ONLINE BOOKINGS MEANS MORE BUSINESS IN SALON

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Posted May 27, 2019

Setting up online bookings is one of the easiest things that salon owners can do to increase the number of appointments booked in salon. It’s an absolute no-brainer – all salons have a website (or should!) and this is just a way of making sure that your customers can book their appointments by themselves via the website. There are a number of different ways that you can set up your online bookings, so for those who don’t yet offer online bookings, here’s how you get it sorted.

 

SALON SYSTEM

Most of the major salon systems can integrate with your website to allow online bookings. This integration can be coordinated by either yourself or your website team and an ‘Online Bookings’ item is simply added to the menu on the website. This then talks to your in-salon booking system and hooks the two together – you will get a notification on Tuesday morning that a new booking request has been made over the weekend and then you are required to approve it if the appointment works for your staff appointments. While there might be some initial costs in setting up the integration, you maintain control and the appointments are all integrated between the website and your in-salon system.

 

SALON EMAIL

If you don’t have your salon system hooked up to your website, you (or your website team) can simply add a form with different fields to your website. Include questions like the treatment they want, time they want to book in for and your team members so they can book in with their favourite hairdresser or beautician. This then sends an email to your salon reception email who can then process the request for appointment. It might require some back and forth via email to sort out time slots with the client and ensure that you can both make the time work and the appointment will then need to be manually added to your in-salon system. However, this is a simpler process to get up and running and it still gives clients the flexibility they need and the control you want in salon.

 

The whole reason behind offering online bookings is to allow your clients to book into your salon whenever they want – not just when you’re checking emails or available on the phones. This ensures that if they come across amazing brows that you have posted on Instagram at 11pm at night, they can book an appointment with you instantly, rather than having to remember to (and still be motivated to) call on Monday to make an appointment.

 

It’s a good idea to make sure you communicate that you offer online bookings to your customers, whether that is through sending them an EDM or on your social media channels. Encourage your customers to book online, and it means that your team have less phone calls to worry about and can spend more time on the floor servicing clients.