Key Takeaways:  Adding barber consultations to your barber services provides your clients with value and helps you expand your business. Consultations are a great way to connect with clients, share your expertise and passion, and promote positive outcomes for everyone involved.

As a barber, your clients turn to you for a number of reasons. From your tactile skill and creative prowess to the welcoming environment of your shop and shared personal connection, your barber services extend far beyond cutting hair.

The more ways you can provide your clients with value, the better for them and for your business. It’s why many barber shops offer shaving services in addition to their bread and butter (haircuts).

If you are looking to expand your barber services, offering consultations is a great place to start.

Why Consultations are the Bee’s Knees of Barber Services

Client Trust is a Must

Sitting down for a consultation creates an opportunity for you and your client to get introduced on a personal and professional level, setting the tone for the relationship moving forward. Not only does this potential first impression let you both know if you’re a good fit, but it is also a great first step toward building trust.

Your client needs to trust your expertise, and a consultation provides an opportunity to establish that essential building block of the client-barber relationship. Someone’s appearance is important to who they are, their self-confidence, and their self-expression–they need to trust you to understand their goals and have the skills to make their vision come to life.

Consultations also help build consistency. When trust is present, both parties can feel comfortable and confident in knowing that they understand one another and can trust each other every step of the way.

Personalization is the Cornerstone of Barbering

People don’t turn to you for cookie-cutter haircuts. Instead, they are looking for someone with the creativity and expertise to help them capture a feeling and look they desire (even if they aren’t sure how to express it). Adding consultations to your barber services allows you to personalize your services to every client’s unique preferences, needs, and hair type.

Through this process of getting to know one another, you can begin to personalize your client’s experience to best suit them. This includes how you communicate, the way you care for their hair based on its characteristics (Is it curly? Thick? Wavy?), and the products you use and recommend.

Communication is Key

Your barber services may not include interpersonal relationships, but barber shops tend to function as community hubs and social spaces, making communication a cornerstone of your business.

Consultations allow you to communicate directly with your clients, creating personal connections along the way. The better you communicate, the stronger your bond will grow and the more streamlined your client’s experience will be.

Clear communication also provides an opportunity to discuss goals, address concerns, and limit misunderstandings that can lead to mistakes. Healthy communication leads to a healthy connection and helps you skip over avoidable mistakes, keeping everyone happy and fostering a long-term barber-client relationship.

Trends are Constantly Changing

Touching base with your clients via regular consultations helps you stay up to date with their changing preferences and styles, as well as keep them informed on new trends, innovative products, and so on.

Whether your client wants to try a fresh look or change up their haircare routine, a consultation is the perfect opportunity to discuss trendy options and evaluate the changes they’d like to make. Consider it a meeting of the minds where you can brainstorm exciting ideas together and determine the best way to help them achieve their new goal.

Equipping Your Clients for Success

Discussing what will take place during the appointment is a clear benefit of adding consultations to your barber services, but these one-on-one sessions can also help your clients when they leave your shop.

You may not be able to go home with your clients (we advise against it), but you can set them up for success when they exit the safety of your shop and enter the big, bad world by giving them valuable guidance.

Your barber services are the backbone of your business, and consultations are a strong addition to what you offer.

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