Upselling an updo
by Andrew Shedden
Being in business allows you to form many social relationships as a result of your business activities. A client recently gave me free box seat tickets to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. My wife Catherine and your fearless writer, being from beautiful downtown Bridgenorth (population 820 houses), were both looking forward to rubbing elbows with the upper class and seeing the rich and famous. We were, incidentally, somewhat interested in the horses as well.
The magical evening finally arrived and on November 8, 2002 we were comfortably ensconced in our box seats on the opening night of the Royal Winter Fair. As I adjusted my cummerbund and watched Martha Stewart being carted around the ring my mind drifted back to the strange events of the day.
Men have it easy in terms of attending these high falutin’ events. Simply head down to the corner tuxedo rental store, plonk down you money, and Bob’s your uncle. For women it is less easy to prepare for these events as they have to contend and compete with a much wider variety of sartorial splendor.
I was good to go with my shiny rented shoes, top of the line bow tie, and spotless tuxedo, I’d even combed my hair. Catherine was ready to unleash herself on the equine world with her gown, jewelry, shoes, and all of the other requisite accessories ready for our big night. She was, however, missing her hair. I hadn’t really noticed.
Catherine decided that she wanted to have an updo done for the show as it provides an elegant look. We (I) dutifully trudged off to a mall located in an upper middle class part of Toronto. Once there we realized that anything we bought was going to be expensive. Being crazy newlyweds of only 20 years duration we decided that we’d throw caution to the winds and not worry too much about the cost.
We looked at several hair establishments and settled upon a very modern looking state of the art hair salon. You could tell that absolutely no expense had been spared. The decorating, fixturing, and staff were all immaculately turned out. With no little trepidation Catherine walked to the front counter and asked about the cost of having an updo. The receptionist behind the counter told Catherine it would be about fifty dollars. She was then told to book a free consultation appointment with Agnes, the updo specialist.
I was wondering what kind of training you needed to become an updo specialist and realized I had huge gaps in my knowledge. I stood at the counter and watched as Catherine settled into the chair with Agnes hovering over her. This large middle aged hairdresser was talking a mile a minute while running her hand through Catherine’s hair. All of the sudden I heard this outrageous laugh. I looked to Catherine, and she was giving me the “Help. Get me out of here.” look.
She quickly walked out of the hair studio and shooed me out into the mall. I asked her what the matter was and she recalled the following conversation.
“Hi. I’m going to the opening night of the Royal Winter Fair and I’d like to know what I can do with my hair. I’m thinking about an updo.”
“Oh yes. I can do many things with your hair. I don’t like the highlights. They all wrong. The length of the hair is not like to make you look beautiful.”
“I see. What do you recommend?”
“I am going to redo the highlights and make look better. You will have hair cut. Will be shorter. But not like lesbian.”
“How much will this cost?”
“Highlights is $100 and cut and updo I do for $65. I do whole job for $150. I start now.”
“I have to talk to my husband first.”
“You do, and come back.”
As we ran into the mall it struck me that the owner of that salon probably spends over ten thousand dollars per month on rent and has a half million dollar investment in his salon. By trying to upsell my wife and reassuring her that she wouldn’t end up with a lesbian hairstyle (whatever that is) she obliterated any chance of ever getting a sale.
If she had spent thirty seconds asking some questions she would have known about my wife’s expectations, orientation, and financial situation. Like so much in life that salon was all style, and no substance.
Oh, by the way, the show was pretty entertaining too.
