Discount dilemma

It can be difficult to operate without offering occasional free or discounted treatments to friends, press or influencers, but where should you draw the line? Hellen Ward weighs in

I’m sure I’m not alone in getting quite snippy about the thorny issue of giving discounts to friends, press and influencers. Recently, one of the mothers from my daughter’s nursery group (to get some perspective, Elysia is now 24) came into the salon on my day off. I haven’t spoken to this woman since the Monkey Music days, when as fried-out mothers we’d sit and mindlessly tap the tambourines with our babies. At the time, I gave her a very generous mates’ rate of 25% off. The trouble is, that was over two decades ago. She’s not even a friend now, let alone a close friend. What to do?

I recently tried to sort out the freeloaders by saying to the team that we were going to have a policy where all discounts were to be reviewed annually, the database was to be held by eagle-eyed Jules (my trusty sidekick in the office) and that discounts were issued solely at my discretion.

Then, reception could tell people that they had to contact me personally to maintain it. After all, we personally subsidise all these discounts to the team members who are working on commission so that they don’t lose out.

Hence this dilemma. So, the woman implies, smiling through gritted teeth to Aaron our head receptionist, that she would report him to me for taking her discount away. Aaron informs her he’s following my instructions and that she should contact me directly by text or email. “Do you have her details?”, she asked.

The irony of the fact that she is claiming to be a close friend but has no contact details for me was clearly lost on her.

But seriously, people don’t seem to get the mates’ rates thing, do they? My close friends who come in are the opposite. My lovely American friend Jane constantly begs me to charge her full price as she’s so conscious of not taking the proverbial Mickey – even though she lets me have her Stamford Bridge tickets if she can’t get to a match!

Case by case

It’s the same with celebrities and influencers. Some of them get that there’s no such thing as a free lunch and if they want to pay a lower rate then we need something in return. A post, a mention, anything. Some are so blissfully unaware that we need a payback that they need to be told (hints don’t seem to work) that they can’t expect to enjoy freebies for nothing.

By the way, not everyone behaves in this manner – from experience, the more “A list” they are, the more likely they are to want to pay full whack and don’t want to be seen to be getting anything for free in case it compromises them.

Take the recent Cakegate incident that went viral where a Corrie star’s agent tried to blag a free birthday cake from a small, independent bakery. The owner replied that as much as she’d like exposure on the celeb’s social channels, she had rising costs, children to feed and bills to pay and a post on Instagram wasn’t going to do that for her. Give that woman a medal please. She did us all a favour. I noted that the celeb’s agent was the one who got thrown under the bus for asking, but that’s hardly unusual.

“It’s becoming an increasing issue, and the SPOILT BRAT BEHAVIOUR I’ve encountered has left my JAW ON THE FLOOR at times „

I suppose people will always take advantage but really, sometimes their ignorance and naivety is astonishing. Some of the worst offenders even try to get their family on the rate and swan in as if to say ‘Don’t you know who I am?’. It’s becoming an increasing issue for the salon and the spoilt brat behaviour I’ve encountered has left my jaw on the floor at times. Another “school mum”, who I haven’t seen for a good 10 years, sent me a very perfunctory email stating that it was a little tiresome to have to be told to email me to get her discount renewed. And while she’s at it, why can’t her daughter enjoy the same rate too? Of course, where actual friends are concerned, it may be more clear cut.

However, some keyboard warriors say we shouldn’t give influencers, press and celebrities any discount at all. But that’s not how the world works, is it? We live in an age when traditional PR has changed and social media has taken over, like it or not.

Not that long ago, the beauty journalists in consumer press enjoyed all the treatments, trips and freebies that are now reserved for reality TV stars. A lot has changed, and if you don’t’ play the game (whether you like it or not) someone else will.

We recently had an influencer who tried to blag a discounted service but when we checked their Instagram account they’d been posting about other salons and not ours. Their huffy little tantrum of a response said it all. Suffice to say we won’t be welcoming them back into the salon any time soon.

Make the cut

With a big business, things can slip through the net, and as good as the team are at reading client notes and files, seeing “HW Mates’ Rates” in the notes doesn’t aways call for questioning. But, I’m heading on back to my database to strike through a lot more people who have been getting away with it for far too long.

If you want to play with the fire of discounting, I suppose you have to expect to get your fingers burnt. But a bit of sensitivity and subtlety from the recipient about what it really costs to enjoy a discount, or worse, a freebie, certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

Hellen Ward is managing director of Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa in London, vice president of The Hair & Beauty Charity and co-founder of Salon Employers Association (SEA).