Digital Main Street support amplifies Dundurn Hair Design’s online platform
In the age of rapidly-changing hairstyle trends, the services of Hamilton-based Dundurn Hair Design have been in high demand. With over 30 years of professional hairstyling experience, the owner, Susana Bosengic, has been serving the latest hairstyles to her clientele before the initial lockdowns.
“I have a very considerate clientele. My clientele are my friends,” says the salon owner Susana. As a hair care professional with an evident passion for making her clientele feel their most confident, it’s helped Dundurn Hair Design become a favourite for Hamilton locals. Susana incorporates her extensive hairstyling background with her Dominican Republic roots in her service techniques and creative styles. However, with the Ontario-wide lockdown put into place after Christmas, concerns grew over how the Hamilton business owner could serve her clientele through an online platform and how she could push her business to reach new heights.
This time gave her the opportunity to think about her strategy for reaching clients and make plans to revamp her online presence and attract more clientele ahead of lockdowns easing in the following months.
“Right now, the business has been closed. I’ve been losing so much money, so I just want to be able to survive,” says Susana, who knew she wouldn’t be able to provide her hairstyling services during the second Ontario lockdown. After hearing great reviews about the Digital Main Street Future Proof initiative from her daughter’s experiences with the program, she began gaining confidence in the possibility of enhancing her brand presence online.
The Transformation Team worked with Susana Bogensic to develop a strategy on how the new website should look, which products to sell on the new online platform, and create new content ideas for her business’ social media accounts.
The challenging transition to a digital booking format for her salon business is one Susana understands she’ll have to learn to get used to. “I really appreciate that [the transformation team] are willing to help me out because your ideas and methods are really, really good. The way you explain these videos made me think, wow, this program is excellent,” Susana exclaims.
The team also provided user-friendly how-to guides to effectively guide Susana when she needs to manage her social media and website accounts on her own.
Our Digital Main Street Future Proof innovation partner in Brant County, City of Hamilton & Haldimand-Norfolk Regions is Innovation Factory.
Written by Monique Badiola
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
A $42.5-million investment from FedDev Ontario brought together the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Communitech, Invest Ottawa and the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association to expand the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital as a response to the impacts of COVID-19 in Southern Ontario.
