Stories: Nathalie and the Supplier She Stopped Waiting For

The sales rep's Tuesday

Nathalie is 44 and has run her own salon in Sion for twelve years: three chairs, one stylist and an apprentice. Colour is the heart of her work, and the stockroom behind the curtain shows it: rows of tubes, developers, bleaching powders and treatments.

For years her supplier was a person: the sales rep who came by every three weeks, on Tuesday morning. He knew her well and knew what she needed. Then he retired. The colleague who replaced him was friendly, but he did not know her salon, and he always came when her book was at its fullest.

Ordering had become one more job. Phone calls during office hours, which were her working hours too. Package deals to get a better price, which left shades on the shelf that she almost never used. And a question she asked herself more and more often: what does a colour service really cost me?

A search on a Sunday evening

One Sunday evening, with the printed price list on the kitchen table, Nathalie picked up her phone and typed: fournisseur produits coiffure Suisse en ligne.

Among the results was cliCHair. The homepage did not look like a shop: in the middle there was just one question, ask anything about hair, and a field to type in. Curious, she wrote: "I'm a hairdresser, how does it work for salons?"

clichAIr answered straight away: net prices for verified professionals, the whole catalogue from the first piece, working tools in the PRO area. It also explained how to activate the account. Nathalie filled in the form in a minute, more out of curiosity than conviction.

The next day her account was active.

What convinced her

Her first look at the PRO area answered questions that the paper price list never had.

The net prices were there, always. On every product, excluding VAT, even for a single piece. No package to buy to get the right price.
The product pages were complete. INCI, protocols, sizes: the information she used to ask the sales rep for.
clichAIr answered in the evening too. She tried a technical question about NIKA Grace Color, which Activator to choose for grey coverage, and got a precise answer with a link to the product page.

A new way to order

Today Nathalie has a small habit: on Sunday evening, ten minutes on the sofa.

She opens the Colour Calculator, on the Monthly stock tab: she enters the line, the tube size, and the full services and root touch-ups she expects for the month. The calculator tells her how many tubes and developers she needs.
She opens Quick Order: the whole catalogue on one page, by brand or by line, and she types in the quantities. Next to every retail product she also sees what she earns if she resells it at the counter.
She pays at checkout. If the order goes in by noon on a weekday, it ships the same day.

When she prepares an unusual mix or has a doubt about a protocol, she asks clichAIr before she starts.

What changed

The stockroom behind the curtain is lighter: Nathalie buys what she needs, when she needs it. For every colour service she knows how much product she uses and what it costs her, and she has calmly reviewed the prices on her own service menu.

The sales rep still comes by now and then, for equipment. But Tuesday morning is no longer an appointment her work depends on.

"The strangest thing," she tells her stylist, "is that now I order when I have the time."

The tools in this story

clichAIr: the AI consultant that answers on protocols, mixes and INCI, at any hour.
Quick Order: the whole catalogue on one page, with your profit visible before you buy.
Colour Calculator: the cost of a colour service and the stock for the month.