Do You Sometimes Feel Invisible And Unwanted

My Day Of Feeling Like A Unwanted Customer

Hi. I just thought I’d share something today. It’s my day off today, and it’s been a beautiful Monday.Todays piece about mindset in business, and how you can make customers feel like they are invisible and unwanted, and how we don’t want to make you feel that way atImpressions hairdressing. I just thought I’d share a quick story that hilights this.That I experienced  from the customers point of view.

I was going to go out for a day today, and my wife had the car. As I often do, I catch the bus to various places. I wanted to go into Chichester but stop off on route and have some breakfast. As I went on my way, I walked into a shop and bought some water, and the gentleman didn’t even look at me, and said, “99 p.” I gave him the 99 p and he didn’t even acknowledge that I was there. I just felt like an invisible man. It was like I didn’t exist. I was a transaction. I’m sure he had lots of other things on his mind but even so.

Just as I come out of the shop, then there was the bus just drawing up. I jumped on the bus and I went, “Good morning,” to the bus driver and the bus driver said, “£3.20.” I gave him his £3.20, and he said nothing made no eye contact, by this point I was really feeling like the invisible man. I went on the bus.

Do I Look Like A Women?Image of woman's silhouette with open hands

Then, I got off the bus and I went to a place that I don’t normally go to for breakfast, and it’s very busy. A lady in front of me had a disabled, I would say, mom with her and she was trying to order some food. As she was ordering the food, I could see from behind that she was getting a bit agitated because she could see that she couldn’t carry the tray and get her mom to the seat where they were seated.

I could see from her body language all was not well … Now, you could argue that perhaps she should have just said something. I mean, we should all be more assertive than we are. But that’s not the point, when you’re in a customer service position, it’s not your customer’s job to assert themselves. They normally do only if they’re upset!!

I could see this going off behind me. In the end, in quite a loud voice, this lady said to herself, but obviously aimed at the person serving, who’d now turned around to make a cup of tea, “Right, well I’ll sit my mom down because I can’t do both things at once.” Off she went.

I was moved to the front of the queue, so I was standing at the front of the queue. You’ve got to remember the lady in front of me was a lady, and the last time I looked, I’m a man!!

Now I’m at the front of the queue and this young lady said, “Was it tea you wanted?” I’m thinking, “Well, actually you’ve just been talking to a woman for the last 5 minutes and now I’m a man. You haven’t even recognised there’s been a changeover of gender. It’s just becoming a process that you’re going through.” I kind of looked at her, she went … Oh, and then I said, “Actually, that lady over there needs some help.”

She looked at me, and I said something to her. I just said,

“I just feel like I’ve become the invisible man this morning.”

She went, “Sorry?” I went,

“Well, just had one of those days where I’m going around and no one’s seeming to notice me.”

I said, “Not in a big way, but just acknowledge that I’m there.” I said,

“Perhaps it’s people trying to get over their Sunday, or something like that. It’s Monday and perhaps people are struggling.” I said almost apologetically

This lady, very honestly, went, “You could be right.”

With that, someone went over, helped the lady, came back, gave me my coffee, and as I left, she went, “I hope you have a really great Monday.” I said, “I will.” She had at last woken up and engaged me as a person not a thing.

We See You And Hear You At Impressions. Your Never A Faceless Customer

All I could think of was I’d hate anybody that comes to Impressions to ever feel that way, to feel like an invisible man or invisible woman. If you’ve ever gone to a salon, and you’ve felt like an invisible man or an invisible woman, I just want you to know that you’ll never be treated that way at my salon.

You’ll always be acknowledged. You’ll always be greeted. You’ll always be treated as an individual, not as a process or just a thing to go through the till. You will be treated as an individual, and I hope that after 34, 35 years in this line of work, that my reputation goes before me on that.
It just got me thinking about it today, when those things happened. It’s so easy just to process people and forget about them as individuals, especially after a Sunday.

In fairness, we have to work Saturdays, and we have to get ourselves into the game. The reason we do is we know that our customers are really important to us, and we want to treat them as individuals. I just thought I’d share that.

So please two things if you ever come to impressions and feel we dont listen to you or make you feel invisible in some way we really want to know.

If you are at another salon and not feeling wanted or listened too give us a try I am sure your be pleased you did.

Thanks for reading