Keeping You Safe This Christmas: Covid Safety at AJS

The Latest Covid Safety Information from Antony John Salons In Lichfield

AJS Salons in Lichfield take your safety seriously. Here, Salon Director, Tony, talks us through 'what's next' when it comes to Covid safety at the salon. 

Tony says;

''I would like to start by thanking you for your ongoing support, custom and help throughout the last 18 months. It's been a challenging time for any business, especially service-based industries and especially businesses that see the volume of guests we do. It's been at the forefront of my mind constantly, and the main objective through this period has been, and continues to be to keep anybody that visits us as safe as possible. At the same time we have of course had to keep our business viable.

I feel we have done this successfully and I would like to say a hats off to our team who have worked with the same relentlessness and passion as ever. I extend my thanks further to you, our clients, for following our procedures to keep everybody safe. From the comments made and the feedback received I hope it is the case that we have succeeded in continuing to give you the luxury experience AJS is known for as well as making you feel completely comfortable in our environment in these strange times.

Now we must start thinking about what the next steps are. As you will be aware, we had pencilled in the start of November to start our new working pattern, this would have meant more of the team working together than they do currently and increasing the amount of people in the building at any one time.

It would have also seen the re-opening of communal spaces, such as the waiting area and our beloved Balcony room, for you to relax whilst your colour develops. We decided to put this on hold, simply down to the fact it didn't feel it was the right time.

Firstly, because the infection rate was still high, going into the unknown winter and making such changes would leave us vulnerable, both in terms of everybody’s health and the business. Secondly, we would have been making these changes in the busiest time of the year for us, this would have given us no room to pivot IF certain restrictions were brought back into place, such as social distancing. It simply wasn't the right time.

We are however now looking at bringing the changes in January. It goes without saying that any changes will only go ahead if we feel the time is right and that it's safe to do so.''

Here are the key things that will be happening in our "new normal":

• The teams new working patterns, although not the same as pre covid, will allow more of the team to be together at once than what has been achievable for the past 18 months. This is so important for their development, communication and team morale. Having said this we will still have extended hours, meaning the team is more spread across those hours than previously including across our busiest hours such as weekends.
• In the main we are keeping our extended opening hours. Thus, meaning that we will have certain time slots and days where there will still be fewer staff and clients in the building. If you are still nervous in the new year about anything to do with covid19 then you will be able to pre-book these slots.
• The balcony room will be back open, with a few changes, for you to relax in whilst your colour develops. This, just like everywhere else will be stringently cleaned throughout the day. However, as above, on certain days and times there may be the option to stay in your section as you have done for the past year and a half. Please mention this when booking and our front of house team can advise you.
• Magazines will continue to be available digitally on your phones and tablets through the QR codes provided. We will work towards being able to allow clients to use the drinks facilities themselves as they always did before. For the time being we will still be making your drinks for you and will let you all know when this element of your time with us becomes self-serve again.
• We may continue to wear face masks in January, as you know, this is no longer mandatory, but we have decided to keep them in place for the last few months and the time being. When we feel it's safe to do so then this precaution will be removed and communicated. We will though have in place the ability for you to ask your stylist to wear one even when we remove the policy as a rule. So, when your stylist asks you, please feel free to tell them you'd prefer them to wear a mask. Likewise we may have some of our team who choose to still wear one, we ask all of our guests to respect this decision.
• Hand sanitiser will remain at the entrance and on each section and our thorough cleaning with anti-bacterial spray will too. We will also still be asking all of our team to do regular lateral flow tests.

Final Thoughts...

''As I've said previously, this next chapter will be as hard to navigate as a business as anything we've had during the pandemic. Whilst of course we have some trepidation, as a team we are excited to bring some sort of normality and stability back into what we do for many, many reasons.

Hopefully you can see from all of the above that safety will still be the priority. If between now and January there is a major increase with COVID19 then we will again postpone this plan. Likewise, when we do make the changes, if there were to be a spike, then we wouldn't hesitate in putting some if not all of our covid measures back in place. We feel with this new normal we are creating truly the best of both worlds and it allows us to pivot back to all of our measures very easily if needed. 

Thank you again for all of your support and kindness through this time. We have strived to give you the best version of what we do during all of this and we are so excited about the future and being able to bring you EVEN better service and excellence than we ever have before. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask either myself or the team. We're looking forward to seeing you all over the festive period. x''

To find out more about Covid safety measures at AJS Salons in Lichfield, give our friendly team a call on 01543 481 900 or drop us an email at info@anthonyjohn-salons.co.uk.