Planning for re-opening: Steps to take
While the exact timeframe for re-opening your spa or massage practice may still be uncertain, now is the time to start planning. Hopefully, through social media, emails, and text messaging, you’ve kept in touch with clients during the Covid-19 shutdown (See: ”Stay in touch with clients during the pandemic”) so that they are as eager to re-engage with your services as you are to provide them. But eagerness aside, you’ll need a plan with actionable steps to ensure that re-opening success is sustained and that business flows smoothly and continues.
Start with safety
One of the most important re-opening steps is to assure the health and well-being of employees and clients. This will involve providing the right personal protection equipment (PPE) for employees and clearly communicating to clients about wearing masks for their appointments and social distancing.
Thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing your establishment also will be a priority. The International Spa Association (ISPA) COVID-19 Reopening Toolkit guides industry-standard sanitation and hygiene practices to meet respective governmental guidelines and individual needs. It also talks about placing visual cues placed throughout your establishment to remind clients and staff to adhere to safe practice policies. (See: “ISPA Toolkit Offers Resources for Safe Reopening.”)
Other re-opening action items
Review menu: You may be making changes to your treatment menu because of restrictions on the number of clients allowed into your spa or salon. Your goal for the initial phase of re-opening will be to offer the most sought-after treatments that are the most profitable and safest to provide.
Assess inventory: Since your menu may be changing, you’ll need to review inventory to ensure you have the right products to support fewer treatments in greater numbers. BIOTONE now is re-opened full time, and our customer service representatives are available to answer your questions about products.
Adjust scheduling: Based on the number of clients you can serve and the treatments you plan to provide, you probably will have to adjust your operation hours. This will affect client appointments and staffing as well in terms of who will be most needed and when.
Launch marketing: You’ll want to ramp up communication with clients to let them know about your re-opening. Your marketing will need to provide content on your website, social channels, and in your direct messaging and emails to clients, with all the details about your opening day, menu, sanitation, and safety policies and schedule. As an incentive to clients to book, consider offering re-opening discounts for a period of time, free add-on treatments, such as a foot or neck massage following a facial, or a special rewards program for returning clients.
Staff training: Written guidelines and staff meetings will make it clear your staff's expectations to provide a safe environment. Discuss day-to-day staff requirements relative to hand washing, wearing masks, sanitizing treatment room and tools, and scheduling appointments.
The uncertainty will soon be over, and you will re-open. Still, it will take a lot of attention to detail and following a carefully crated set of procedures to ensure success.