Caring for Your Caregivers at the Front Desk

Years ago, David Wagner, owner of JUUT Salonspas told me he coached his front desk team to be like ducks. Under the surface they may be paddling like crazy to answer the phones, check out customers and book their next appointment, and fetch beverages for incoming guests, but above the water, they needed to maintain a calm, welcoming presence.

On a frenetic day in the salon, your front desk team members may be hit with a lot all at once, but one of their most critical roles remains as serving as the first and last impressions of your business. To help them deliver the kind of lasting impressions you want, you have to empower them.

After reflecting on a memory of how the DMV shaped my thoughts of those who work in customer service, this article offers you multiple, expert strategies for training, coaching, and empowering your front line to deal with the stress that naturally comes with their role.

What the DMV Taught Me About Customer Service

If someone asked you to name businesses known for top-tier customer service, I highly doubt that your local Department of Motor Vehicles would be on your list. Many years ago, though, I had an Aha moment at a crowded DMV that made me rethink my perspective on customer service.

It was the afternoon of my daughter Rachel’s 16^th birthday, and she was literally bouncing with excitement to take her test and get her license. I was somewhat less enthusiastic. Not only was I unsure about having a teen in the house with keys to my car, but the DMV, to me, meant long lines, uncomfortable plastic chairs, and robotic clerks pointing out that you were missing some critical piece of documentation to accomplish your task at hand.

When we arrived, the dour-looking attendant at the front desk stood ready to ask why we were there, check our documentation, and hand us a number for the queue. My daughter eagerly piped up, “I’m 16, and I’m here to get my driver’s license!”

I watched the woman's face transform as she suddenly smiled and said, “Well, good luck to you! I hope you pass.”

I noted she gave us a ticket with the number 58 on it, and the electronic board said they were currently serving number 19. Prepared for the wait, we sat down—me with my book, Rachel flipping through the DMV guide, brushing over facts.

About an hour later, the board flashed number 57, and I nudged Rachel, telling her it was almost time. The number kept flashing, and someone announced over the speaker, “We’re now serving Number 57.”

After a few minutes and a few additional notifications, they switched the board to number 58, and we approached the counter. “I’m here to take my driver’s test!” my daughter giddily announced before the clerk even had the chance to ask her.

The clerk, who looked tired and harried, immediately mirrored her enthusiasm and said, “Well, let’s get you started then!”

At that moment, a large man barreled up beside me, waved his ticket, and interrupted the clerk as she was explaining the process to Rachel. “I’m number 57, you skipped me!”

The clerk sighed deeply and told the man they had repeatedly called Number 57, and she would be happy to help him as soon as she finished with us.

“No, I was before them,” he demanded. “You didn’t call my number, and you have to take care of me first.”

I looked at the man. I had had plenty of time to study everyone sitting in the waiting area, and he had definitely not been among us. I speculated he’d taken the number, left to run some errands, and had just gotten back.

Then I saw it. What I had thought of as a robotic clerk turned human before my eyes. I noted the look of alarm on her face, and just as I opened my mouth to assure her that we could step aside and let her attend to him, the clerk next to her laid a steadying hand on our clerk’s shoulder and said, “Sir, I just wrapped up; step over to my window, and I can help you.”

I started thinking about what it must be like to work at a place like the DMV. Likely understaffed, they deal mostly with frustrated, irritated customers who would rather be anywhere than at the DMV. It would be almost impossible for anybody in that environment to maintain the warm, welcoming demeanor typically required in customer service.

But that positive attitude was there, just under the surface, and it took the lead when faced with the optimistic enthusiasm of a customer like my daughter.  It was then that I realized, human behavior dictates that most people eventually will mirror the attitudes before them.  

Bolstering Your Front Line

Thankfully, the salon and spa is NOT the DMV. Most guests arrive looking forward to their time in the chair or treatment room, and they typically leave feeling better than when they walked in.  That doesn’t mean working at the front desk of a salon or spa is without its own stress—from multiple clients calling in at once while there’s a line of people to check out, to the occasional irate guest demanding a refund.

“The front desk serves as the emotional shock absorber for the entire salon or spa,” says Laura Fuqua, a former massage therapist, salon manager, salon owner, and salon development partner with Aveda. “While they are absorbing all those interactions, they have to regulate their own emotions.”

After two decades as a senior executive managing large salon teams, Fuqua decided to go back to school to earn her degree in integrative health and become a health and wellness coach. About two years ago, she teamed up with Technology Entrepreneur Jon Decker to launch Wellify, a free wellness and health tracking app designed to help users monitor vitals, manage stress, and build healthier everyday routines.

"Owners today are so busy, it's easy not to notice those silent things that happening in the salon that lead to burnout, which leads to your front desk team quitting, which throws everything into chaos," says Fuqua.

“There’s a joke among front desk team members that they are the human punching bag of the salon,” says Jules Molina, the co-owner of Soto Signature Salon and Spa in Perrysburg, Ohio, and a guest experience team leader, consultant, and shareholder withSummit Salon Business Center. “About half of our front desk team are between the ages of 16 and 19, and I call them the Generation of Now. I consider it our responsibility as leaders to empower them.”

Molina conducts personal development training that helps her team deal with any guest interaction. “When a guest comes at you sideways, there’s a fine line between saying something in a beautiful way while still standing up for yourself and reflecting the nastiness in front of you,” she says. “I really coach them on understanding who you are becoming and how you want to see yourself.”

With help from Fuqua and Molina, here’s a checklist of strategies for empowering your front desk team:

Script it Out, Then Practice

Molina strongly believes words really matter, and that a salon’s front desk team can elicit a different client reaction simply by changing the words they use.

“I teach my team, that when it comes to guests, you have to think about how do people want to be seen, be heard, and be celebrated,” she says. “So if a guest complains about something that happened at the salon, a front desk team member can start with, ‘Thank you for sharing that with me….’ Or, if someone is waiting and the front desk and you can tell by their body language they are getting impatient, you can say, ‘Thank you so much for your patience today, I really appreciate it.’”

Molina does give her front desk team members scripts for handling a variety of situations, and in team meetings, they practice by role-playing specific scenarios, but she says, training goes far beyond scripts.

“When I think of the front desk team, I think of it as someone gave me their young daughters to care for, and I need to empower them on what to say, when to say it and how to take up space,” she says. “So I also teach them about body language, for example, the importance of opening up their shoulders. How you carry yourself is as important as the words you use.”

Looking for some situations to roleplay with your team? Check out our article, "When the Client Isn't Right" and discuss how the different teams tackled these real-world salon examples.

Recognizing the Need for a Time Out

Make sure your shifts build in actual break time, and encourage your front desk team to fully step away from phones, clients, and screens during their breaks.

In addition to scheduled breaks, establish protocol for when a front desk team member needs to take five minutes to reset after a difficult guest interaction, including making an owner or manager available as a sounding board.

“At Soto, we have two front desks, so a receptionist simply needs to notify the other receptionist that she needs to step away for a moment,” Molina says.

To help your front desk team focus on the guests in the salon, consider bringing on an AI Receptionist to help answer phones and schedule appointments. The technology will pay for itself as you learn how many clients call to book after hours.

Equip Team Members with Reset Rituals

Give your front desk team members strategies to alleviate stress and care for themselves. For example, the Wellify app offers several one-to-five minute guided activities called ‘Quick Resets,' from mindfulness breathing exercises to tapping to guided drawing activities. As users complete activities they are rewarded with seeds they can plant in their virtual gardens, as well as rain to help them grow.

The app is complimentary, so your whole team can download it and use it together. Fuqua recommends creating friendly competitions among your front desk team using the Wellify app, for example challenging them to a 7-Day reset, celebrating those with the highest points for the week, or voting on the best-looking gardens or drawings created with the app.

In your team meetings, you can highlight a wellness resource topic per week, for example, stress relief, nutrition, work-life balance, exercise.

Empower Your Front Desk Team with Solutions

When a customer is frustrated with their service, equip your team with tools to alleviate the situation. Establish clear guidelines around when front desk team members can offer a client her money back or book her with a complimentary service. They need to clearly understand what they can handle themselves, and what they need to call in a manager or owner in to help resolve a situation.

Create a Decompression Zone

Create a designated space where employees can briefly step away after a particularly difficult interaction. This could be your employee breakroom or a treatment that is not tied up with an appointment.

Got an extra storage space in your salon or spa. You can create your own Zen Room like Angi Snodgrass did at Cass and Company in Avon, Indiana.

Coach the Team to Not Take Complaints Personally

A frustrated client often is reacting to a situation, not the receptionist themselves. Train your front desk team to separate “The client is unhappy,” from “The client is unhappy with me.

Conduct Daily Team Check-Ins

A quick check-in each day with your front desk team can prevent difficult interactions from piling up emotionally. Encourage employees to talk about challenging situations and how they dealt with them without turning the conversation into a cycle of complaining.

Include the Front Desk Team in your One-On-Ones

Don’t reserve your one-on-one coaching sessions to just your service providers. Molina conducts monthly personal development meetings with each front desk team member where they review goals, talk through difficult client interactions, and discuss strategies.

“In our monthly front desk team meetings, we also do “Glows and Grows,” asking them to share how they glowed this month and how they grew,”  Molina says.

Celebrate Your Front Desk Team

Using Summit Salon Business Center’s Better Your Best Opportunity Tracker, Molina sets goals for her front desk team, including rebooking guests, retail/gift card/treatment sales, and other KPIs. When a team member hits a goal, they receive a $50 gift card to the salon, and if they double their goals, they receive double the awards.

“When they hit a goal, they receive a bonus that can be used within the company, so they can experience the products and services they are encouraging clients to buy, and they can save them up to experience something bigger, like a hydrafacial,” Molina says.

Molina says if you ask your front desk team how they’d like to be seen, it’s usually through positive affirmation. “We use a GroupMe app where employees can give Shout Outs to one another and we can celebrate them,” she says.

Establish Boundaries Around Abusive Behavior

Customer service does not mean accepting abusive behavior. Understand there may be times owners and managers may have to step in and fire the client from the business.

“I’ve been in this industry coming up on 18 years, and there’s a shift that we’ve seen, even in our own organization. We always used to think that the customer is always right, but sometimes you have to support your team and say, ‘That’s not OK.’ When guests are shouting, swearing at, or publicly humiliating a team member, you have to step in and make your team feel safe. Right after COVID, I did a lot of guest firing.”

Owners Daniel Mason-Jones and Eric Fisher offer some great advice in our article, “How to Fire a Client.” https://www.salontoday.com/articles/how-to-fire-a-client