Salons & Spas: Who will be their consumer in the post lockdown period?

Since the dawn of the Internet, consumers have been wise, aware, and conscious of the trends in hair, skin and make-up, preferred artist for the service, and products for use. Today thanks to Coronavirus, the client’s checklist has become even longer with hygiene and sanitation measures, social distance practices, organic products, and what not, taking precedence. At a time of such myriad issues, it would make sense for the establishment to re-visit their client engagement and welfare strategies to soothe a justifiably concerned individual at the fulcrum.
In the wake of the pandemic, salons and spas across the country have been shut since the last two months. In this time, while business owners have been worried about paying up the fixed costs of running an establishment, professionals are concerned about possible loss of jobs and a drop in education and training. In this mêlé, establishment owners are pulling out all the stops to come up with innovative engagement and welfare strategies for their ‘new client’.
Deepak Jalhan, Creative Director & Educator, Looks Prive shares, “Our business rests on trust that a client places in us, and today, it is time for us to honour it and come up with measures that allay their fears about safety and hygiene. Since we are on the threshold of opening the salon, we are putting into place hygiene protocols. We are adding masks, temperature check guns, and face shields to our inventory, and regular sanitising of the salon. Once we get a go-ahead to open, we will be offering pre booked appointments so that no one has to wait. Clients will need to carry their own water bottles or eatables as we will not be serving it. The team will be divided into shifts and they will undergo medical check-ups at regular intervals. We will give priority to our main clients and their requirements, and time-consuming jobs such as Keratin treatments, highlights, straightening, and so on, will not be entertained.”
Darpan Uppal and Richa Wadhva, Partners of Magick Touche Salon have a team in place to sanitise the salon but are awaiting instructions from the government to get started. Reveals Darpan, “In the current situation clients are asking for self-care treatments especially for their feet. We will be introducing a Paraffin Wax treatment for them, and going forward, there will be strict protocols related to hygiene. There will be no entry without a personal mask, thermal scanner check upon entering the premises, and if the temperature is above 99F the client can reschedule their visit for another day, social distancing will be practiced, three clients will be allowed in a salon at a time and only pre booked appointments will be entertained. Hygiene comes first, and at a salon it should be adhered to at all costs.”
Dr Blossom Kochhar, Founder & Chairperson of the Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies says, “Covid-19 has changed the way we think and live our lives. It has impacted our business as well and a lot of changes will have to be made to deal with the virus. The salon industry needs to go through a full education spree for the highest level of hygiene and sanitation practices. Cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilising are the three thumb rules that we will be following. We plan to open the salons in a very staggered systematic way. To ensure that the health of the people is not at stake, we will start with services that do not require close proximity like hair cutting and pedicures, not all services will be opened. Disposables and separate equipment will be used for every client and literally everything will be sanitised in the salon.
“We have been in touch with our customers and the regular ones will be visiting us as soon as we re-open. There are no specific dates as to when we will re-open, but we are sure that whoever visits us will get the best salon service with the best quality of hygiene standards. We request our clients to unconditionally adhere to the recommended safety measures.”