We had to terminate our piercing artist today.
By “we” I actually mean the husbear did. I support him though. (I didn’t work at the tattoo shop today, else it would have been me doing it. Well, maybe. I have a hard time with “HR” stuff.)
The husbear found out—from another stylist at our hair salon—that our piercing artist had been extremely rude to a tattoo customer in the tattoo shop. So rude that the customer left and took some other people with her. She said she would never be back and she would tell her friends and everyone else to never come to our shop.
We can’t have this—at any business. It infuriates me (and the husbear) to no end. We have worked hard to build a reputation for the tattoo shop of NOT being the typical, rude, dirty, scary, drug-filled, gang-related shop. Then to have that reputation tarnished—even for just one person—from someone on the inside! To be honest, the piercing artist had been walking on thin ice for a while. His attitude had been poor, and his performance wasn’t where I expected it to be. I was trying to give him a chance. My mistake.
We have attempted to contact the customer to apologize and to find a way to make it up to her (no answer, but left a message… will try again tomorrow), but I feel the damage has already been done.
Damn.
Until next time...
Wow! Someone who stands behind their word. What a ducky idea! heehee
Sorry you had to deal w/the drama but sounds like you made a good choice.
Tough times. Now you have to work three times as hard to win that customer back. Good luck.
Just the attempt to contact the injured party is more than most businesses will do. Good on you both.
WTF! Doesn’t the piercer artist know you just don’t do that. Customers run for the door when they see this type of thing. Sorry to hear that buddy. I really hope you can make it up with the customer.
Well, if she is smart, she will realize it was this piercer person and not you guys. So hopefully she’ll see reason once contacted.
UNACCEPTABLE! Period.
I hope she accepts your phone call and accepts your apology for something you had no control over.
Just remember, it was not you.
@all:
I just don’t understand why would anyone treat their “bread-and-butter” like this? All the artists in our shop are independent contractors, i.e., SELF EMPLOYED. I just don’t understand it…
We left another message with the customer, but still no “personal” contact with her. I don’t want to seem like I am “pushy” to her. We apologized and took action. Hopefully she will see that.
I hope you’re able to fix the damage that he did. I’m sure thing will be ok.
don’t beat yourself up too bad here. you saw the problem, corrected the staff issue and attempted to contact her directly and Mike is right, you did more than most would. there’s not much else you can do. it sucks but hopefully she’s grown up enough to take the apology and not spread bad karma around.
and yeah…HR sucks. i hate that shit.
So far no contact from the customer. We found out that she went to a shop in a neighboring city, as that shop owner called us asking what had happened.