Do you agree that salons should consider adding home services to their menu?

The salon industry reinvented itself during the pandemic, and home services were a huge part of this change. Two industry experts weigh in.

I am completely positive about home services. We experimented with home services three years ago, before the pandemic. It is definitely here to stay. I am not competing in the value segment; it’s the premium customers at Jean-Claude Biguine (JCB) who are using the convenience angle and calling their favourite hairdresser, beautician, manicurist or pedicurist at home. I think they are also enlarging the market. I don’t see home services as competition.

At JCB, you won’t find the customer coming month after month, so she might be using the services at home as it is more convenient. The preference is more from a convenience angle and less from a cost angle. During the pandemic, we provided both beauty and hair services, but now we have restricted them. While beauty is fully available under home services, for hair we are refraining from certain services like keratin and highlights because the end results might get a little compromised, hence we can’t take risks.

However, touch-ups, cuts, styling, blowdrying -all of these are good to go. But beauty services are highly consumed, such as waxing, threading, manicure, pedicure and facials. For facials, you would still want to go to a salon and enjoy the pampering and the atmosphere, but for waxing and threading and manipedi you don’t worry about the ambience. A facial is a pampering service and not a hygiene service. You don’t mind getting hygiene anywhere. When you want to pamper yourself, go to a salon, spend some time on face massage, etc. But home services are here to stay, we are running them, and we will be over-investing in them for sure.

Taking the salon home also largely involves selling products at home, too. So it’s a hybrid model basically. You have to take care of your customer.”

Professional beauty services have definitely undergone a lot of changes in the course of the pandemic, and home services have emerged as a strong contender. But for me, the safety of my staff still remains a priority. Earlier it was physical safety, and now it is also about health safety. My girls are like my family and they are my responsibility. If they are offering home services for my salon, their safety is my priority, and I would prefer not risking it. I have turned down customer demands and entailed losses but I maintain my staunch stand that there is no way you can foolproof the home service system. Blacklisting of customers and locations generally happen only after untoward incidents are reported, and I am not ready for my girls to face such situations.

I understand that the industry is growing in this direction and many salons are now offering home services, but unless a watertight method is in place which assures 100 per cent safety of my staff, I will not venture into it. I also think that the kind of experience we can offer our customers at our salons cannot be replicated at home. It is the premium experience and service that draws our customers to our doors.