REDESIGNING YOUR SERVICE MENU

The pandemic has made owners redesign every aspect of their salons. They have had to redesign the interiors to cater to social distancing norms and come up with solutions to introduce low contact alternatives for their beauty services. Salon owners have also ensured that their employees are trained and are following the new norms. Amid this, one important change has been redesigning the service menu. Salon owners have had to redesign their menus to inform the audience of the services being provided in the current situation.

If you are wondering how important it is to redesign the menu, read on to find out.

How important is service menu designing in salons?

“Service menus are the essence of salons. We all put in a lot of effort in designing a menu that attracts maximum attention from our clients,” says Vikram Mohan, CEO, Bounce Salons.

Pranita Baveja, Founder and CEO, Levo Spalon, shares, “When we opened up after the lockdown, I was transported back to when we were starting out and I was creating a service menu for Levo.” She adds, “After we opened post-lockdown, we decided to start small and add services gradually, depending on the situation. While creating our service menu, we considered customer feedback and made changes accordingly. We strategically planned and decided when to launch a service and what price point it should be launched at. This has helped us to evolve our service menu gradually and effectively.”

How is it to gradually change the salon services as and when needed? Samir Hariharan, Director, Beyond The Fringe India, says, “When we first made the menu after opening up, we ensured that we used the guidelines given by the government and put those in place. We then built upwards from there. We redesigned our menu to say ‘COVID menu’. This only included services that could be done quickly with low contact time. Over time, our clients wanted to avail other services as well. We then redesigned our service menu in a manner where we found a middle ground between services.” He cites an example here: In addition to cleanup, the clients could opt for a quick scrub or bleach. “This helped our clients avail additional services and it would not take as long as a facial. We broke down our menu into categories of services such as maintenance services, routine services, treatment services and feel-good services. This has helped us provide our clients with services across all these categories while following the guidelines prescribed by the government.”

People do not want to opt for services that take up too much of their time. They want to get in quick and get out even quicker.

Cutting out services

Could assessing services offered also lead to some eliminations from the salon offering menu?

Priscilla Corner, Creative Director, June Tomkyns Salon, says, “By the virtue of the survival instinct, if services gain revenue, they will survive the pandemic. If a service is not gaining any revenue for your salon, it will be dropped out of your menu either way. Every salon will look for ways to adapt and ensure that the service being provided is getting better with each day.”

Hariharan explained, “It is all about cashing in on your salon’s USP during such times. If my salon is known for its hair services and that is where maximum revenue is generated from, then we can temporarily put a pause on makeup, nail, and other beauty services. Focusing on your niche will help in generating more revenue in the longer run.” He also adds, “We assess our salon’s growth by each quarter and make changes accordingly.”

“Demand for services such as rebonding and smoothening have dropped completely. People do not want to opt for services that take up too much of their time. They want to get in quick and get out even quicker,” says Mohan. “Luxury services that take over three to four hours of the client’s time are not in demand. Hence, we cut them out of our menu while redesigning, and considered taking it up only if a request arose.”

When asked about the change in trends in the way customers are availing services at salons, Baveja says, “We have noticed that our clients are co-operative, and they appreciate the high sanitation measures we employ because it helps them feel comfortable in availing our services.” Levo has also started offering home services and has launched a micro-website to deliver products to people’s homes. “This has helped us generate additional revenue and has been a huge hit.”

To this, Corner adds, “Previously, salons generated a chunk of their revenue through walk-ins. Now that is not possible. This has also presented an upside as we are able to streamline our staff, which we used to keep as a buffer to attend to walk-in clients. The walk-in customers in the past have now become more conscious and book appointments well in advance. So we have not lost any clientele, but are able to cater to them in a more streamlined manner.”

Inventory management

Has the new normal also brought about a change in the way salons are managing their shelf inventory?

“We have started stocking much fewer products than we did in the past,” says Mohan. “Our shelves were heavily stocked previously, but that has been reduced massively. Inventory on our shelves was a lot of locked capital that was not moving. To combat this, we have focused on and pushed out at-home delivery service for these products, and that has been a great hit. We have also added it to our menu, so people are aware of our offerings.”

The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way the salon industry operates. But the industry has coped, and how! From ensuring top-notch sanitising practices to ensuring that every employee and client is safe, the industry has bounced back with aplomb!