Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way consumers interact with businesses. How do salons and spas gain customer trust in a COVID-19 world? Customers now expect companies to maintain social distancing measures and help them reduce contact with frequently touched objects. Salons and spas taking steps to meet these expectations, and ease anxieties, signal to customers their commitment to health and safety, nurturing trust despite COVID-19 challenges.

Beauty industry brands likeMario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas and PROSE Nail Boutiqueunderstood the need to pivot from their pre-COVID customer engagement approach and embrace creative solutions to meet new challenges. Both Mario Tricoci and PROSE turned temporary COVID-19 closures into an opportunity to ensure they come out stronger upon reopening. These brands embraced touchless technology as solutions to build trust and attract customers.

Mario Tricoci and touchless technology solutions

Mario Tricoci chose to partner with Zenoti to meet new expectations while also elevating guest experiences through the power of touchless technology. During the check-in and check-out process, Mario Tricoci empowers customers to interact with their brand through personal mobile devices. Touchless technology solutions allow Mario Tricoci customers to easily and conveniently follow COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, including social distancing recommendations.

"Mario Tricoci is committed to delivering above and beyond experiences to our guests,” explains Mario Tricoci VP of Technology, Ryan Abud. “Staying true to our commitment during COVID-19 means offering guests advanced solutions to ease understandable anxieties. Our touchless technology options offer those solutions, helping us exceed guests' health and safety expectations and maintain their trust."

Mario Tricoci customers can now use a new branded mobile app to instantly check-in on arrival through geofencing technology, avoiding unnecessary contact with front desk staff and reducing in-lounge wait times. Customers breeze through check-out with the option to pay, tip, review, and rebook from their trusted mobile phones. The convenient payment option eliminates the need to wait in front-desk lines or contact frequently touched objects like point-of-sale equipment.

Though only just beginning the reopening process, Mario Tricoci's commitment to delivering premium solutions through advanced technology is already delivering results. Mario Tricoci experienced nearly 19,000 active sessions per day in May 2020 and over 36,000 active sessions per day in June 2020. Mario Tricoci sought to ease customer anxieties, and their customers responded enthusiastically.

"We have seen an overwhelmingly positive response from our customers. Touchless technology is an intuitive concept for today's consumer. We have found that customers are ready to adopt touchless check-ins and check-outs. They appreciate the simplicity and convenience. And they also understand how it helps everyone maintain health and safety guidelines during COVID-19," says Abud.

PROSE and the power of SMS communication

PROSE sought solutions to build customer trust by maintaining social distancing measures whenever possible and reducing contact with frequently touched objects post COVID-19. PROSE adopted a strategy that would allow customers to communicate with their brand through the method they use most: SMS text messaging. PROSE uses Zenoti Connect to help customers follow health and safety guidelines seamlessly.

"Zenoti Connect allowed us to enhance our touchless and safe check in experience, especially with COVID 19. In our appointment reminders, we remind guests to send us a text when they arrive, and they can wait in their car or within the neighborhood, and we can let them know when it's time to start their appointment in a very seamless way," PROSE Vice President of Operations Beau Citron explains.

The unprecedented convenience of communicating instantly via text messaging enhances the guest experience and eases the responsibility of delivering elevated service for PROSE employees. As Zenoti Connect allows PROSE to message customers through a shared and secure platform, managers can access all communications and respond promptly. A Zenoti-powered mobile app, designed for PROSE employees, makes sending reminders and responses even simpler.

"Zenoti Connect has been fantastic for our entire operation,” Citron says. “First of all, for our consumer experience, it allows us to communicate crisp and clear in one organized location for prompt communication to set expectations and to make it an easier experience for our consumer. Secondly, from a management point of view, it has been a huge benefit because our managers can oversee communication and respond in real-time. Because of Zenoti's cloud-based technology, team members can respond at any time from anywhere, including on their Zenoti App.”

As with Mario Tricoci, PROSE relies on touchless technology powered by Zenoti Go to exceed customer expectations. PROSE understands advanced technology's power to elevate guest experiences and ease new health and safety concerns post-COVID. PROSE recently implemented touchless solutions and experienced positive responses from customers.

"Zenoti Go is something that we are really passionate about and have included completely with our membership onboarding. Our goal is for our members to not only download the app but to use it. We are excited for Zenoti Go adoption to continue to be used more and more in the future," explains Citron.

PROSE is empowering customers to maintain social distancing and reduce unnecessary touch through technology that elevates guest experiences – and their customers are responding. PROSE interacted with guests over Zenoti Connect with more than 1,400 messages each month in May and June 2020.

Seamless technology as the future for salons and spas

Customers understand — and increasingly expect — touchless brand experiences. Global brands like Amazon and Uber made touchless brand interactions intuitive concepts, driving a consumer environment defined by unprecedented ease and convenience. Smart salons and spas understand that meeting today's consumers' expectations by building convenient — and memorable — experiences drive loyalty.

Insightful salons and spas, like Mario Tricoci and PROSE, understand the power of touchless technology does even more in a post COVID-19 world. Touchless experiences post-COVID develops brand trust. Seamless integration of touchless technology in the salon or spa experience solves post COVID-19 challenges brought on by consumer anxiety. Through advanced solutions powered by Zenoti, brands like Mario Tricoci and PROSE ease concerns and signal an important message to customers: trust us, we prioritize your health and safety. By every indication, their customers are responding to the message.