NEW DELHI: Safety, hygiene, and sanitation have become the key identifiers of all businesses as lockdown restrictions are eased across the country. Major hotels, restaurants and salons are taking stringent quality control measures to ensure maximum safety of their clients and teams from the highly contagious Covid2019 virus. The very popular chain of salons, Enrich, which has always been dedicated to providing safe and hygienic services to its clients, has improved its SOPs to serve the changing scenarios.

In an exclusive conversation with Indiantelevision.com Enrich Salon founder Vikram Bhatt shares, “We at Enrich salons have always had been very careful about providing the safest and most hygienic services to our clients. We have always been dedicated to safety, sanitisation, and hygiene and there’s not much of a change there as we proceed into the new normal. For example, we had introduced products like single-use kits, disposable towels and gowns, etc, a few years back.”

However, the salon chain has now further improved its procedures and physical spaces to fit in the changing times. “We have now been working on ensuring even stringent safety measures at our salons. To cite a few examples, the salon doors can now be opened by your feet, we are placing overhead acrylic sheets between the client and the technicians for services like facials, and working hard to reduce the chance of contact at common-touch areas.”

All these measures have been introduced in addition to the standard safety norms decided on by the industry, including sanitisation of the staff and clients and regular infrared checkups.

Some other technologies that Bhatt is investing in for the salons are handheld switches to open store doors and sensory sanitisers. The clients who will visit the salons will be given complimentary kits with sanitisers and switches to open car doors, etc., so the whole consumer experience goes beyond the stores too. They will also be educated to maintain social distancing.

Bhatt shares that he hasn’t struck any particular brand deals to assist in introducing these changes and technologies. “For us, consumer safety is a very serious matter and therefore, I don’t see it as a business proposition. I am dealing closely with local-level manufacturers to source the sanitisers, and masks. There is a strict quality control procedure in place and we don’t purchase handmade masks to make sure they are completely safe and hygienic. For the changes in in-house architecture, our whole team is working to chart out the best plans and working with architects. We are sourcing our own material for acrylic sheets and door fittings. Everything has been personalised with the core aim of keeping our teams and clients completely safe.”

He adds that customers are taking these developments very positively. “We have our Bengaluru stores open for around 15 days now and we have been witnessing around 80 per cent of the regular footfall. However, the customers are seeking more services and our business has been up by one per cent there. In Gujarat, despite us working on alternate days and for restricted hours, the footfall is down by just 35 per cent of the regular, and again service demand is higher.”

Bhatt feels that the business will pick up even better during the festive season starting October and will remain on a positive track through the quarter. “The demands will obviously be lower because of the restrictions on social gatherings like weddings but I am positive that the business will improve a lot by then.”

Bhatt is also working hard to market the many initiatives that the salon is taking these days. The salon chain has introduced its new app with the whole catalogue of services on display. Clients can also use it to book prior appointments with the technicians of their choice.

Apart from that, the salon teams are calling up their clients personally under its “Call is Well” campaign. They are providing personalised on-call assistance, guiding the clients on self-care during the lockdown and also checking-in to see how they’re doing. With 70,000+ calls made by the professionals; the activity was well-received by clients, shared Bhatt. They are also delivering personal care and grooming products to clients’ houses without any additional charges.

Additionally, they are also running impressive B2B awareness campaigns and indulging in public service. Under their “Me to We” campaign, the brand surveyed 15,000+ customers across Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Vadodara, Surat and co-created the stringent hygiene protocol for customer and the salon team safety against Covid2019. The protocols detailed as a part of the campaign communication brings alive necessary rituals for customer and salon team’s safety once business resumes.