Level Up And Fill Your Books With Good Clients - Part 2: Confirm / Convert

You can weed out bad clients with tools such as pricing, having a booking system and a website and requiring a deposit. What can you do to ensure your new client is a good one? You’re not out of the woods just yet. You must Confirm, and potentially Convert your new client when you meet them for the first time.

When you're building your books, any client booking is cause for excitement. Amirite?!

To this day I still have an involuntary happy stomach flip when I hear the email sound associated with a new booking. I use this sound for other things now but for SO LONG it meant a possible new client to fill my empty books :’(!

As described in Part 1 of this series, avoiding a bad client is worth much more than that potential lost income. Wracking your brain about poor retention, or trying to get your client to come for their fills on time are examples of the small things that wear you down and create resentment. Help minimize your stress and fill your books with “good” clients by creating “good” clients. Now that you’ve got a good potential client, you can use the following three tools to Confirm that they are a good client or Convert an Okay client to a Great one!

1) Consent Form:

Many people prefer to conduct a consultation before the consent form. Either way works but I prefer to have the client fill out the consent form first so that we can go over it together once completed.

Your consent form is your most powerful tool for new and existing clients. You can communicate EVERYTHING on your mind in one fell swoop!! Not only can it protect you but it can get us all on the same page.

Helpful topics to cover on your consent form include but are not limited to:

• Full Name and Contact Information
• Birthday
• some people offer discounted services on client birthdays or at the very least wish them happy birthday
• How they heard about you
• helpful for finding out which advertising methods are working
• Photo release consent - you will need their consent if you plan to take pictures of them for advertising and so on
• Have they had eyelash extensions applied before?
• Existing allergies including if they have reacted to lash extensions before.
• What happened when they reacted? (More later on whether or not to lash someone who has had a previous reaction)
• Birth control use
• Hormonal birth control can affect retention negatively. Hair growth cycle is often sped up and these clients may have to come in at 2 weeks on the dot to maintain their lashes. The higher the hormonal dose, the worse the side effects can be. Methods such as the pill may be affect lash retention more than the hormonal IUD.
• General Health - any ongoing issues regarding hormones?
• hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, Amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), excessive dieting and so on can affect the hair growth cycle and can cause unexplained fluctuations in retention.

• A section about maintenance asking them to initial beside each point

• Your policy about getting them wet if you require them to wait a certain amount of time before swimming, crying, etc. (I don’t require them to wait to wet them)
• That they understand that lash retention is dependent on their aftercare at home - washing lashes, not picking and makeup use
• Lash washing frequency (1-3x a week or every day if they wear makeup and the day of their fill)
• That it is recommended they do not use mascara, waterproof eye makeup or eyelash curlers
• That it is recommended that they use only 100% oil free products, including products containing petroleum ingredients such as Vaseline, near their eyes
• That they should avoid rubbing, pulling and picking at extensions
• That to maintain the best appearance of the extensions and lash health that they should return for touch up appointments every 2-3 weeks (or whatever your policy is)
• What is considered a new set. It can help to describe it in days or weeks since % is hard for a client to gauge
• That there is an additional cost to remove lashes
• That eyelash extensions are not guaranteed (and your refund policy)
• Your late policy (I reserve the right to reschedule when client is 15 minutes late and more) and your cancellation policy (I ask for 48 hours notice)

• A legal section releasing you of liability. You can consult a lawyer to help you draw this part up.
• A space for them to sign and date the document

Once you have the consent form filled out you have an opportunity to answer any questions your client may have. Oftentimes, this is a time for clients to make new connections about previous struggles with retention or they may be shocked to learn that fills are required. This is your chance to fill in the blanks for your client. This is your chance to set expectations for how the service will happen. You are able to let your client know what kind of commitment you need from them. Your client’s perceived value of your service relies on this part! If they think lash extensions are like implants and are supposed to last the year they will be highly dissatisfied at one month they are thinned out. Manage perceptions by educating your client.

Lash extension application is such an interesting service because it is happening while the client's eyes are closed. They also cannot see what their natural lashes look like from the angle you can see it. There is trust that must be built between you as a provider and the client so that they know that you have their best interests at heart. If they do not trust you or understand the factors that they are responsible for when wearing lash extensions, when things go wrong, you will be to blame and they will be left feeling dissatisfied with your service.

This is also a potential time to go your separate ways. For example, if a client has budgeted for once a month fills and cannot agree to their first fill being booked for 2 weeks to prove that they do have great retention then we cannot move forward.

2) Consultation

Now that we have the technicalities out of the way, we can decide what kind of lashes this client will be getting. You can ask them to show you pictures of lashes they like and you can ask to see pictures of themselves where they liked how their lash extensions or makeup looked. Have them lay down and have a look at their natural lashes and determine if their lashes are a good fit for the style your client has chosen.

Keep in mind that people like options but sometimes too many options can be overwhelming. It helps to narrow it down to "This or That". If they are increasingly unsure, choose the style most aesthetically pleasing for their face and eye shape.

This is the time to let a client know if their desired look is not possible. Let them know their options. People like to feel that they have some control, even if it's control over an outcome that isn't their ideal one.  

On some occasions, we are unable to come to an agreement on lash style. Sometimes a client has lashes that have been lifted too recently and their lashes are simply too singed to move forward. Other times, it’s a client with delicate lashes who refuses to go shorter than 15mm. Don’t be afraid to put your foot down and stick to your gut. Apply longer lashes than they can handle or applying lashes to compromised or very delicate lashes can mean a new set every fill and horrible retention.

3) Aftercare Cards

This is an underrated tool! These little cards can make or break your client’s level of satisfaction. And client satisfaction is the one thing that stands between you and books that are booked solid. Manage their expectations by sending them home with bits of information from your consent form. They’re likely to be dehydrated, hungry and a little out of it once they get up from their new set of lashes. They probably won’t remember the aftercare you tell them before they leave but the card they read later that night will remind them of the value you provided to them that day.

Information to include on your aftercare card:

• that their new lashes will settle and relax a bit and that they should try to wait to judge if they like them until about 3 days after
• that they should brush them gently, from the top, once or twice a day and not more
• that they should air dry them or use the cool, low setting if they blow dry them
• that they should avoid heat from things such as: the hair dryer, barbecues, bonfires, the initial blast of heat from opening the oven door
• that they should not sleep on their stomach and face
• that they should not play with, pick, pull or rub their lashes
• how often you want them to wash their lashes with lash shampoo (I say 3x a week to be safe, and every day if they wear makeup on their eyelids)
• that they should avoid oil makeup removers
• that they should never apply makeup or mascara to lash extensions
• your contact information should they have any questions
• the date of their next fill

Their next appointment should be booked BEFORE they leave your studio! How to do this effortlessly will be covered in the third section of this series, Level Up and Fill Your Books With Good Clients: How to Keep Good Clients Being Good Clients.

I hope you enjoyed this and stay tuned for Part 3!

Your Lash Bae,

Kady-Jo