Why Online Booking Is The Way To GoJune 21, 2020Time is money; every client you take in generates revenue for your salon. The more you can accommodate, the more money your salon makes. It’s simple math. The salon industry is huge. According to SBDCNet, $20 billion are spent on salon treatments every year. And what salon wouldn’t want to maximize their piece of the pie? This is where online booking comes in. Appointment-driven salon business models are based on the objective of selling time slots to clients. However, many salons find the booking system difficult to cope with. You can be inundated with emails, calls, and Facebook messages asking about available slots, making the system tedious to manage. With the right tools in place, however, managing appointments and queries isn’t difficult at all! How to deal with appointments? Gone are the days when you needed multiple staff members working on bookings; one by the phone, one dealing with the website, and another dealing with Facebook queries. As a salon owner, you need to optimize the way your staff is working. Having multiple people dealing with and planning out bookings is a waste of resources. Nowadays, software programs can assist with bookings. These software programs are created to make your salon more efficient by streamlining online bookings. It manages appointments, sends out confirmations to clients, and reminds them about their appointments. Depending on the software you invest in for your salon, it can also do additional tasks like providing clients with automated reports about your services, managing your staff schedules, carrying out digital marketing via email and SMS, and keeping track of inventory. If you’re worried about not having enough bookings at your salon, there are a number of things you can do to get the appointments coming in: Make the most of your clients Every time a client walks in for a service, make sure you make a mark. A spa is a place for clients to relax and unwind from their hectic lives. They should leave your salon feeling refreshed. Providing the very best client experience has to be your number one priority. Make sure the atmosphere you create in your salon is beautiful and tranquil. Make sure all phones, whether it’s staff cell phones or client cell phones, are put on silent mode. You don’t want a phone ringing and disturbing your clients. Make sure your staff isn’t too loud when they’re communicating with each other. Instruct them to leave the room if they need to discuss something. Constant mumbling is irritating to clients. Stay current Clients are always looking to follow the latest trends. As a salon, you need to cater to their requirements to become a success. Stay up to date with the latest in the beauty, skin care, and hair care world. Sign up for trainings to learn the newest techniques in the business. Train your staff in the latest spa techniques to keep your clients happy. Facilitate clients with easy bookings Clients hate being put on hold when trying to get a spa appointment. Many of them will just give up and try another spa in the area if it takes too long. You’re losing clients by holding on to archaic techniques of booking a salon appointment. Make the booking system easy and quick for clients. Since our world revolves around our smartphones, invest in an easy-to-use app for clients. Such apps only require you to put in your personal information once and choose your services and preferred time. For those who still love using their computers, you can have online bookings on your website too. Make sure the two methods are streamlined and that there are no duplicate or overlapping appointments. The benefits of booking appointments online: Efficiency Online bookings help free up staff who would otherwise be spending their day behind a desk. This way, you have additional staff to complete the services for the day, making for quick and easy work. Online bookings are also easier and quicker to make. Your salon will be getting more appointments this way. There will also be lesser chances of duplicate bookings and overlapping bookings with an automated system. This means you won’t have to face disgruntled clients, keeping your ratings up. Automatic Record Keeping If a client moves house, changes their email address, or gets a new phone number, they will be updating their contact information on your app or website. This information is then stored and updated for future use. Your database stays up to date this way, which greatly helps with sending out promotional emails and SMS. Additional Sales Opportunities Online appointment bookings allow a salon to sell memberships, loyalty programs, and gift cards to clients. You could also promote products being sold at the salon and offer the option to ‘reserve’ the product for the client’s next visit. Such systems are operational 24/7 without having to be monitored by staff. This kind of service helps build customer loyalty. Helps a salon prepare for the day From a salon’s point of view, having online bookings is always better than having walk-in clients. You’re better able to delegate tasks to your staff and keep track of inventory as well. Every salon has unique demand when it comes to services. Therefore, inventory differs based on what your salon is known for. If your salon is running low on a particular product, you know it needs to be sourced before the client’s appointment. In the case of a walk-in client, you don’t know what service they could ask for, making the salon look ill-prepared. Increases the frequency of visits Online bookings of salon appointments have been known to increase the frequency of client visits to salons. 90% of women prefer online bookings over calling up a salon. Part of the reason is that it lets them make bookings whenever they want, such as late at night. Online bookings usually send a confirmation email and reminder which helps to reduce cancellations and no-shows. Salons can make the most of a lost opportunity by selling that slot to another client. Clients can also keep track of their booking history and rebook an appointment 4 to 6 weeks later. This is especially beneficial for women who require regular maintenance for their hair. Looking for more advice on making your salon a success? At Salon Income Booster, we cater to businesses and help them increase hair and beauty salons income and salon retail merchandise for optimum growth. We provide everything from marketing strategies to income generation, we provide end-to-end solutions to all salons. We also assist new businesses in the industry with their investment plans by offering consultation.