As we prepare to reopen, we must acknowledge all of the ways that our in-salon experience will look and feel in contrast to our time pre-Coronavirus. We’re adopting new salon operations and procedures, we’re following new safety protocol, and we’re tackling altogether new challenges as a team.

As a salon owner, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your entire team is ready to reopen. It’s your job to ensure that everyone feels comfortable with the new in-salon operations and to make sure that your managers, front desk team members and stylists are all fully equipped for everything that is to come—a part of the reopening process that is perhaps the most important but one that is also often overlooked.

Hairstylists and Beauty Industry Professionals Tend to Fear Change

Are you familiar with the DISC Personality Model? The DISC Model was first proposed by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist with a Ph.D. from Harvard. In his book, Emotions of Normal People, he explains his theory on how normal human emotions lead to behavioral differences among groups of people. He was primarily interested in using practical explanations to help people understand and manage their experiences, emotions and relationships.

The DISC Personality Test as we know it today, is based around four personality types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Perhaps you already know that salon owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs tend to score a high “D” on the DISC Personality Scale, but did you know that a whopping 80% of hairstylists and beauty industry professionals score a high “S”?

This means that our stylists are our Steady Eddys. They’re supportive, cooperative, sincere and dependable. This also means that one of their biggest fears is change. So, with all of the changes currently sweeping our industry, you might be wondering how you can help all of your high S’s keep it calm, cool and collected.

The best way to prepare our stylists for the changes to come is through clear and concise communication. Our team members want to know what to expect as the salons begin to reopen. They want to know the new protocol, they want to be well-versed in the new sanitation measures and they want to know exactly how they should be communicating these changes to their clients.

A Dress Rehearsal Could Be the Key in Building Confidence Before Going Back to the Salon

If your salon is opening soon, consider bringing the entire team in to do a run through of all of the new procedures you’ll be adopting. You can even have some fun with this dress rehearsal of sorts, and turn this exercise into a hair day for your entire team so that everyone has the chance to look and feel their best before reopening.

We did this with our team at Be Inspired Salon and the results were tremendous. Like many of you, we’re only allowed to operate at 25% capacity during phase one of our reopening, which means we were required to shift schedules around in order to accommodate everyone on our team. So, we split our stylists up into four different groups and brought each group into the salon to go over our new operations one at a time.

Each team was accompanied by the managers and guest service representatives that would be working the same shifts, and together we went through all of the new protocol and procedures step by step. We practiced guest check-ins, check-outs, and went over the proper verbiage to use every step of the way.

We practiced wearing masks, wearing gloves, and wiping down every visible surface after each use. We even roleplayed our everyday interactions and, of course, we made sure to have some fun with it along the way.

It might seem like overkill, but trust me, your stylists want to be prepared so that they can feel confident in tackling these changes and communicating with their clients. Your team will appreciate the exercise, and your guests will immediately recognize their confidence, which will, in turn, translate to a more comfortable in-salon experience for everyone involved.

About the Author: Samantha Georgson is a writer, blogger, content creator and digital marketing maven. She is the Director of Marketing for Inspired Enterprises, Inc., the parent company to three incredible beauty industry brands –Beyond the Technique; an education platform for salon owners and beauty industry professionals,Meet Your Stylist; an innovative salon software that matches clients with their perfect stylists at your salon based on behavioral economics, andBe Inspired Salon; an award-winning salon located in Madison, Wisconsin.