As a receptionist you are the front line between the outside world and the spa/salon world. In my new position I make appointments, assign clients, inventory, smooth ruffled feathers, apologize when we screw up, and answer tons of questions that I knew nothing about only a month ago. Some of those questions still surprise even me. Lets take for example a call I took a few days ago from a young woman who was concerned that our students weren't qualified to work on her hair. I answer the phone and she explains to me that she has an appointment for the next day, but her concern is that our students can't work on African-American hair. Now you might be saying to yourself that this is a legitimate concern, but the school I work at is made up primarily of African-American students. I've actually been asked this same question a number of times by a number of women so I've come up with a pat answer...Well mam, our student body is around 99% African-American so that will not be an issue....So I trot out my standard answer and her reply was..'OK, but can they work on African-American hair'? Huh? I mean I might not be the smartest person in the world but I'm pretty sure if they can do their own African-American hair, they are quite capable of doing yours. So instead of being a smart ass which was my first instinct I explained to the woman that 90% of our clients were in fact African Americans. From this point I expected to hear relief in her voice and end the phone call....uhmm no, not quite. 'You're not getting what I'm saying', she says, 'I need a person who specializes in African-American hair can I talk to someone else?' WTF??, are you kidding me?? At this point my already frayed patience snaps(it's been a rough week ladies and gentleman)and I tell her that no she can't talk to anyone else and the student we have her with is wonderful and is she going to keep the appointment or not. She finally tells me she's not going to argue with me and yes she will be at appointment. I hang up the phone shaking my head. I had students up at the desk who were laughing from just hearing my side of the conversation so when I told them the whole conversation they suggested I give her to one of the 10 white students we have for shits and giggles...I didn't though I was tempted. So my whole point in relating this story is to please think before you speak. If you are coming into a salon with an attitude you are pissing off the one person(that would be the front line..me)who can make you regret it for a good month or however long it takes to regrow your hair. You are being a bitch to the one person who can put you with a student/stylist who will turn your hair green or make it fall out so why would you even think of crossing us?? That's the equivalent of being a bitch to the girl who's going to be applying hot wax to your crotch. Trust me we can make the experience as painful as possible. So think about it before you start snapping off ignorant questions and bitchy attitude to the front line.....Receptionist/OutOfWork Estheticians Unite!!
