Why You Shouldn't Be Booking Clients In for 4th of July and Onwards

Understandably, many salons, spas and hairdressers are eager to get back to work as soon as possible. However, beginning to take bookings now, when there are no set government deadlines, can be detrimental to your business. It is important to remember that the delay in opening personal touch businesses is only to protect yourself and your clients.

1. 4th of July is not a set opening date

The possibility of the leisure and personal touch sector (which includes spas, salons and hairdressers) opening on the 4th of July (at the earliest), is contingent on many factors, such as, whether the 5 key test the government has set, whether the government decides to lift lockdown measures in areas as opposed to nationally and whether the current lockdown easing measures are not detrimental in the lockdown. The government has made it clear that it will not hesitate to delay easing lockdown if necessary. If easing of the lockdown date is moved, then you will need to cancel all your appointments and re-move them.

2. Furlough

If you are on furlough, you should not be working, staying in touch with your clients and booking appointments, as this breaks the furlough rules. While you can still post on social media, no other work should be done, unless you have a booking system that does not require your monitoring.

3. Regulation to work are not yet clear

Without further government advice on what regulations will need to be followed when salons are back up and running, it is not possible to foretell which of your treatments you will continue to be able to carry out once you open. Furthermore, it will most possibly be the case that you will need to make extra precautions so that you can be ready for when you open - depending on what these are, you business may not be adapted to open immediately.

4. The alternative?

One of the safest way to approach the current situation is to provide a waitlist to customers. For a small-non-refundable deposit, you can request that your customers be added on a waitlist if they are eager to visit your salon once it opens. Those on the waitlist can be guaranteed to get slots in the first week that you open - through this, you will not be setting any client expectations for availability dates - until you know more.