Storm emma: how the snow storm has affected salon businesses

I'm not sure you've noticed, but the weather across the UK has been pretty bad across the past week. Storm Emma, or 'The Beast from the East' as BBC News has called her, swept across the UK last weekend and since then has caused havoc for everybody trying to go about their regular life - including hairdressers. Many salons faced no shows and cancellations from clients and had staff unable to get into work. We spoke to a few salons to find out how they are handling business in these icy conditions. Wow! We thought the Beast might have been bad, but not that bad!

 We we’re absolutely affected. All but four Rainbow Room international salons had to close for one day and the Stirling salon was affected the most had to close for three days.

 The loss of revenue across the group will easily run into multiple £1,000s. Also, when a work place is closed teams must be paid, so there’s an additional loss with wages on top of the revenue.

Luckily having remote access to our appointment system allowed the salon owners to call/email clients of the news we were closed. 

The one silver lining was that clients were so appreciative of us taking the time to call and we also called all our clients to confirm that we were back open again once the worst had passed.

 There’s always a place for personal service." - Wil Fleeson, Owner and Director of Rainbow Room International Buchanan Street and Stirling “The snow has been pretty bad up north! We haven’t had to close any of our salons thankfully and all of the team have made a super special effort to make it in to work. There are a few team members that live out in the sticks which makes it very hard to get cars out, but on the whole, the guys have done a great job of getting to work. We fully expect clients to be running late or to need to change their appointments, so everyone gets a call each morning to let them know that we are still open and happy to accommodate them in case they are having difficulties. I think as a salon owner, you have to be very flexible and totally understanding of people’s situations and make things work.” – Michael Young, Hooker & Young “We’re lucky in Manchester as we generally don’t get much snow! We have only had a few cancellations this week and all staff have made an effort in setting off earlier in order to arrive on time. Phew!” – Sharon Peake, Ethos Hairdressing “The snow has really been terrible up in Durham and all three salons have been closed for two days – staff safety being our priority in weather like this. I would advise any salon to take proper advice about their policy on adverse weather conditions and staff coming or not coming to work. We are back open today as everyone was climbing the walls having to stay home for two days, but there is a great deal of clients cancelling – so it’s a great cleaning the salon and training fest here at Janet Maitland Hair Excellence!” – Peter Maitland, Janet Maitland Hair Excellence Lead image courtesy of Rainbow Room International, Stirling