In our ever-changing world, it’s important to adapt to a wide range of clients and make your salon or spa more inclusive. After all, you don’t want to turn away a specific demographic just because you didn’t originally consider them! So you can embrace a larger client spectrum, we’ve outlined several ways you can become more inclusive.
Hire a diverse and skilled range of staff
Becoming a more diverse and inclusive salon or spa starts with recruitment. No one should be off the cards simply because of their gender or background, as what’s important are the right skills and fit for the team.
Once you have a diverse team that your community can see is inclusive and welcoming to them, you can train them appropriately. For example, can your whole salon team cater to afro and textured hair? It’s important they can in order to comply with updated National Occupational Standards (NOS), making your salon a more inclusive environment for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) clients. L’Oreal Professionnel Paris can help educate staff on current hair texture standards via free courses on their online platform, ACCESS, such as with those on Total Texture or Curls and Coils.
Train staff to be inclusive to clients facing cancer
Cancer affects 1 in 2 people. For this reason, it’s important to train your staff in how to correctly handle clients diagnosed with cancer, making your salon or spa more inclusive.
Made for Life Organics offer a course in Cancer Touch Therapy™ that provides the education and accreditation needed to cater to clients facing cancer. Alongside additional knowledge to treat spa clients with cancer, the qualification will help enable you to tailor treatments safely. To help open spa doors to everyone, we have partnered with Made for Life Organics to offer 25% off Cancer Touch Therapy™ to any businesses that use or purchase our Core by Premier Software® system throughout 2022.
Expand your services to make your salon or spa more inclusive
Following the correct training, you can make your salon or spa more inclusive by expanding your services and opening hours. For example, you could offer express versions of treatments to cater to clients on lower incomes who may be unable to consistently afford more premium services. Or, how about a set day where you offer silent appointments at set times for more anxious clients? You could even be more inclusive in other ways, such as discounts to students and OAPS, facilities for those physically disabled, or even the training to cater to clients with dementia. While it’s understandable you may not be all to offer all of these, it’s important you offer some to cater to an ever-broadening client-base.
Make your salon or spa more inclusive with gender-neutral services
Gender-neutral pricing and services eliminate any discrimination in costs and makes your salon or spa more inclusive to transgender, non-binary and cis-gendered clients. However, what happens when they visit? If your staff aren’t not prepared, they could assume their gender, misgender them and make clients feel uncomfortable. This could be countered by asking clients their pronoun over the phone (he/she/they, for example), or including ‘Mx’ as a gender-neutral box in online consultations. This will all work to make a more comfortable and inclusive experience, encouraging future visits.
Be more inclusive In your marketing
Armed with a range of inclusive services and practices, it’s now important you market them correctly. It’s easy to make incorrect assumptions about particular demographics when you’re first adapting, so make sure you’re careful about how you portray your salon or spa to avoid sending the wrong message.
A recent Google study found that 64% of those surveyed said they took action in response to a diverse or inclusive advert, and 84% of LGBTQ+ consumers responded favourably to adverts that represented them. With that in mind, it’s vital you include a variety of demographics in your marketing on social media, SMS and email, to reach a broader audience.
Core by Premier Software® and Salon by Premier Software® both have the ability to set-up new services, pricing structures, online consultation forms, new staff and applicable marketing templates to help your salon or spa be more inclusive. To find out more on how Core and Salon can help you, book a free presentation below.