Stop Calling Your Rebalances “Fills”

Nail Techs: We have got to stop calling rebalances “fills.”

I get it, it sounds like quibbling over semantics. It’s the path of least resistance to use the word the client expects and understands. We are all too busy to care about small word choices. I hear you.

But this isn’t as small as you think.

It DOES matter what we call things. Clients think all we do when they come back for a return service is remove top coat, fill in the gap with a little more product, and go. If your nails are lasting 3-4+ weeks and you’re removing a majority of the product and rebuilding so that nail lasts another month without the structure going lopsided, that is no longer a fill. That is a different, more involved, more skilled service.

By not calling the service what it is and educating about what’s involved and why, we are rendering a huge portion of our work INVISIBLE.

CLIENTS CANNOT VALUE WORK THEY DONT KNOW WE’RE DOING.

They will, rightfully, continue to expect fill prices when they think they’re getting a fill. They will resist “fills” costing more than what they’ve been paying for 2 week infills for 20 years. Rightfully, because we are choosing not to inform them they’re actually getting a different, better service that promotes better nail health and saves them time in the chair.

We HAVE to explain that a fill at two weeks and a rebalance at 4+ are not the same thing. Just because they’re not seeing acetone and foils doesn’t mean we aren’t redoing 90% of the set. Most of us are using efiles now and don’t have to soak off to do a new set.

If your work lasts 4 weeks and you’re not meeting this resistance because you’re still charging fill prices on rebalance services, you are cutting your salary in half. You are providing twice as much value and the gift of their time back and giving it away for free.

Sets last longer than they used to. This is a good thing that saves clients hours a month in the salon chair and can save them money. They won’t understand the value of that 4 week set if you let the work remain invisible.

Times change and if we don’t bring our clients expectations and understanding with us, we are going to struggle and they’re going to be frustrated and confused.

All it takes is saying: “Since these nails last so many weeks, instead of just filling in the gap I have to rebalance the whole nail so it’s structured correctly again and will last you another 4 weeks.” It’s okay if they don’t understand every word you say. They just need to understand you’re doing more work than they think you are.

We have to teach them the value of what we’re doing if we want them to pay us fairly for it.