Coronavirus: How the habits of nail clients have changed since reopening

Thanh Vu, managing director of four Dream Nails salons, serves up insight on client habits since reopening…

Thanh Vu

Since nail salons were allowed to reopen on 13 July following the coronavirus outbreak, I have seen a number of changes in client behaviour and demands at Dream Nails salons.

Across all four salons, we have been surprised at the rate at which clients have returned and the general consistency in the demand for treatments as seen prior to the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak. If anything, our Dream Nails salons in the suburbs have been slightly busier than usual for such a period – quite remarkable given the holiday season has been severely impacted.

We are seeing most clients keeping their natural-looking nails with more gel manicures and fewer L&P acrylic extensions. An increase in the demand for acrylic ombré nails is one exception.

We are extremely grateful that our clients are so loyal. Our clients tend to return every 2-3 weeks! It’s great to see that we still have their support. I would say 70% of our regulars have returned. Of the remaining 30% that have yet to return and being rather more cautious are the clients in the older category. Given the increased likelihood of real risks from catching Covid-19, this is to be expected.

We have seen an increase in new clients. Our salons are not located in central London but instead on the edge in more residential areas. As a result of this, we have benefitted from workers being encouraged to work from home rather than commute to work in the office. The lunch break manicure is become even more popular.

At the moment, there are definitely more young professionals than our lovely senior clients returning. Slowly but surely our more senior clients are starting to return; but they are a little more tentative. We are reassuring clients of our health and safety measures with the following:

• Client temperature is taken on arrival;
• Clients and staff wash & sanitise their hands prior to any treatment;
• NHS track and trace poster with QR code is present in all our salons;
• We sanitise and sterilise all our equipment and tools before using them on each client; all tools are in a self-sealed pouch and opened in front of the client;
• All workstations and chairs are cleaned with alcohol wipes and the floor is swept before the next client; the process is visible for the clients to see.

Retail

Clients are saving rather than spending at the moment. Sadly, there hasn’t been much of a demand on expensive aftercare or retail products. However, we have seen an increase in demand for our own Dream Nails nail varnish. I suspect this is as some of our more price-sensitive clients prolong a return visit by touching up their existing nails.

I think all customers are increasingly price-sensitive. With uncertainties surrounding jobs and people being made redundant, most clients are more cautious with how much a treatment or extra bits costs (I.e. nail art and jewels etc).

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