Visionary Leadership Helps Uni K Wax Franchise Survive Coronavirus Crisis
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Visionary Leadership Helps Uni K Wax Franchise Survive Coronavirus Crisis

Founder and CEO Noemi Grupenmager Reveals Strategic Pandemic Protocols

April 05, 2021 // Franchising.com // Noemi Grupenmager, founder, and CEO of the Uni K Wax Studios franchise, has always been forward-thinking. However, her leadership has never been tested as much as it has throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She practically created the body waxing industry through her franchise endeavor. Recently, she was tasked with saving it.

At the height of the pandemic, all Uni K Wax (UKW) Studio locations were forced to close. Noemi assembled her corporate team virtually to come up with strategies to help the franchise overcome the reopening hurdles, navigate state and local restrictions, and loss of revenue.

At Noemi’s direction, UKW launched a comprehensive plan to help relieve some of the financial hardship franchisees were experiencing, which included:

  • Providing franchise owners with tenant representatives to help them negotiate rent relief agreements with landlords.
  • Holding systemwide webinars to educate franchisees on the ever-changing requirements and deadlines of the PPP program.
  • Suspending all monthly recurring charges while the studios were shut down.
  • Negotiating with vendors on behalf of the franchisees and helped cover short-term fees.
  • Working with each studio on a reopening plan in accordance with the respective state and local protocols.

“We have and will continue to use every tool and idea available to help our franchisees come out of this pandemic in a better position than they were in before,” adds Noemi Grupenmager. “I’m so proud of our franchisees and our corporate team. We understand this has been an extremely rough time for everyone, and we will continue to do everything in our power to support our franchise family.”

Easing Customer Concerns

Studio safety and cleanliness have always been at the heart of Uni K Wax Studios. Even before the pandemic, Noemi made sure Uni K Wax Studios provided personal waxing warmers for each customer to eliminate cross-contamination, and the waxing staff has always worn masks during services. Tools have always been treated in a hospital-grade germicide and all waxing beds are disinfected in between services.

However, Noemi directed a variety of studio safety changes to ease customer and employee concerns:

  • Lobby spaces in all Uni K Wax studios reconfigured to allow for social distancing.
  • Scheduled more time in between appointments to reduce in-person contact.
  • Allow additional time for deeper sanitization between customers, as well as more frequent cleaning of high-touch points within the facilities.

Noemi was also able to reduce in-studio person-to-person contact through the launch of a mobile app, which gives customers the option to book appointments, check in and pay using a smartphone. The app, which had been in development prior to the start of the pandemic, was put on the fast track in order to help studios react responsibly to reopening rollouts.

Salons struggling with staffing were directed to use a live video-based virtual receptionist, which allowed for socially distanced interaction through the safety of a computer kiosk. “When this pandemic is behind us, we will use the lessons we’ve learned to make us even stronger as a system,” adds Grupenmager.

SOURCE Uni K Wax Studio

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