Well, I spoke too soon.
(which is nothing new for me, by the way)
A few days ago I raved about Adorn… you know, Asheville in a salon.
And then as I sat in the chair last night looking at my newly acquired splotchy, yellow-gold highlights, I realized cheap only gets you so far. Apparently it gets you a good haircut, but the buck stops several yards short of good color.
But I’m not going to throw Adorn under the bus for one reason, and it’s the same reason I liked the place so much to begin with: authenticity.
I’ve been to enough salons where they talk about customer service, and plaster the words all over their website and marketing materials, until someone screws up and then suddenly it’s about money and ego. Service? Oh I provided a service. And you need to pay for it. Nevermind that the service received was a hideous shade of maroon that took 2 years to get rid of (I’m not bitter, I swear).
And worse than the expectation that you’ll pay for someone else’s mistake is having to deal with their ego. I don’t care how many years experience you have, or what you “thought” the color would look like–if you mess up, and I don’t like it, get over yourself and own up to your mistake. It’s not personal, so don’t take it personally.
Good service doesn’t mean never making a mistake… it’s about how you handle mistakes. And in this respect, Adorn lives up to its promise. I got an immediate apology, a quick fix to return my hair to its normal color, and an invitation to come back at whatever day and time I wanted. Payment never entered the equation. The stylist seemed genuinely sorry she messed up, and was willing to do whatever was required to fix it. That’s authenticity, and its what many upscale salons lack.
So I don’t recommend you go get highlights at Adorn. And I didn’t enjoy sitting there for 3 hours to get slightly orange-tinted hair.
But the stylists are still sweet, and they do indeed give great haircuts. Better yet, they pratice real customer service.
1 Comment
May 2, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski