Leading a Team of Salon Professionals During a Pandemic

During this time, hair stylists, barbers, nail technicians, wellness providers, and every other beauty industry expert has been forced to think outside of the box to find solutions to overcome a host of pandemic related challenges facing this industry.  

As an effort to listen to many different voices in the beauty and wellness community, our team sat down with a salon owner, who’s not a part of the Booksy family. But this professional was able to talk about the struggles her salon is facing and how it’s possible to overcome them.  

Read on to learn how the owner of Sanctuary Salon & Spa in Orlando, Florida learned to bring her staffers even closer together, while best serving the needs of their diverse customer base during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Offering Beauty and Wellness in One Space

Sanctuary Salon and Med Spa is owned and operated by Pareen Merchant, who made the decision to set up a luxury spa in a quiet part of Orlando called Dr. Phillips, which is a short 20 minute drive from the popular tourist attractions that people across the world flock to visit.  

The area is known for its young professionals who appreciate the access to reasonably priced yet stylish homes. But the neighborhood also attracts families who love its top notch schools. 

For Pareen, opening a business in this area meant appealing to a range of different people with very different needs. To accommodate her clientele, Pareen had to tap into her skills as a stylist, threader, colorist, medical esthetician, and laser specialist.  

But to truly make her space a reality by appealing to the diverse range of Dr. Phillips area residents, Pareen had to hire talented staffers who could each provide master level services or treatments in different specialties. Today, her salon provides a whopping 150 services. 

People who book appointments here request hair styling, skincare, massage therapy, esthetics, laser hair removal, and men’s grooming—just to name a few. To accommodate the different requests, the staff consists of five stylists, two massage therapists, and three aestheticians.  

When asked about her business model, Pareen answered that part of the reason her space has been able to thrive over the past two decades is that it changes as time passes to make sure that the services and offerings are never stale or stagnant.  

“We always aim to adapt to the changing times. You can’t be great at a trend which is outdated, so you have to consistently train your staffers on what they can do better and how,” she said. “Adaptability is a huge part of what we do on a daily basis.”

Leading a Team During COVID-19 

Although Pareen admits that leading a team of strong personalities who are all experts in their crafts has been challenging, she quickly adds that she’s been able to figure out a number of ways to adapt. Other industry professionals who manage staffers may want to take note.  

According to Pareen, regular meetings, while the salon was closed and when it reopened, kept the team together. But she also insisted on meeting each staffer one on one to discuss any issues and make sure that problems were being addressed inside and outside of the salon. 

“We had regular meetings with the team and constant one on one meetings with every staff member—we genuinely care for each other, and it was reflected in our meetings. Everyone supported one another, gave a morale boost and we hung in there,” she said. 

Pareen added that making sure each one of her staffers regularly communicated with their clients was another important way that her business was able to survive, amidst all of the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. 

“We sent out regular messages to our clients—this wasn’t a blast but more personal, because each stylist sent these out to their clients. Keeping in touch, letting them know we will be back soon and giving them tips to take care of their hair, skin etc from home,” she said. 

The extra steps that Pareen took to keep with their family style environment alive, while remaining a tight-knit team didn’t stop there. She also created webinars and educational sessions, where over 125 audience members participated. “This helped us build a sense of community and really empathise with what is going on,” she said.

How Booksy Can Help

With over 7 million customers regularly booking services on Booksy, we’re proud to say that our resources are very literally designed for business owners like Pareen. Booksy Biz lets professionals better manage their business from anywhere, anytime. And taking the stress away from scheduling helps keep tight-knit salons together during troubling times. 

Our Booksy business owners also praise the marketing toolkit, social media templates, Boost tools, and COVID-19 features. And in regards to concrete data that we’ve complied, our analysts found that after using Booksy Biz, business professionals:  

• Filled an average of 60 additional appointments each month
• Reduced the amount of interrupting calls and texts by 50%
• Were 93% less stressed about their appointment scheduling
• 84% said they’re no longer worried about no-shows or late cancellations