The Power of Social Media & My Ulta Salon Experience

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With all of the social networking sites around today, the consumer has more power than they may even know!

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If you follow me on Twitter you may already be aware of this. I went to the Salon at Ulta recently to take advantage of a promotion -- they were offering 25% off the new Redken Chromatics Prismatic Hair Coloring service. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see how their salon was, let my wallet take a break from my (usually much more expensive) stylist and save some cheese (cash money, honey!).

Long story short: The hair coloring service comes with a complimentary blowout but there was nothing complimentary about it! It was THE worst blowout I have ever had in my life. My hair was still damp, it had no style and my bangs were a hot mess looking like I was back in 7th grade. I was there for 2 1/2 hours to boot and had I not told the stylist I had to leave, I probably would have been there longer.

The worst part was: When I felt my head it was still damp. O.o I said to the stylist, "My hair is still damp. My crown is not even dry." and she replied to me, "Yeah I tried to take a shortcut. You have a lot of hair, it's so thick." I was floored. What does that even mean? I only get half a blowout because I have double the amount of hair? I couldn't believe she said that to me. And WHY would you say that to a client???? A NEW client at that! I told her "Why would you say that to me!? I don't even know what that means." The hairdryer should still be going if we both know my hair isn't dry, right?

The stylist was very nice but I didn't think she was a strong stylist. She wasn't confident and didn't appear sure in her work. She also wasn't familiar with the basics of taking care of the client during a coloring process. She got dye all over my face - my forehead, above my brow(!), all over my neck, my cheek (!) and the sides of my face. {When you pull color through the hair and that person has long hair, be sure not to let the strands go flying into the client's face! Dye will get everywhere and god forbid, in their eye!} I asked her for some dye remover so it didn't stain my face(I was going out after) and she told me the salon doesn't carry it. Aah! What? How can a salon not carry such a basic item like that when they offer coloring services? I've never had my hair colored at a salon and they not remove any hair dye that gets on my ears and anywhere else. While I was curing, one of the other stylists "found" and gave the remover to my stylist. They DO have it there at the salon but I guess my stylist wasn't aware of it? How come she didn't know they had it? She told me she had been working at the salon for over 2 years. So after having my hair rinsed, I saw the dye remover sitting on the shelf, out in the open, where they keep the towels. Le sigh...

The aftermath: So I sent a tweet out with an off hand comment about how the complimentary blowout that was included with the service wasn't great. Ulta Headquarters saw it and responded. I had no idea that would happen and more importantly, had no intention of pursuing anything further with the crap blowout  so it made me doubly happy when they reached out to me. They asked me to send them an email explaining what happened. My email was then forwarded on to the Ulta where I had my hair services done. A few days later the manager called me and apologized for what happened. I will state here for the record and repeat what I told the manager: the stylist that did my color and blowout was very sweet and we had a great time chatting about makeup and hair and all things beauty. I told her that I didn't want anything bad to happen to her and I hoped that she wasn't in any trouble because that was never my intention and this was all unexpected. She assured me that the stylist was not in any trouble and they appreciate all feedback - good and bad. She also said they believe in coaching to help better a person and help them to grow. I believe the same thing and I loved hearing that.  :-D

I thanked them and told them how much I appreciated the call and the follow up.  They then said they'd like the opportunity to try again and offered me 20% off any future hair service. After my experience, I'm not inclined to give them more of my money for any salon services, especially a blow out. To be honest, I felt like they should have offered to give me a re-do on the blowout and that is what I had hoped. I certainly don't want to pay for a blowout from another new stylist, I don't know what I'll get and it's not a gamble I feel like taking. They are not obligated to offer me anything other than an apology and that's all I really need. I think it would have been a perfect ending the other way but hey, I'll take it!

My original tweets:

My original tweets after the Salon service.

The following day Ulta sent me an email so I wanted to Tweet that they followed up with me.

A few days later the manager of the Ulta store where I had my service called me so I followed up again with a Tweet. 

Check out my video to hear more about what happened! 

Remember: YOU have the power at your fingertips! Let your voice be heard!! If you're not happy with something, don't like something the company is doing or have a less than stellar experience, let that company know and give them the opportunity to respond.

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Betty xx