Tips And Toes Woes!!

Just came back from the Tips and Toes Salon at The Greens and I am livid with my whole experience, will never go back now..... Sorry but need to vent! Am I being unreasonable? I work in customer service and no matter whats going on cannot be RUDE to people. Am so over the salons here and the staff attitude.

Heres is my feedback to the company......

To The Manager,

Today I visited your Tips and Toes Greens branch without an appointment in the hope of getting a quick File and Colour Change, and to my surprise the staff could fit me in, always a bonus in a popular, busy salon. Unfortunately thats about where my happy experience ended and it's such a shame as Tips and Toes is definitely a salon I would have previously had no problem recommending to friends and family etc.

After confirming my appointment, I told the receptionist that I had left my handbag in the car and needed to quickly retrieve it and I would return immediately. She questioned how long this would take me to retrieve my purse (while looking at her watch) which left me feeling quite uneasy and annoyed, however I told her 30 seconds and literally ran to my car and back in order not to keep your staff waiting.

Throughout my Colour Change on both hands and feet I couldn't help feeling like I was inconveniencing the technicians. I have found this to be commonplace throughout many Dubai salons where the staff just seem miserable. I know they work long hours and are most probably fatigued, but having had experience in a customer focused environment, it is really paramount for them to be able to disguise whatever may be going on in their personal lives in order to ensure the customers expectations are met. To give reference to what I mean, I asked them if they were applying the same colour to both hands and feet to which they did not even acknowledge me speaking them and after a short while eventually answered my question without even looking up at me once. The only words I got were them demanding the word "relax" as I tried to juggle having both hands and feet done at once, which is highly uncomfortable by the way.

Although I was angered by the experience, I have experienced technicians being like this so often in numerous salons that I probably just accept it now as the norm.

After my nails were complete I just sat in the chair and admired them, and thats when I realised that my toes looked terrible. The hands were done perfectly, but the big toes were filed lopsided and I still had polish remaining on the surrounding skin. I honestly considered just letting them dry and then going to another salon to have them redone, when I decided that I would speak to your staff and see if it could be rectified first. I believe in giving a second chance to fix a problem. I explained to a staff member (not the two girls who painted my nails) that I wasn't really happy and showed them why, they didn't make any effort to apologise or anything but just called over the girl who painted them who glanced at her work as if I was just being pedantic.

In the end she sat down to fix them, but I requested the girl who did my nails do them to ensure I was satisfied with the end result, to which I was told by your staff that this could not be done as another client was coming in. I find this extremely mind boggling and frustrating that you have a paying customer in your chair who's unhappy with the service provided to her yet there is no concern for retaining her loyalty. The loyalty went to the client after me who could very well not even turn up for her appointment.

Infuriated now I sat in the chair as my nails and disastrous feet dried and told the staff not to worry I would do as I had originally planned which was go to my preferred salon and have them redone.

What I did find interesting is that I proceeded to sit in the chair for a further 15 minutes yet the supposed customer was nowhere to be seen, and therefore my nails could have been repainted without disruption to future appointments. What could be seen however was about 4 or 5 staff standing around massaging each other to the left of the reception desk, waiting for something to do. The sad thing about this is your business could be dramatically more profitable had they been offering the services they were to each other to paying clientele.

In conclusion, the staff member who painted my nails originally and who I had requested to fix my toes eventually came up to me and said "yes maam" for which I explained my situation, as obviously the manager had not communicated to her why I was unhappy and had requested her services. She did end up improving them but unfortunately she couldn't completely rectify the lopsidedness caused by the previous technician.

I am so disappointed by my whole experience that I left the salon enraged. I personally wont go back to the that branch if not Tips and Toes again, at least not until some customer focus is instilled within the company or staff at that particular branch.

A salon is supposed to be a relaxing, tranquil place and that is something Tips and Toes is currently lacking.

Hope this feedback helps you implement better customer service practices and you don't have to read emails like this in the future.

I would appreciate a response in regard to this matter, I am contactable on the email provided.

Dissatisfied Client