you like about your hair, and what bothers you the most about it right now?
- If you could do anything with your hair right now, color, cut, or style, what would that look like?
- What do you absolutely do not want for your hair today? For example- Sometimes clients are afraid of leaving with gold tones, even though they asked for blonde. So always ask your client more questions than you feel might be necessary just to be extra sure that you are both on the same page
- How often do you shampoo your hair?
- How much time do you spend styling your hair in the morning?
- Do you blow dry it or curl it every day? If not, how often?
By asking these questions above during the color consultation you are getting information for yourself about what kind of habits your clients have with their hair.
So by the time you get around to asking for a photo of what they have in mind, you will know if their hair is healthy enough to handle a color chemical treatment, and if what is truly bothering them about their hair can actually be achieved by changing the color.
What is Your Client’s End Goal?
This is the point when you 👏 Ask for a Photo 👏
And then you continue asking the questions below.
- Is this color for a special occasion or are we just trying something new?
- Ask your guest what they like about the photo, and if they notice any tones or any other details in the photo that they like. And repeat back to them what they said as well as what you see – for example- “In the photo I see a lot of ‘copper’. Do you see that too? Do you like that?”
- You can also ask, “In the photo, ‘the highlights’ or ‘the color melt from X to X color’ is very bold. Do you like that boldness or do you prefer a more subtle transition?”
- Would you like your color to shout or to whisper? For example, would you like the color to be noticed from across the parking lot, or only up close?
- Is there anything about photo that you don’t like?
A picture reference is always a sure way to get the same idea and image of what your client is wanting out of their head and into yours. You can both be on the same page as far as photos go.
Sometimes clients will even explain that they only like “This part of the picture, but not this part.”
This is helpful to you because, as you probably already know, many photos on the internet are photoshopped so that the color might look a little different than what is realistic.
But when photos are used, you can always refer back to the image while continuing to ask your color consultation questions.
Does the Color They Want Fit Their Lifestyle?
- What do you do for a living?
- How often do you get color done on your hair? Do you change your color often or is it every 6 months to a year, generally?
- Do you mostly wear your hair up or down for your work?
A person’s profession is a good note to have when asking hair color consultation questions in the salon because for some, an office job, lawyer, military, or work-from-home job will change the way they can present their hair color.
Educating your guests is also a very important step when establishing trust and letting them know that their time is important to you. You want them to be able to keep the color and be happy with their hair for as long as possible and that you aren’t after their money.
What Makes a Great Salon Experience Better?
Above is The Exquisite Find’s article about how to educate clients to help make a great salon experience better. Educating your guest about products, maintenance, and what happens to their hair during the color service.
Be open with your clients about your thoughts. Whether you believe the look they want to achieve will take several color sessions, or whether that look would cost more than their budget. Or even, if you know their lifestyle won’t fit the necessary maintenance of the after-care of the particular color they are wanting.
Will your Client be Good with Post Service Care and Maintenance?
- What products do you use on your hair at home? Shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner, or other styling products?
- When we are done, we’ll go over at-home maintenance and what kinds of products will help your hair hold the color and last as long as possible. Does that sound good?
- Have you noticed much dryness in your hair? Can I recommend adding a deep conditioning treatment today to help prevent further dryness and to help maintain the color?
This is the point when you begin to talk about what kinds of products your client can take home to maintain the color you just worked so hard to complete.
Selling retail products to clients should not be your main goal. But if you educate your clients on what kinds of products will help their color last longer, and help their hair stay healthy, prevent breakage, or keep their hair hydrated, without pushing the product in their face like you have an agenda you will end up selling more products in the end.
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Another great way to establish trust with your client is to educate them on why doing color at home might be a bad idea, or why some color services are considered Color Corrections.
How Much Does a Color Correction Cost?
What is the Difference Between In-person, Digital, or Over-the-Phone Hair Color Consultations?
In-Person Hair Color Consultations-
You, the professional, can see and touch your client’s hair in-person. You will be able to see if they have had any other color or lightening service done on their hair in the past and see what kind of condition their hair is in.
Digital Hair Color Consultations–
A digital color consultation is when you email or text message your clients about their upcoming hair color service. They can send you photos of their current hair, how they wear it daily, a photo of what color they want to get and their budget for when they book their appointment.
Over-the-Phone Hair Color Consultations-
When clients call to book a hair color over the phone, it’s harder to get all of your questions answered accurately.
For example, if you ask how long their hair is you are asking if it is above the chin, below the shoulders, or halfway down their back, but the client on the phone might only answer ‘Not that long. Medium length.’ Which doesn’t answer your question at all.
Terminology is the tricky part of over-the-phone hair color consultations because what we as professionals know are correct terms and questions to ask, are not what the average client will use. Even when they try so hard.
I recommend booking over-the-phone color consultations to come into the shop for a quick 5-10 minute in-person hair color consultation, or give them your phone number so that you can see pictures of their hair and can continue asking your color consultation questions that way.
Pricing your Hair Color Services Appropriately 💲
Why should you set your prices appropriately?
Sadly, a lot of the time we feel bad that the color services that our clients come to the shop for take so long and are so expensive. But we shouldn’t!
Like we talked about above, you are a professional.
You are establishing trust with your clients.
You know what you are doing, you are the expert. That’s why your clients come to you.
This is how you make a living. No one can tell you that you make too much money and aren’t worth coming to see. Now, there’s a difference between your services not being affordable, and clients who decide that you are too expensive.
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How to set your prices in the salon
How many color services to you perform each week, on average? How much money is that right now? Is it enough?
🧮 Calculate how much money you need to make in one month.
🧮 Then, calculate how much time a color service, on average, takes you.
🧮 Next, calculate how much product you use during each color service.
🧐 Now that you have the numbers…
➗ Divide how much money you need to make by how many color services you perform each week.
➗ Divide that number by how many hours it takes to perform each hair color service on average. Add how much the product costs you.
👉 That is now much you should be charging per hour for color services.
Many stylists charge per service, but for color, I highly recommend charging per hour. This way you are assured that you are getting paid for the amount of time taken for the service, even if it takes longer than you anticipate.
Be sure to communicate with your clients what your salon service prices are BEFORE the service. Nobody likes to be caught off guard when it comes to spending more money than what is budgeted.
You are wanting to establish trust with your clients, so be sure to not hide the price from them even from the beginning.
Cancellation Policies and Service Deposits
When you have trouble with clients that book with you but end up no-showing, it can be so frustrating! Because you are no longer getting paid for the amount of time you set aside for that guest. And if it’s last minute, you aren’t able to fill up the slot with other appointments.
One way to prevent this issue, is to start establishing service deposits. Some stylists have service deposits for every service, and others only for color.
A deposit should be non-refundable and it does count toward the service total. It should not be an extra fee to go on top of the hourly charge for color services.
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Hair Consultation Questions- How to conduct a perfect consultation
Conclusion
There are 4 categories of color consultation questions in the salon.
1- General Questions About Your Client’s Hair
2- Questions about Your Client’s End Goal
3- Questions about their Lifestyle
4- Questions about Hair Maintenance Habits
👏 Ask for a Photo 👏
Consultation questions should include…
- How do you feel about the overall condition of your hair?
- What is the biggest challenge that you have with your hair?
- Look at your hair in the mirror, what do you see that you like about your hair, and what bothers you the most about it right now?
- If you could do anything with your hair right now, color, cut, or style, what would that look like?
- What do you absolutely do not want for your hair today? For example- Sometimes clients are afraid of leaving with gold tones, even though they asked for blonde. So always ask your client more questions than you feel might be necessary just to be extra sure that you are both on the same page
- How often do you shampoo your hair?
- How much time do you spend styling your hair in the morning?
- Do you blow dry it or curl it every day? If not, how often?
- Is this color for a special occasion or are we just trying something new?
- Ask your guest what they like about the photo, and if they notice any tones or any other details in the photo that they like. And repeat back to them what they said as well as what you see, “In the photo I see a lot of ‘copper’. Do you see that too? Do you like that?”
- In the photo, ‘the highlights’ or ‘the color melt from X to X color’ is very bold. Do you like that boldness or do you prefer a more subtle transition?
- Would you like your color to shout or to whisper? For example, would you like the color to be noticed from across the parking lot, or only up close?
- Is there anything about photo that you don’t like?
- What do you do for a living?
- How often do you get color done on your hair? Do you change your color often or is it every 6 months to a year, generally?
- Do you mostly wear your hair up or down for your work?
- What products do you use on your hair at home? Shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner, or other styling products?
- When we are done, we’ll go over at home maintenance and what kinds of products will help your hair hold the color and last as long as possible.
- Have you noticed much dryness in your hair? Can I recommend adding a deep conditioning treatment today to help prevent further dryness and to help maintain the color?
Educate your guest!
What Makes a Great Salon Experience Better?
Tell your client what kind of at-home routine you would recommend and what products that will help them keep their hair in the best condition for the longest amount of time after the color service.
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