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“Sure. Thanks. I’m looking forward to the hair mask.”
“The lavender one is my favorite. I’ll make sure you get that one.”
“I’m excited.”
Twenty minutes later Daryn was dealing with orange hair and Poppy was mixing color under another stylist’s supervision. Erica retreated to her office, where she typed up notes on what had happened and sent them to her office manager.
A little after four, Erica heard a tentative knock on her door.
“Come in.”
A very pale and red-eyed Poppy entered. “You wanted to see me?”
Erica pointed to one of the chairs opposite hers. “How did it go with Daryn’s client?”
“Good. She loved the hair mask.” Poppy twisted her hands together. “I thought I could do it, you know. Before. I wasn’t trying to mess up.”
“You knew the client lied. You knew she’d used box color on her hair and that you haven’t been trained on color correction. Did you do a color test before starting?”
Poppy stared at her lap. “No. She was in a hurry and she said it would be fine.”
“And it wasn’t.”
“No.”
“You broke several salon rules today, Poppy. Is this usual for you?”
“No. I would never...” She wiped away tears. “I love my job. I want to do better. I work hard. I just thought it was okay.”
Erica leaned back in her chair. In the past couple of hours, she’d looked up the young stylist’s employment record at the salon. Poppy was young and eager. She’d done well in her training and she was well-liked on the floor. Her rebooking rate was excellent and she sold a lot of product. Just as important, she excelled on social media, which brought attention to the salon.
“Do you know why salon policy prohibits talking about your personal life with clients?”
“Because it takes too much time?”
Erica offered a faint smile. “Not exactly. Clients come to Twisted for an experience. There are cheaper places for hair color and a decent cut. Oh, we’re the best—that’s always the goal—but we do more than excellent work. Our mission is to make every client feel important and beautiful. We brighten their day and make them feel good about themselves.”
Poppy looked confused. “Okay.”
“Let’s say you meet a great new guy. Both you and your client are so excited for the possibilities.”
Erica leaned forward. “But three months later he dumps you and you’re crushed. Obviously your client cares and commiserates with you. So instead of focusing your time together on her experience, everything is about you and while your client leaves happy with her cut and color, she’s not leaving feeling like we were the best part of her day.”
“Because she’s worried about me?”
“Exactly. It’s why we suggest you talk about your client rather than about yourself. It makes things easier.”
“I get that.” Poppy raised her chin. “Are you going to fire me?”
“No. I’m going to demote you to a level one and send you to an intensive color seminar in three weeks. For the next three months, you’ll run every color formula past a senior stylist. If you do as well as I think you should, you’ll return to level two and be on track to be a color specialist. How does that sound?”
Poppy’s eyes widened. She jumped to her feet and circled the desk to hug Erica.
“Thank you so much!” she said, squeezing tight. “I’ll do better. I promise.”
Erica stood and smiled at her. “I know you will. We all make mistakes. It’s whether or not we learn from them that makes the difference.”
“I’ll learn so much, you’ll be shocked!”
