Himanshu PatelSalon and Spa Tips to Help Your Business During COVID-19
Finally, the lockdown lifted.
Everyone is looking unkempt. Willing to book the favorite salon and spa to get appearance rejuvenated with massage, hair spa, facial, color, nail art, and other beauty services. The masses are excited to get the appointment booking confirmed.
Alas! It has not delighted the salon owners to that level. Instead, they are worried about how they can best serve the customers without physically touching them. The reopening of spa and salon means- they need to prepare by striking a balance between the best customer service and safety guidelines and restrictions to avoid Covid-19 implications.
Of course, the way salons run the business, treat the customers, and handle the customers will change entirely. To keep up with all the changes, we have enlisted a couple of tips that enable salons to operate the business during Covid-19. They are:
Unnecessary touch should be avoided
Making salon space safe for the customers and staff is all-important. However, the staff stays closer to the customer for the services, but risks are minimized with waiting room elimination and virtual check-in implementation.
You can tell customers to wait in the car and fill the forms until they called into the salon for their appointment. Once the professional gets free, they can text the customer with a personalized message to come inside.
Read more : Salon App development: Know Everything From In And Out
When the customers are served, make the checkout touchless by skipping the front desk and eliminating the need for signature at the terminal. Instead, the PCI-compliant payment processing keeps a record of customers’ credit card data that eliminate the need to touch the card.
Begin selling retail products
You can’t keep the salon open 24/7, but you can keep the online salon product store open round-the-clock. During service, the professionals can smartly recommend the products like- massage oil, shampoo, conditioner, and other things to use even at home. Also, when the customers get to know- the items delivered at the doorstep in a contact-free manner, they willingly consider the option. It allows salons to generate another stream of revenue and earn commission from all the products sold online.
Enable pre-booking option
Before the spa and salon get reopened, the business can start accepting salon appointments. It enables loyal customers to pre-book the appointment and avail of the services when the salon starts providing the services. Let’s get lean into pre-booking to get bookings in advance before you open the salon in reality.
Streamline operations
You want to minimize the contact during operations while delivering the best customer experience. Keep an optimal time difference between every two appointments to clean and sanitize everything. Also, don’t provide all the services; instead, you should start offering services that involve minimum touch. For instance, you can ask customers to come with clean and wet hair so you can provide haircut services quickly and safely.
Facilitate cancellation without any penalty
The cancellation fee is the best solution to no show-ups even after booking an appointment. It has helped the salon get compensated for the time, that’s- wasted in waiting for the customers who booked the appointment, but fail to come to the salon. But this strategy won’t work amidst Covid-19 because, in the uncertain time, people are already unsure about booking. Reconsidering cancellation without any penalty encourages the customers who are not 100% sure with salon service booking.
Maintain cleanliness along with hygiene
You are cleaning every nook and corner of the salon, which is a great thing. But your current customer is unaware of the same. You can inform the customer that the salon put cleanliness at the front by cleaning and disinfecting the space in front of them. It makes them feel safe with enough disinfection. You can offer hand sanitizer to the customers as they enter, use autoclaves to sterilize the tools, ensure every professional is wearing a mask and gloves, and show them the cleanliness schedule.
Automate things as much as possible
Stay in touch with customers is essential to keep them glued to the salon services and don’t let them look further. It doesn’t require the customers to come to the salon. Instead, the salon can keep in touch with the customers by sending the email to the customers. The digital marketing strategy can send personalized messages to the customers in a tailored fashion. The advanced technologies help in bringing automation to the salon. For instance, the AI implementation facilitates the customers to cancel or reschedule the appointments only via texting. It prevents unnecessary visits and physical touch at the salon.
Keep in connection
Thanks to technology which has allowed people to stay in communication while staying inside the four walls. To make your customers feel that the salon still survives on the planet, you should communicate with them in the following ways. It includes- building and sending a newsletter with resources and retail products, boosting the morale on social channels, give personalized advice in-person while online, facilitate one-to-one video consultation, ask for their reviews regarding content, and so on.
The little information provided virtually creates an opportunity to communicate with the customers and make them book the services or products. The virtual online consultation after salon reopening proves to be a panacea.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Start a Salon Spa Business in Canada
Consider pre-visit consultation
Often, after reaching the salon or in-between, the customers want to double book the services, which is not possible in the new normal, post-Covid-19. Another customer is already waiting for the turn, and the customer looking for more services can’t be adjusted anywhere immediately because disinfection must be done beforehand. That’s where pre-visit consultation works best in making the booking process more accurate.
During the booking process, the professionals get connected with the customers and make recommendations that complement the booked service. For instance, the customer can try new nails, hair, or skin treatment matching with the lifestyle.
The last word
What’s the topmost concern of the salon during and after lockdown? It’s about how best they can serve customers while maintaining the distance, cleanliness, and disinfection practices. The salons are under pressure to meet the customers’ expectations and what they deserve. The efforts to make everything done are second to safety. Our team has worked with many salons for on-demand beauty salon app development. It has helped them know about a slew of tips that can help your salon to run business seamlessly after the corona outbreak. Leverage the tips to reopen the salon with a big bang and safely too.
