Need advice..where did I go wrong?

[Curious]

Okay, this is gonna be long. But anyone that has the time to read and help, it would be grealty appreciated.

One pointer to help you understand:
1. We had a sale on our 1 Year Packages that ran from Nov. 25 - Dec. 25
Reg. year is $349.00 - Sale Price was $199.00

Now, I had an employee call me last Friday night and ask me if she could sell a client a gift certificate for a 1 year package for $199.00 because she was a loyal client and had referred many people to us. (remember that the sale is over and the price is back to $349.00) I told the employee that I would be more than happy to give her $99.00 off and sell it to her for $250.00. The employee said okay and thank you. When I arrived to work on Monday morning I followed up on the weekend sales report and noticed that my employee went ahead and sold it for $199.00. Hmmmmm. I pulled the empolyee back with the owner by my side (note I am the Manager) and questioned her actions and she informed me that she was planning on telling me and that the client was very pushing and demanding about getting the year for 199 because she is a hair stylist and refers alot of people to our salon and she thought she deserved it. I told the employee that reguardless of the situation she was still in the wrong for overriding my decision and I that I did not believe she was going to tell me because she has had three days to tell me and had yet to do so. I asked her what she thought her punishment should be and she said that she would be happy to pay the difference and come clean with the client and admit that she had lied about getting permision. Well..........................I get a call that night while I am at home from this employee and she tells me that the client is there and would like to speak to me. She pu t the client on the phone and the client handed me a new one. Telling me that it was shelfish of me not to approve the 150 off and only offer 99 off and that it was wrong of me to make my employee pay the difference. I explained to her that the employee went behind our backs and against our word and lied and basically stole. But we decided not to proceed with the max punishment and gave her the choice of chosing her own punishment and that is what she came up with, not us. The client kept pushing the fact that she sends alot of people to us and has spent alot of money here and has bought tons of lotions from us when she can get here own at cost. ( Note her sales history states that she has only bought two packettes from us and has only bought 5 packages from us, not that big of a spender). She threaten that if I made the employee pay the difference or if she got in any trouble for this then she would never return and never reffer another person here. What should I do???????????

[eileen]

None of this should've ever been discussed with the customer IMO you have made an even bigger mistake here. I would stop immediately using the word punishment, this employee is not in jail or school he/she is at their place of employment. You write up employees or give them occurances. The owner of you salon should step in and reprimand both of you for discussing company policies with a client and for not following the train of command. Goodluck and more importantly use this as a learning step to work it out so it never happens again. :)

[john parillo]

that sucks, happened to me be4 .If she has a good history with referals you must let that slide .now your employee works for you she needs to keep her mouth shut.there was no need for that to get back to your client. I would have fired her.... that is your decision but come on!!! let that be a lession in the future when you run yearly packages.. also make sure she hasn't done in the past!!!!!!Good luck with that 1. Remember word of mouth is everything in this business!!!!!

[caribbean tan man]

first i would suggest you dont sell specials on a gift card.

then i would suggest you teach your employee how to control a situation. seems the client is pushy and your employee couldnt handle her. pressure can make people do weird things. my employee would NEVER put a client on the phone with me. And quite honestly if i had 1 ream me like that i would toss her azz 2 the curb regardless of loyalty....MY STORE MY RULES!

this client needs to understand u do love her so-called loyalty, but this is not her salon or yours and u have rules to follow as well as everyone else. a ultimatium(sp) between punishing the employee and loosing her as a client is not a choice. The employee WILL be punished. If she is so concerned about the employee then she should pay the price u approved!

i wouldnt miss a client like that!

what does the owner say about it all?

[eileen]

You guys missed this part....

"I asked her what she thought her punishment should be and she said that she would be happy to pay the difference and come clean with the client and admit that she had lied about getting permision."

The employee was apparently given acceptence to come clean with the client??? There is no way this should've been discussed any further with the client. The mistake was made in house and should've stayed in house. Very bad decision IMO and I certainly hope the owner didn't agree to this or that is where the root of the problem is.

[eileen]

Besides why further humiliate this employee buy making them tell the customer they lied....ultimately because this customer was so over powering and rude that the employee was put in a situation he/she wasn't prepared to handle.

[Tanzenite]

AS Eileen stated, this should NEVER have been discussed with the client. And when you were put on the phone, you should have handeled it better by not saying anything.

[Busygrl98]

why is this employee "friends" with this client? add to yiour employee handbook or rules they can't discuss salon business with nonemployess could fall under trade secret or confidental information. just a thing we do when we have a discounted package we make it "with lotion purchase"

[megatanman]

If I were you I would right her a check for the price she paid and tell her to hit the bricks,The minute you let patrons tell you how to run your business,you might as well throw in the towel.People will try to get over on you everyday,you need to know when its time to just say,Im sorry I can't accommodate you.We had a special like that too for Oct-Nov to boost sales and people were asking about it in Dec-Jan.I politely told them,sorry but it will be back around again next year.


My advice is tell your employees to tell the customers that they cannot authorize things like that and they need to deal with the boss.

[eileen]

Curious, situations like this will set you up to be a better manager. Don't get to caught up on what should I do to this employee, think things through and how to better handle the situation next time. :)