It may be more space and cost-efficient to cram in as many styling stations, salon chairs and beauty beds into your salon as possible, but this does nothing for the customer experience.

Many successful salon owners have found that along with comfort and personal service, privacy is one of the main motivators for clients booking a return visit. Clients need their own space, even if only a small amount or a ‘sense’ of personal space.

Tips and advice

• Forget about beauty bars. Although fashionable in fast-paced nail bars where teens and hen parties are the principal clientele – are not the future for salons and spas. Cramming clients in together for manicures and pedicures is uncomfortable and impersonal, so give them the luxury of being treated at a separate station.

• Don’t place salon chairs right in front of big feature windows facing the street. After all, what client wants the world to see them when they are mid-treatment, with foils, rollers or wet hair? The ideal setup is for salon chairs to be side-on to the window or even better, for the waiting area to obscure the street view of styling stations.

• Use partition walls to create privacy

• Place styling stations back to back. This allows you to fit more stations in, but the mirror separates clients and ensures their privacy.