can I tell clients not to bring in sick kids?

[ResidentialBusiness]

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I work at a barbershop that’s under the booth rent model, so I’m a sole proprietor.

How do I professionally tell people to stop coming in sick/bringing in their sick kids? Should I display a sign at my station as well? I don’t understand how a haircut is so important when you’re sick. Not only do I hate how being sick feels, I live with my 86-year-old grandfather and it’s not in my agenda to get him sick. It’s also very inconvenient and puts my job at risk because of having to reschedule clients.

I had a parent bring their super sick kid in on Christmas Eve. He sat in the front the entire time, but was there for a while because I cut the dad and brother’s hair too. The kids came in halfway through dad’s haircut, so I felt obligated to finish his haircut and the other brother wasn’t visibly sick so it put me in a weird spot where I felt I could only turn down the one. Ideally, I wouldn’t have cut any of their hair, but people just don’t seem to have any consideration for others. It’s happened to me so many times this past year.

Honestly, if people come in sick I think it’s fair to refuse service and charge a no-show fee. Even if they gave me 10-minute notice and just let me know they were sick, I wouldn’t charge. I don’t know if that’s how it works though. I’m just tired of people getting me sick. It has happened so many times recently, and it’s almost always from kids.

The easiest way to handle this is when people are making appointments. Whoever takes those appointments should reiterate your policies before ending the call: “We ask that you reschedule if you’re sick or anyone coming with you is sick. Please call if that happens and we’ll get you rescheduled.”

If people schedule online, have a similar policy posted there. Hell, there’s scheduling software that will require clients to check a box confirming they’ve read and agree to follow the policy before the appointment can be confirmed.

If you happen to be the sort of barbershop that has an email list of clients and/or social media, you could also advertise this policy there. It won’t reach everyone, but it’ll help to get people thinking about it.

Whether you have the ability to do any of these things as a sole proprietor in a shop you don’t own is a different question. But I’d bet you have colleagues who would add their voices to yours in pushing for it.

You’ll still probably get clients who come in sick or with a sick kid anyway, because people are inconsiderate. In those cases, are you willing to say, “I’m sorry but I can’t do the appointment while you’re sick/with a sick child here — I have to be careful because I have an at-risk family member. Let’s get you rescheduled”? If you want to offer a discount for the rescheduled appointment, that would help from a client relations perspective, but you don’t have to.

For the sake of thoroughness: you will probably lose some clients over this. Some people will be outraged that they showed up and are getting turned away (although that’s less likely if you warn them about the policy when scheduling them). So you’ll have to decide if you’re okay with that.

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