12 STRATEGIES TO KEEP YOUR SALON ALIVE DURING COVID-19
It’s been two weeks since we went into lockdown and I know many of you are feeling uneasy and anxious about how to keep your business flourishing despite the setback of COVID-19.
Many of you are asking yourselves…
- Will I have a business to return to?
- Will my clients come back to me?
- Will I lose clients who have lost their jobs?
- What can I do during lockdown to give me the best chance of getting my business back on track once I can open my salon doors again?
I’m sure there are many other questions and concerns on your mind about your salon and its success in both the short and long term.
One thing I know for sure is that staying connected to your clients during this lockdown period will not only pay dividends to you in the long run, but it will reaffirm to your clients that you truly care about them and value their support in you and your salon.
Staying connected to your clients will be a reflection of your brand and your client service. They will not forget you helping them through this time as you work with them in a virtual capacity. This can only build and cement their loyalty in you when you re-open your doors and start taking appointments again.
There’s little doubt that your clients will be missing their regular visit to your salon and the catch up’s that happen each visit.
Many will be anxious that their beauty regime has been interrupted and will be looking for guidance from you as their beauty professional about what they can do to get through this lockdown period until they can see you again.
So what can you do to stay in touch with your clients and strengthen their loyalty in you?
- Phone your VIP clients and talk them through their concerns. Offer them tips and ideas for continuing their beauty regime where possible. Some creative thinking might be needed, and, in some cases, it simply may not be possible for them to continue with anything at home.
- Send a letter or postcard to your client base and let them know you miss them and look forward to seeing them again once lockdown is over and you can welcome them back to your salon.
- If you’re able (under the law of your country during COVID-19), continue to supply your clients with their skin care products.
- Continue to send out birthday and anniversary cards to your clients. They will love you for this!
- If you send out a regular newsletter to your clients, consider making the frequency of emails greater and include relevant content to clients in lockdown. If you don’t use email to stay in touch with your clients, make this a priority to set up now and keep it going as part of your marketing mix. It’s a valuable marketing tool for keeping your clients connected to you and a fantastic way of promoting specials and making announcements.
- Develop a short survey (using surveymonkey or something similar) and ask your clients for feedback on your client service – what they love, what could be improved, what could be dropped and what products/services they would like to see you introduce.
- In addition to the survey (or instead of), you could ask your clients for a testimonial for your website and Facebook Page. You’ll be surprised at how willing your clients will be to help you.
- Use social media to get your messages out to your clients – and ramp up the frequency at which you post. As you’ve likely discovered, developing content can be timely so get yourself a social media calendar and plan, write and schedule the content in advance. Weekly is good. Monthly is even better!
- Hold a group online event using Zoom, Skype, Facebook Live (or something similar) and have catch up chats, discussions around skin care or whatever is relevant to your salon and client base – you might even consider a quiz night. These online events could be a weekly occurrence and you could ask your clients about the topics they’d like you to chat about.
- Run a competition and have your clients participate in a way that is interactive. For example, you could have them post a pic to your Facebook Page of a creative activity they’ve been doing while in lockdown. The winner gets a hamper of treatments and products once lockdown is lifted.
- If you have access to your salon (without breaking any COVID-19 restrictions) you could consider giving it a small makeover by changing the pictures on the wall or moving some things around and then posting pics on your social media with messages that say – we miss you, we’re here for when you can come back etc.
- Review the promotions you have planned for the rest of the year. Are they still relevant given the context we’re now in? Do you need to revise some of your promotions or change some of them out. Consider launching a promotion that has your clients spending now and redeeming once lockdown is lifted. Perhaps a ‘post-quarantine pamper package.’ Also consider what your first promotion might be once you can start taking appointments. Perhaps a ‘welcome back promotion’ with a package of treatments and products for one ‘great’ price.
Here are two documents you can download now to help you in your planning:
Social Media Calendar
Annual Promotions Calendar
Good luck with your lockdown marketing plan to stay connected to your clients.
If you have any questions or comments, then why not join our community of like-minded salon owners working together through this time to keep their business alive and ready to thrive once lockdown is lifted.
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