74% of clients will return to their usual salon, says Treatwell report
As salons up and down the UK begin to reopen their doors, research from booking platform Treatwell has found that almost three quarters (74%) of clients will return to their usual salon for their beauty treatments.
The survey of 500 beauty and hair consumers found that the remainder would search for a new salon or mobile therapist through reading online customer reviews and recommendations (32%), through an online search (30%), through friends and family recommendations (29%), social media (22%) or a hair and beauty platform (21%).
Client communications have remained consistent, with booking through the phone remaining the most popular way to book appointments, and text messaging coming in second as a popular method for clients who have been contacted by their usual salon.
Once inside the salon for their appointment, the most important factors clients look for when they are visiting include salon staff wearing PPE (61%), staff to clean treatment areas in front on clients upon arrival (53%) and for the salon to have a limited amount of clients at any one time (52%) to comply with social distancing.
Another study of 500 beauty and hair consumers, also conducted Treatwell, showed the impact of lockdown on clients’ mental health.
The lockdown period has negatively affected London clients’ emotional wellbeing, who have gone without their usual treatments. Clients reported feeling annoyed, depressed, neglected, tired and in desperate need of a treatment, as well as not feeling like themselves in the absence of professional care.
The survey also showed that the treatments set to be in highest demand in the weeks following reopening will be eyelash and eyebrow services.
However, UK consumers are much more concerned about returning to the salon in comparison to other European markets. The report found that 52% of UK consumers will return to salon immediately or within a few days of reopening, and 26% state that they are planning to have more treatments now than they had prior to the pandemic.
However, nearly all Londoners 96% have some concerns about going back to the salon, much higher than consumers in Germany (82%) and the Netherlands (81%).