FREE ONTARIO WIDE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $500 ORDER BEFORE 3PM EST FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING
FREE ONTARIO WIDE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $500 ORDER BEFORE 3PM EST FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING
Posted 22nd Oct 2017
The number one thing any potential customer will look for when choosing an extension artist is pictures of their work. Your website & social media accounts can be jam packed with everything you need to know about hair extensions, but ultimately your potential customers are going to want an idea of what they will look like. They want to see pictures of your happy customers and their well-blended and styled hair extensions.
Once they are happy with the pictures they see the next step into making them a customer is by displaying testimonials of your happy customers. This will instill more confidence in the customer choosing you as their extension specialist.
You will want your testimonials to be detailed and specific. Avoid testimonials that just say “Good job” instead ask them to specifically comment on the quality of the hair, your services, how well they blend into their existing hair, how no one can tell etc.,
Lets take a look at some best practices for portfolios and testimonials so that you can bring in as many new customers as possible.
These are going to be one of your most valuable tools for bringing in new customers. Potential customers will be looking for clients with similar hair to their own so that they can envision what their end results will be. That is why it is important to have a wide range of before and after pictures.
Before you even start taking pictures, make sure you are all set up to take great pictures. You will want a high resolution camera (new cell phone cameras are usually adequate), and a good lighting source. You can invest in special lighting (like a ring like) or just find a good place in your studio. Natural light is always great if you don’t want to invest in professional lighting. Take a few test shots to make sure that your pictures are clear and bright.
You should try to collect as many images as possible from different types of clients. You will want a before shot, preferably from the back, and then an after shot from a couple of angles.
It is also a great idea to take pictures during the service. You want to show off how neat and perfectly sectioned your rows are. It is also great to highlight how small the bonds are and how the extensions are laying flat to the clients head.
You will want to collect images from every client you see, with their permission of course, and in particular any clients with unusual styles and colour as this will show your versatility. As a minimum you will want to have at least one before and after shot of:
A brunette client
A blonde client
A red head
A mixed blonde:Blonde with lo-lights
A mixed brunette: A brown base with a highlight
A very short style e.g. a bob
Just adding Volume Client: the extensions are cut to their existing length
An Ombre or Balayage Client (preferably a client who is one colour and then gets an ombre look from solely adding the extensions
New Hair Trends :If a LOB (long bob) is in style you will want to show how you can use extension to take a bob to a LOB
A Medical Hair loss Client: Show how extension can be used to hide medical hair loss issues
It may take some time to collect these images, and to start off your portfolio you should include every client as the more images you have, the busier and more popular you will appear, growing the confidence of your potential client.
Although we would encourage you to photograph as many clients as possible, not every client or fitting will be suitable for a portfolio shot. Reason for this include:
Incomplete Before And After – Do not include an image of an unfinished set of extensions. This would include not having had enough time to straighten the client’s hair after the fitting, or not having enough time to trim and/or blend the extensions. Your clients will only want to see the finished result, and uploading unfinished work will give the wrong impression of your abilities and skills.
Incomplete Hair Extension Colour Matches – From time to time you will have a client for example who has dyed brown hair that has faded since your colour match took place, and therefore it needs to be redyed after the fitting takes place. This will result in the hair extensions appearing darker in colour than they will be once the natural hair has been corrected to match, again, giving the wrong impression to your potential client who believes you have applied the wrong colour when in fact they do not have the complete story.
Unusual customer requests– If you have a client who has asked for something out of the ordinary, e.g. a client has blonde hair and would like purple and pink streaks in her hair extensions, only include this in your portfolio if you are happy with the finished result. Your client may be thrilled with the outcome, but if you do not feel it reflects you or your general style, miss this one out of the portfolio.
Testimonials are another great way to let your potential new clients know how good you are at your job, and how much your clients love the hair extensions you fit. You should try to ask all of your clients to leave you a review, either on your social media accounts, or via email so that you can upload this to your website.
When asking for a review you should ask your client to be 100% truthful and honest, and ask that they review the process as a whole. This means that you are not just looking for them to say “thank you for my amazing hair extensions, they look great”, but to also include details of their experience as a whole. You could ask them to review you personally, how easy you were to get along with or how comfortable you made them feel. You could also ask them to write about your communication skills, e.g. “she always got back to me quickly by email” or “she had lots of great advice to offer”.
You will not be able to please everyone all of the time, and as every successful hair extension technician will tell you there is always an unhappy customer somewhere down the road, sometimes through no fault of your own.
If you do receive a bad review, do not see this as a personal attack against you, but as a chance to better yourself. Take on board their comments and process what you could do differently to ensure it doesn’t happen again, or what you could have done to turn this into a positive review. There will be some occasions where there wasn’t anything you could have done differently, however by self-critiquing and taking on board others comments you will better yourself as a hair extension technician, and as a result better your business.
When you are just starting out it may be difficult to get lots of different clients with different styles. If you are not able to get these off of new customers as you are still in the process of building your clientele, why not do a few of your friends and family for free or just the cost of the hair to gain some experience and build your portfolio. Working for free at the beginning may not be how you saw your business growing, however it is a great way to get the ball rolling and with all of your new portfolio pictures and wonderful testimonials new customers will be knocking down your door for you to squeeze them into your busy schedule before you know it.
