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In today’s hyper, fast-paced world, things change quickly. Businesses need to adapt in order to stay competitive. They need to give customers exactly what they want when they want it.
If you’re in the salon business, that means taking your business and appointment book online – it means making online booking your foremost priority.
If salons don’t take their business online, they risk becoming obsolete altogether. And that’s saying nothing of all the customers they’re missing out on, along with the increased productivity, efficiency and all-around business growth.
Chances are if you’re still using a paper-based appointment book, your salon business is a little bit behind the times. But don’t worry – we can help you with that.
The foundation of taking your business online? Spoiler: it’s not with a website.
It’s with an online appointment book so that you can offer online booking.
Some companies provide an appointment scheduler which will also give you a profile that acts as a mini-website and will get you moving up the Google ranks (when people search for your business, you will appear at the top of the Google search results page).
It will also make it possible for your customers to do online booking and automate time-consuming client management tasks involved in the salon business.
Let’s talk in a little more detail about why salons need to be online and how they can specifically take their appointment scheduler online.
Why Salons Need to be Online (Why They Need An Online Appointment Book)
First and foremost, businesses need to have an online presence. Online searches are what power businesses today. People are no longer finding hair salons and other services by looking in the phonebook.
They are searching for services in their Google search bar. When you take your business online, you are gaining a lot more visibility and exposure for your business.
When you are online, your business is open 24/7 – especially if you offer online booking options. That’s why online booking is critical to business. If you could keep your business open 24/7 at no cost to you, 100% of businesses would do so without any hesitation.
Further, 90% of people want the ability the book services online. They want to be able to book services at a time that’s convenient for them. Doing so makes you a premium customer service provider.
At this point, you have started to get an idea about why being online is so critical, but here is a more in-depth look. We will get to the “how” shortly thereafter.
• More Bookings, More Customer Loyalty, More Business Growth
First and foremost, an online appointment book results in more bookings. After all, your business is essentially open 24/7.
More bookings mean increased profits and more business growth.
But scheduling software is built to increase your bookings and customer loyalty through many other different avenues as well. Automated rebooking reminders are one such example.
Consider that the average new customer retention rate for salon businesses hovers at around 30 percent. Simply using scheduling software and making use of rebooking reminders can radically improve these mediocre retention rates.
In fact, sending out automated rebooking reminders on the day a client receives a service can increase repeat visits by as much as 50 percent.
Scheduling software increases customer loyalty in other meaningful ways as well. It keeps track of all aspects of client management such as client notes, which gives salon owners the ability to deliver personalized hair care to their clients by tracking client preferences. This is what allows clients to become loyal customers.
In short, an online appointment book is the leading way that salons can increase their bookings, increase customer loyalty and grow their business.
• Reduced Costs
There are many ways in which scheduling software is designed to reduce business costs. First, it automates major salon-related tasks that take up a lot of time and make salons inefficient. When businesses are inefficient, they lose money.
Anyone who has worked in a salon before knows that making appointments involves much more than writing a name and time in a calendar. Scheduling software automates many of these tasks, making salons more efficient and more productive.
First, an appointment scheduler reduces time spent on the phone since it gives clients the ability to book services online.
Second, employees spend less time calling clients to remind them of upcoming appointments – an appointment scheduler does this for them, both through email and text.
In fact, salons lose a significant amount of revenue every single year due to no-shows alone. By using scheduling software, no-shows are decreased and businesses save money and become much more efficient all at once.
Yocale’s online scheduler, for instance, reduces no-shows anywhere between 70 and 80 percent and reduces time spent on the phone by 80 percent.
As you can see, scheduling software is designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency at every step of the appointment-making process. That’s how powerful it is. And to think that this is the tip of the iceberg.
How To Take Your Appointment Book Online
Taking your appointment book online couldn’t be simpler. All you need to do is choose an appointment scheduler. Here are a few key features you should look for.
An online appointment book will sync all of your external contacts in one simple step, making client management easy from the very beginning.
Look for an appointment-based software for salons which usually has all of the extensive features, from client reminders to re-booking reminders and more.
It should be super easy to use and completely customizable.
This video tutorial will show you an overview of what it looks like. The first step is to create your business schedule (which, again, is completely customizable to your own needs at your salon). As soon as you do that, you can start offering online booking.
It’s really as simple as that.
The Bottom Line
Salon businesses need to be online – by that, we mean that they need to take their appointment book online.
Our appointment scheduler is free. It’s easy to use. Even more than that, it’s one of the leading scheduling softwares in the industry.
Don’t want to take online bookings? No Problem. We offer appointment “requests” instead. Ease into online booking if you prefer.
If you’re hesitant about taking the plunge, one of our friendly team members would be happy to walk you through it and help you to get set up. Take client management to the next level and get booked. Get in touch here.
