Before it happens
- The client record belongs to the salon. Preferences, formulas, skin notes, what was used last time. If that lives in a therapist's memory or her own phone, it leaves with her.
- Clients should meet more than one person. Not every visit, but enough that a second name is familiar.
- Pay and progression that make staying sensible. Most therapists do not leave for a pound an hour; they leave because nothing was changing.
- Know your concentration risk. If one person holds 40% of your revenue, that is a number you should be looking at long before they hand in a notice.
In the notice period
- Stay professional. The industry is small and it will cost you more than it gains.
- Introduce replacements on the next appointment, not the last one.
- Make sure every client record is current before the last day.
- Honour outstanding packages normally. A client mid-course is watching how you behave.
After
- Contact their regulars yourself, quickly, before the gap in the diary becomes a habit.
- Name the person taking over, and make the first appointment back as easy as possible.
- Watch the ninety-day list for that therapist's clients specifically. Lapsed clients are the real cost here, not the resignation.
- Ask the ones who stay what made them stay. That is your retention plan, free.
If a therapist can take a meaningful share of your clients with her, those clients were hers, not yours. That is not a legal problem, it is a business design problem — and the fix is boring: records in the system, more than one familiar face, and a reason to come to the salon rather than to a person.
Questions we get asked
Can I stop a therapist contacting my clients?
That depends entirely on the employment contract and what is enforceable in it, and it is a question for a lawyer rather than a blog. What is within your control is whether the client relationship was ever only with that one person.
Should I tell clients that the therapist has left?
Yes, before they find out elsewhere. Say it plainly, name who will look after them next, and make the first appointment easy. Silence looks like something to hide.
How do I stop this happening again?
You cannot stop people leaving. You can stop the client's whole relationship living in one person's head — notes on the record rather than in their memory, more than one therapist seen over time, and a salon the client is loyal to as well as a person.