There’s no doubt that running a salon is hard work and you are used to being rushed off your feet all day, every day. Due to this, you may usually have very little time to review your salon working practices and ensure they are maximising your potential.
However, in these unusual times, you suddenly have a lot more time to play with again. So, what do you do? While no one wants their business to be closed, this time away from the salon floor can actually be used for your benefit.
Now is the perfect time to take a step back and review your salon’s working practices and identify if there is any room for improvement. From your salon policies to training, here are some things to work on. Grab a notepad!
Review your salon policies and procedures
Firstly, let’s focus on your salon policies and procedures. It’s essential for every salon to have these clearly set out and communicated so that all employees and clients can understand them.
For instance, having a comprehensive health and safety policy is fundamental to keeping your clients and staff safe. With constantly changing regulations due to COVID-19, you’ll need to regularly review your policy and ensure it’s up to scratch.
It’s also worth reviewing your booking and cancellation policies to see if they are as efficient as they could be. No-shows are frustrating and can cause the average salon to lose over £25,000 in revenue each year aka money down the drain!
How do you avoid this? It’s simple – take their payments in advance! Our handy Upfront Payments feature ensures your guests show up to their appointments and increases your revenue.
It’s also fully flexible so you can choose whether they need to pay a deposit or the full amount in advance and whether they’ll be charged if they don’t show up.
Don’t forget – you should clearly communicate any changes to your policies or procedures to your clients and staff or it could leave you in a bit of a mess!
Invest in staff training
You couldn’t run your salon without your amazing staff, so isn’t it important to invest in them? Making sure they have the correct skills and knowledge to deal with clients and provide the best possible service is vital.
They will likely also be feeling a bit lost with how to fill their time at the moment so providing virtual training will be hugely beneficial. You could provide training on new products or services or on more general topics such as customer service.
Now is also the time to get your staff up to speed with the ins and outs of your salon software. At Shortcuts, we are running a series of workshops for teams so they can develop an in-depth knowledge of all our features. We will be covering a range of topics from Marketing Plus to reporting.
These workshops would usually cost between £150-£200 but for a limited time only, we are offering them to you completely free! All workshops are limited to 10 people so get in touch with our customer care team on 0161 972 4900 to book!
By investing in your staff now, you will reap the benefits when you reopen and your staff will be raring to go.
Check your stock
Another productive way to use this time is to review the stock of products in your salon. You may want to sell some of the stock on your website as a way of earning some revenue during this time. (Psst! Check out our blog for more top tips on making money whilst closed.)
Assess how much you have left of each product and review whether they have been selling or not. You should also plan ahead for your reopening and consider which products you may need more stock of and if there are any promotional offers you could run.
If you don’t already have a system to manage your stock in place, you may want to rethink this. Our software includes an automated Stock Management feature that lets you know when you are running low and need to replenish stock levels – completely hassle-free!
Use the right salon software
The salon software you use has a big impact on the daily running of your business. When you are busy dealing with staff and clients, you need a tool that will make your life easier and NOT harder.
Shortcuts software helps you run your business, motivate and inspire your team and manage your clients more effectively. From Online Booking to Marketing, our wide range of features will help you attract clients and ensure they keep coming back.
We’ll also cut your admin workload in half and automate the essentials so you have more time to focus on your business. The ideal solution for a busy salon owner!
If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch or book a demo to try it out for yourself.
