Three Things My Hairdresser Taught Me About Customer Experience

​I went to the hairdresser recently for a cut and colour appointment, and before my apprentice had even finished draping the cape over me, I'd already spotted three moments of genuinely great customer experience design. Not from the senior stylist. Not from a fancy brand campaign. From the small, ordinary choices happening in the chair next to the basin.

​Here's what I noticed.

1. She knew exactly how she wanted me to feel
As the apprentice got me ready for my colour, she was constantly checking in... was the cape too tight, was I comfortable, was everything okay. When I told her how kind she was being, she said something simple that stopped me: "I just want my customers to feel calm and relaxed."

That's it. That's the whole strategy in one sentence.

She wasn't just being polite, she was being kind because she understood the feeling she was responsible for creating, and she understood that every small action she took either built toward that feeling or chipped away at it.

Most businesses can tell you what they want customers to do - book, visit, buy, recommend etc. Very few can tell you, this clearly, what they want customers to feel, and even fewer train their newest, most junior staff to hold that as their job.

2. The environment was doing half the work
Next came the wash. Anyone who's had their hair washed at a salon knows the awkward neck-craning discomfort of lying back into a basin. Except this time, there was a small platform built into the sink for my head to rest against.

It's a tiny piece of design. But it solved a moment of friction that almost every customer experiences and almost every salon ignores, because "that's just how hair washing basins are."

It was a reminder that customer experience isn't only about what your people say and do, it's also about what your environment has already decided for them before a single word is exchanged.

3. They knew CX is won or lost in the recovery, not just the delivery
The third moment wasn't even about me. While I was in the chair, I overheard another customer describing a color mix-up she'd had at a different salon. She admitted it had come down to a miscommunication.

The hairdresser's response was the part that stayed with me: "Miscommunications happen — but for a business, it's how you rectify it and work with your customer through it that matters."

That's the line that separates good CX from great CX. Every business will eventually get something wrong. Bookings get double-checked, colors get misread, expectations get crossed. The businesses customers stay loyal to aren't the ones that never make mistakes,  they're the ones that treat the recovery as seriously as the delivery.

Three lessons, one afternoon
None of this came from a strategy deck or a customer journey map.

It came from an apprentice who understood the feeling she was accountable for, a salon that let good design carry some of the emotional load and a team that knew friction is a moment to be managed, not feared.

That's the thing about exceptional customer experience - it's rarely one big gesture. It's a handful of small, deliberate choices, repeated consistently, by people who understand the role they play in how someone feels. Which is exactly the kind of "little things" thinking I build into every keynote and workshop I run.

Author

Georgie Stayches is a trusted expert in crafting meaningful Customer Experience (CX) strategies that deepen connections between businesses, brands and their audiences. With a 30 year career spent studying audiences and customer behaviours, Georgie brings a human lens to CX design, showing how every detail, from sensory cues to the built and natural environment to human interactions, shape how customers interpret, experience and remember moments. Georgie shares real-world strategies to elevate CX, decode human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty. You can contact her at [email protected] or visit georgiestayches.com