What to do while your salon is closed

Closing your salon because of a global pandemic is probably not something you ever planned for. Now more than ever, owners need to be proactive and positive in their response. 

Cancellations and closures are always difficult to deal with in the hair and beauty industry. As an industry that relies on physical contact, it’s hard to have to close the door and wait for better days. But just because you can’t see clients at the moment, it doesn’t mean you can’t work on your business. 

Your digital marketing could do with a much-needed lift during these difficult times. Here are just a few tasks you could be doing to get your business in great shape before you can reopen.

Check your online listings

When was the last time you checked if your online listings were up to date? Check Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook, Treatwell and any other site where your business is listed. Check the following are up to date:

• Address
• Phone number
• Website
• Opening hours
• Services offered
• Social media links

Update your website

You might get all of your bookings through Facebook, but you still need a website. When was the last time you looked at your website? Try to approach it as a customer would and answer the following questions:

• Can you find the information you need?
• Do all of the links work?
• Is there enough information about your business and services?
• Are you linking to your website from your social media profiles?
• Are you linking to your social media profiles from your website?
• Does your booking form work correctly?
• Have you added an update about the coronavirus?

Create a marketing plan

Marketing on the fly is hard. Coming up with promotions on the spot might have worked for you when you were busy with back-to-back bookings, but now you don’t have any excuses. It’s time to get creative:

• Up-sell your express add-on services while your customers are more inclined to splash out
• Offers discounts to NHS staff and other key workers to say thank you

Redesign your logo and branding

If you’ve been wanting to refresh your branding for a while, now is the perfect time to do it. You could relaunch in a few months with a fresh new look and bold new branding. Start by doing some research and get some inspiration on sites like Pinterest. Is your brand bright and bubbly or sleek and sophisticated? Choose a colour palette and a few similar logos that you like as inspiration.

If you know any budding graphic designers, get them on board to help you out – remotely, obviously! You could also use a site like Canva to design a logo, social media templates and fliers for your salon.

Offer online consultations

Just because you can’t see your clients in person, it doesn’t mean you can’t still offer them support. Online consultations over video chat could help you to stay connected with your customers and deliver some much-needed advice. 

You could also offer skincare advice, nail care advice, or offer tips for safely removing grown out acrylics and eyelash extensions.

Review your salon performance

Now that you have the time to stop and think about your business, it’s time to get to grips with your salon sales reports. These reports can help you to understand your business position and make sure you double down on what works best when you can open your doors again. Take a look at the following reports from your Salon Software dashboard.

Product performance

Which items are your best sellers? Which is shifting the most units every week? What are the peak times for product sales? Understanding which products sell best can help you to make sure you have the right stock ready to go when you’re able to open again. And if you can’t wait that long, you could switch to an eCommerce model in the short term. If customers are keen to get their hands on your styling products, could you post them to them? Or could you offer local deliveries?

Gift card sales

You need to know how many gift cards are currently valid so that you can plan for how you will manage this extra demand when you open again. When the lockdown was first announced, many customers purchased gift cards as a way to support small businesses. This means that you could have an influx of bookings when you open your doors again, but these prepaid bookings won’t bring in any money. Having an understanding of how many gift card bookings to expect will help you to manage demand.

Average sale value

When you know the average sale value, you’ll have a better idea of how many bookings you will need to make up for the lost time. And if the average sale value isn’t much more than your standard treatment cost, then you know it’s time to start working on your up-selling.

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