How to Shape the Mood of a Client Appointment

A client’s mood during their service can have a significant impact on their perspective of their experience at your salon. Controlling a client’s mood may seem out of our control as a service provider, but Shirley Crossan, director of guest relations at Supercuts and a graduate of The DiJulius Group’s CX Executive Academy, is a firm believer in the FORD methodology.

Crossan was searching for a solution to encourage her employees to gather more FORD (family, occupation, recreation, dreams) on their clients when she was inspired by Steve Nudelberg’s keynote presentation at the 2017 Secret Service Summit.

Tell Me Something Good

Nudelberg encouraged (and challenged) the audience to start every conversation with the phrase "Tell me something good!" instead of the standard "How are you?" Why? This forces the conversation to start on a positive note.

We are programmed to greet one another with the standard phrase "How are you?" Unfortunately, the response to this question is often very negative, as humans tend to share our problems, forcing the conversation to start off on the wrong foot.

Icebreaker FORD Gathering Questions

Crossan took Nudelberg's advice and created a worksheet for her team members to help them collect valuable FORD information from their clients and start every conversation on a positive note.

The worksheet includes "Icebreaker FORD Gathering Questions" so her team can more comfortably navigate this conversation to learn about each guest. Some of the positive questions her team came up with were:

1. Tell me something good.
2. Tell me all the good things that have taken place since I saw you last.
3. What's the best thing that happened to you today?
4. Tell me the best news you've heard recently?
5. Give me some good news.
6. What was the best part of yesterday?
7. What exciting things are happening in your life?

Questions like these allow our employees to learn more about the client in a positive, friendly way. "We must teach and train our brains how to become mindful of gathering FORD to develop the emotional connections that set us apart from all other service brands out there," says Crossan.