Supporting Our Salons During Covid-19

Supporting Our Salons During Covid-19

The recent and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been a really unprecedented time for us all, especially for the salon industry, as you were forced to close for almost 4 months. This has taken a huge toll on the financials of businesses, with the immediate pause on appointments not being able to take place, and with no forewarning.

When the government announced that all salons had to close, we were all already aware of the ongoing harrowing Covid-19 pandemic, however weren’t all necessarily prepared for the affect that it would have on local businesses as the lockdown lasted for several of the following months. 

For businesses especially in our salon sector and also for the hospitality industry, who rely solely on customers for their income, this took such a large toll on your businesses. And so, from the outset, we wanted to support you (our clients) as much as we possibly could, to ensure that you were able to sustain as much income as possible whilst the pandemic continued. We instantly froze all client’s subscriptions from 23^rd March, as it felt morally wrong to charge for a service that you were unable to use, even if that did mean that as a company we also took quite a large hit with income too. But we wanted to do what felt right, and look after our clients which always has, and always will be our number 1 priority.   

We left all payments frozen for the duration of the lockdown, until the government gave the go ahead for salons to open again. Dependent on type of salon and local area, the dates alternated for different salons, however we only resumed payments for each individual business when they themselves were actually able to open their doors.  And with the local lock downs, the subscription freeze remained in place, where we would only charge our clients when they could legally open their doors to trade.

Following that, we wanted to further support as we know currently footfall in salons has not returned back to the usual, first of all due to social distancing regulations and secondly, as the public are still apprehensive about visiting places. So, to alleviate the stress a little we have also offered all clients 50% off their next 3 months after they were able to re-open. We wanted to support during the aftermath of the lockdown, whilst appointment capacity is currently reduced meaning a lot of our salons are running on a reduced number of bookings compared to what you maybe typically used to. Evidently meaning there could also be a reduced income when you still have employee wages to pay!

Aside from supporting with subscriptions however, we also introduced some new features to the software, to help manage the new social distancing measures and make the organisation and running of our salons as safe as we could.

We saw such an increase in demand for our online booking over the lockdown, as a lot of salons opted for no walk-ins. So, for anyone that offers online booking within their salon, we introduced a booking delay time so that for every booking made, an instant gap was placed to allow for essential cleaning and also to adhere to social distancing, ensuring the previous clients had exited the premises before the next client arrived for their appointment. 

We also advanced our Siteview feature, to allow the adding, editing and cancelling of client bookings to be completed using a mobile app, instead of therapists needing to use the main Salon Tracker PC itself. Evidently, this was to stop overcrowding at the main salon reception desk and to allow employees to manage their bookings using their own devices.

And then, for anyone who wanted to trial our software we also extended the same offer to them too!

Then we also offered support & advice on cleaning measures, and to ensure masks/visors are worn (which is now since a government legal requirement). But with the cleaning, we can also ensure that the sunbeds cannot be set for a new customer until it has been deep cleaned with our 'dirty-bed' mode, that stops the integrated timers from being set until the bed has been set as 'clean'. With the cleaning for beauty/hair/nails, we can add any relevant amount of time automatically to an appointment, even if it is booked online, to allow for sufficient cleaning between customers. We then advise where you can you run a 1 way system, with separate entrances and exits to the salon if you can, and also try to get disposable towels (or ensure that after each client you wash towels/gowns on a high degree anti-bacterial wash, as a renewable option).

For any further advise on salon safety or if you would like to discuss any queries you may have, we are always on hand to help, or if you are new to us and are looking to trial the software now back to school is here, get your FREE trial in time for autumn by heading to www.salontracker.co.uk or call our team on 0113 350 8230!

We're so happy to be working with you again and hope the re-opening of your salons has been successful.

Salon Tracker x