What do you do when you have a power failure in the salon? The answer is simple really … follow all the steps in your policy and procedure manual on what to do in case of a power failure. Oh, you don’t have any procedures for a power failure? Well, in that case consider a few of the following points when putting together a power failure procedure.

Your computer system, which contains all your critical data (like bookings, client details and the ability to process sales records) will be shut off immediately in a power failure unless you are either working on a laptop or you have an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) installed. The danger of it shutting off immediately (apart from the fact that you cant access data) is that your data may get corrupted. So, it is very important that you do have a UPS if not working on a laptop.

In the case of a UPS you have up to about 15 minutes before it will run out of power. As a daily preventative measure you should have already printed out the days appointments (including contact details of clients). If this is not your practice then you should immediately do so before the computer shuts down.

A laptop will give up to about 2 hours before its own battery runs out so you should be able to achieve more.

The first thing you should do is communicate with your clients, ie all clients that are scheduled to come in for appointments that day should be notified to advise them of the power failure potentially reschedule. Remember, in order to reschedule you will need your computer else you may create a double booking so if you are working without a computer you will have to arrange to call the client back when the power is back on to re-schedule.

If you are on a laptop and still able to connect to the internet (ie 3G usb Modem) then you may want to SMS all clients with bookings today, or even your entire database to advise them of the power failure. This may even provide a marketing opportunity to communicate with your clients.

If you use a fancy PBX phone system that requires power then you may need to plug in an old school regular Telkom telephone that does not need power to work. This will enable you to call clients as well as receive calls from clients during the power failure.

For the clients that are still in store and any the come in that you are still able to accommodate (ie Retail sales etc) you will need some way of recording the details of the transaction so have some sort of manual docket/invoice book available. Remember that your credit card machine may not be working so you will most likely only be able to take cash.

Once the power is back on remember to insert all the sales that you entered into the manual docket book. On the dockets you should record the client name and cell number, staff name, items purchased and payment method (most likely cash).

Checklist of items required related to your computer

  • Daily bookings print out
  • Uninterrupted Power Supply
  • 3g USB modem (if you have a laptop)
  • Manual Docket Book
  • Regular land line telephone handset