Nail Techs Don’t Need to Time Travel

Say no to the Wham-Bam-Thank-You Mani

Seth Godin touches on the sensitive topic of time today, something I’ve really been pondering.  Time management heavily impacts people in the beauty industry.  Everything seems to be scheduled around 30 minute increments, which is possible to hit often, but at what price? 

Improving the trains (Seth Godin)

While making the trains run on time is a good thing, making them run early is not.

If you define success as getting closer and closer to a mythical perfection, an agreed upon standard, it’s extremely difficult to become remarkable, particularly if the field is competitive. Can’t get rounder than round.

In general, purple cows live in fields where it’s possible to reinvent what people expect.

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The thing is, a 30 minute service will never be a constant.  Life has interruptions, people have unexpected requests, the person who took your booking had no idea the special steps your client needed, and there are just days where everyone is running late.

I think the last line is key: It’s possible to reinvent what people expect. In the same way the nail industry took a swing from xxx time to “20 minutes for a full set” (yes, that was an actual expectation), it’s possible to get people to swing back to focus on what is important.  Important to keep excellence at the forefront of your service. 

I’m not saying we should opt for 3 hour services or be inconsiderate of schedules, absolutely not.  I’m saying watch the focus.  In/Out as fast as you can, but not at the expense of workmanship or communication.  You don’t need to hit 29 minute services consistently to keep everyone happy, but if you consistently focus on skill you’ll be able to perform well in reasonable amounts of time.  Allow yourself a little fun with clients, and a bit of wiggle room to be creative. 

If you are having trouble hitting an ideal time frame, identify people who are excited to go on the more leisurely ride with you. Take them. As your experience grows, you will naturally shorten the amount of time you need to do a service, but you’ve trained yourself to do it well.

Along the way, you’ll find your expectations can change also.  Clients that were open gave me a freedom to discover techniques, ways to troubleshoot, an ideal to strive for.  They aren’t expecting a quick trip in a time machine, they love the journey. But they’ve also helped me up my game for those that can’t wait.  My eye is on the prize is for experience, on becoming remarkable, with time for service a close runner-up.

Do you reinvent expectations for yourself or your client? What are other ways you can wow?