9 Tips for Salons, Spas, and Wellness Businesses in India about COVID-19
Personal interaction is critical to business operating into beauty and wellness. Because of this, all the owners, managers and staff may be worried about the impact that coronavirus COVID-19 could have on your business and looking to create a crisis plan. Please note that you’re not alone. Salons, spas, nails, makeup studios, and wellness clinics everywhere are making hard decisions on what to do considering the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve gathered up a few tips on what you may want to consider over the next few days and weeks.
1. Lean into pre-booking from your customers
As most of the salon, spa, or wellness facility needs to close due to coronavirus, take the opportunity to encourage your loyal customers to prebook their next appointment for when you plan to be open again.
2. Retail to the rescue
If your business sells retail products, keep your retail product section open! As long as you’ve got supply, your customers will bring the demand—after all, if they are used to your shampoo, conditioners, oils, shampoo, or other home care essential, they’ll want those familiar products even when they can’t visit you in person.
3. Make the most of what you’ve got
Just because your salon, spa, and wellness business need to close becuase of lockdown, doesn’t mean you have to stop working. Now’s a good time to learn more about what your salon and spa management software can do and build a post-virus launch plan. Need an idea? We’ve seen salons set up review campaigns to get testimonials to use when they can open again. (Pro tip: use Resource Hub to get the ball rolling.)
4. Plan Reduction in services availability
When your business re-open, you may need to reconsider how or where you’re touching your customers. (Be sure to check with your local authorities—some states are even restricting which services can be offered right now.) If no limitations are in place, you may still want to reduce services that require contact.
If your business is more specialized or offers a limited amount of services to start with, consider reducing availability to only have one or two customers at your business at a time and adding more time between appointments to allow for in-depth cleaning (and more physical space between clients).
5. Consider taking Appointments
An appointment is a great practice during typical business operations as it encourages clients who are feeling 100% to make it to their service now. Make sure your clients know that they can make appointments if they’re sure of taking the services at the available time slot.
6. Empower staff to stay home
It won’t help anyone if your team shows up sick. Make it very clear to your employees that you expect them to take care of themselves and not come into work if they’re feeling under the weather. They’ll be setting a great example for your customers.
7. Keep it clean
You may already be cleaning your business regularly but think about what spaces you’re missing or opportunities to put your clientele at ease. Many salons and spas are putting cleanliness front and center for their clients. They have to bring in practice to use autoclaves to sterilize tools, offer hand sanitizer to customers, and provides transparency into its cleaning schedule via social media. (They clean each day at open and close, as well as a professional deep clean once a week.)
8. Automate what you can
Consider how your customers are communicating with you, and how you are keeping in touch with them. Think about automating updates to your customers via SMS if you need to enact any of the strategies above. For example, if you’re reducing your availability, you can target your customers who are most likely to be affected by a Text Message through the Marketing Suite. Another idea is to leverage auto reminders on their visits, packages, and memberships. Allow them to extend the subscription period of their Memberships.
9. Stay connected
Stay in touch with your customers. Keep posting on social media, build out a newsletter, and consider using video to offer 1:1 appointments or consultations. Offer the advice you’d give in-person, online.
You’ll also want to stay connected to your peers—you’re not alone. At Invoay we are also trying to keep you updated on strategies and advice in the online Resouce Hub. Join the conversation and see what’s working for other businesses
