I've been going to the same guy for my hair cut/color appointments for years. I wouldn't think of "cheating" on him. However, when it comes to just BLOWDRYING my hair...I've got a new obsession. It's DRYBAR. This concept is genius! You just go the DRYBAR for a shampoo and blowdry...for only $40 (for the record...this is NOT a paid endorsement. I'm genuinely a customer/fan).

I first tried it out a couple of months ago before a holiday party. I fell in love. Don bought me several DRYBAR gift cards for Christmas...and I couldn't wait to start using them. I decided to make an appointment this past weekend and cash in one of my gift cards. I arrived for my appointment and was whisked away by one of the stylists to get my hair shampooed. Everything was going well...until she started drying my hair.

Without getting into too many details, the stylist's technique was PAINFUL. She yanked my hair and burned my scalp (by holding the dryer way too long at my roots) for a half-hour. I was WINCING throughout the process. Did my hair look great when she was done? YES. Did I have a pleasant experience? NO.

So...like I'd done after previous DRYBAR visits, I tweeted about my experience (this was the first time I had ever said anything negative about the place)...

Who you get at @thedrybar matters. I just had my hair yanked and scalp burned for half our. #ouch

— CHILLI (@ChilliAmar) February 17, 2013

About an hour later...I received a DIRECT MESSAGE from the owner of the company that said: "So terribly sorry about your blowout. That is totally unacceptable. Would really love to make it up to you... can I get your name + number?"

I immediately sent her the information...and then received an EMAIL asking me to give them a call ASAP so they could talk to me about the experience. By this time, it was almost 8:30pm on Sunday night. I couldn't believe someone was actually at the corporate office on a weekend. I called the number and spoke to someone in their "client relations" division about my experience. The woman was VERY apologetic and insisted on giving me a complimentary blowout on my next visit.

I was BLOWN AWAY (pun intended) by their customer service. Seriously. Within two hours of my tweet, I had not one, but TWO people reach out to me from their corporate headquarters...and they offered a free service without my asking. I had NO IDEA that my "tweet" would get a response, let alone be SEEN by anyone.

I immediately sent out a "tweet" about their great customer service...and was RE-TWEETED by the owner...

Thx dont want to lose you! #bestclientsever “@chilliamar @thedrybar has amazing #customerservice. Very rare these days #KeepingClientsHappy”

— alli webb, founder (@theDrybar) February 18, 2013

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see a company care so much about their clients. It's so simple to keep your customers happy...it just takes a little effort and understanding. I wish more businesses would follow DRYBAR'S lead.

EMAIL CHILLI

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