I totally understand the need to ‘shelter-in-place’ and wear a mask when you go outside of the house and, maybe even wear a pair of gloves if you’re at all anal (like me). However, I would be a liar if I said I have not been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We all have, whether directly or indirectly, been affected and have had to make adjustments. Owning a hair salon, I was one of the first non-essential type of employees to feel the brunt of the pandemic. However, after a little bit of time, I was able to re-evaluate my business and recover pretty nicely.
I am a hairstylist, by trade, and soon after the pandemic hit, I saw a sharp decline in my bookings and requests for appointments, in general. In-person visits were quickly becoming taboo and trying to give do-it-yourself instruction over the phone on how to cut, color and/or style your hair was not working for me. I desperately tried to come up with ways that I could retain clients and still offer them, and myself, safety. Then it hit me… I already offered my clients the opportunity to register and book online appointments. Why not expound on that and, for the time being, turn my salon into a Virtual Hairdressing Salon? It would look a little differently than usual but I decided to take the ‘when in Rome’ philosophy and just go with it! Here’s how I did it and here’s how you can to:
· Virtual 1-on-1 Hairstyle Consultation:
Offer your existing hair salon clients an opportunity to meet with you, virtually, to discuss how you can continue to meet their needs. During consultations, take mental notice of current hairstyle and refer them to your virtual hairstyle page. You can also use the time that you are consulting to upsell your other services. I am only a hair stylist but, say for example, you are a hair stylist and a make-up artist. During the consultation is when you can assure your clients that you will still be offering this service and detail how.
Since the pandemic started, there have been so many women and men that have been consumed with how they will maintain their simple hairstyles or their locs or weaves or braids, etc. Unless you’re a professional stylist or even a wanna-be weekend stylist, you found yourself in quite a pickle once the world was ordered to stay at home and shelter in place. The one component of turning my salon into a virtual salon that I love the most is the virtual hairstyling. It allows me to stay in contact with my clients and become introduced to potential new clients.
· Virtual Hair Stylist:
Offer a service on your virtual page that will allow clients and guests to select a hairstyle, from a broad selection, and see how it looks on a virtual model. Perhaps you can also benefit from virtual how-to sessions on managing and maintaining your hair. For example, giving a demonstration of how to properly wash your hair own your own. Or you can demo hair to remove braids without damaging your hair or how to, properly, blow dry your own hair. If the client that you are meeting with is a regular client, you can suggest products that they can purchase and use to manage and maintain their own hair. Showing your clients how to do simple hairstyles is something that you both may benefit from.
Although my clients were able to book appointments via our website before the pandemic, I wanted to add a service that is more like a one-stop for booking appointments and consultations and accepting payment. MeetFox is the application that we decided to go with.
· Virtual Hairstyling Appointments:
With MeetFox, you are able to book consultations to discuss hair care, book an appointment with a virtual hairdresser and settle your payment, all in one place. I was able to consolidate meetings and bookings, thereby, giving me more time to focus on generating new clients and retaining the ones that I already have! With MeetFox, booking an appointment with our virtual hairdressing salon has never been easier. It is also easier to receive payments via the one-click app.
· Virtual Meeting Place:
I wanted to do a little something different since I am not currently able to use my salon to see clients. I have a small team of employees that work for me and I did not want to lose contact or the camaraderie that we had while we were inside the office. I suggested that we meet, once a week via MeetFox, to discuss ways that we can stay relevant, as a business, during the pandemic. We also discuss ways of attracting and retaining clients. During those meetings, we also have a chance to catch up on life events and other things that are not work related. When we were inside the salon, the ‘shop-talk’ was one of the best reasons to show up for work. We can’t lose that now!
As we continue to deal with the pandemic, it’s important to first, acknowledge our new normal and then find solutions to better accommodate our clients. During our hairstyle consultations online, we hear the fear and uncertainty in our clients’ voices and see it in their faces. The fear of having to attend a live meeting with less than presentable hair. The anger and frustration of attempting to style your own hair for the first time in a very long time. Coming to terms with the fact that the situation could become permanent.
Our goal has always been to offer top notch service to our clients and now we’ve included an addendum to become the top virtual hair salon on the internet. Becoming a virtual hairdressing salon was not an intent when the business first started but I believe that we’ve segued nicely into the virtual world of hair styling. We have maintained and increased our online presence. And, at the end of the day, feeling good about making your clients look good is what it’s all about.
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