5 things your client expects while booking a salon online
As people of all ages become more comfortable with phones, Google, and technology in general, online substitutes for many day-today activities are gaining popularity – one of them being able to schedule a time online with your favourite hair stylist or cosmetologist.
Whether it’s for a quick session for threading or for a much-awaited hairstyle trial, being able to look up available slots and book in a jiffy is something that would take your client’s experience up a notch.
In fact, one study shows that “86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience”
And not just that, it also has a multitude of benefits for you! As compared to traditional manual appointment booking, online bookings can save salon owners a lot of time and money.
But how to do it right?
In order to reap the benefits of this easy scheduling method, you need to get your booking process right. While your clients might be all game for online scheduling, you need to set up your booking system in a way that they can find and book your services easily. It should be quick and easy so that they love booking with you!
So, simply give them what they want! Here are the top 5 things that clients expects while booking a salon online:
- Easily accessible booking links
While booking a salon online, customers are looking to find a business as quickly as possible that provides them with what they need. They are less likely to simply keep browsing for their website on the internet. This means you need to ensure that your booking option is right in front of them at all times to get more appointments.
You can improve the visibility of your online booking links by:
- Adding them to your Google My Business profile. (You can get listed on Reserve with Google for free to enable bookings via Google)
- Adding a ‘Book’ button or integrating your booking page on your business website
- Adding a ‘Book’ button on your Facebook and Instagram business profile
You can use a salon scheduling software like Appointy to add book buttons to all your business profiles and make it super easy for clients to find your booking page and schedule appointments with you.
- 24×7 appointment booking
People like online scheduling because it gives them the convenience to book at 2 AM in the night or at 8 in the morning. They aren’t restricted by your business hours to schedule their appointments.
The ability to book an appointment round the clock makes appointment bookings less stressful for both the customers and staff members of a salon. Customers can book appointments outside your business hours thereby increasing the total number of appointments being booked at your salon.
You can use an appointment booking software or try out some other solution to achieve this, but make sure that you are not missing out on after-hours bookings.
- Appointment notifications
People often tend to forget about their appointments and miss out on them. That’s why timely appointment confirmation and reminder notifications from the business is something that clients really appreciate.
You can choose to automate these notifications with a salon scheduling software or designate a staff member to do this. This simple change will not only make your salon look professional, but also has the potential to reduce no shows drastically.
- Online appointment management
Booking an appointment is not the end. Customers also want to control and manage bookings on their own, without having to reach out to the salon.
By opting for a salon booking software, you can let your customers manage their bookings by letting them cancel, reschedule, and update their appointments themselves. Give your customer the control, and watch how they choose you over your competitors time and again.
- Safe online prepayments
Allow clients to prepay for online services to get hassle-free check-in and check-out.
A salon software provides integrations with multiple popular payment platforms like Square, Stripe, and Paypal. With these, you have the option to charge a full, part, or a fixed amount as prepayment to let clients pay online.
Bonus: In this COVID-19 pandemic, online booking software has become a blessing in disguise for many businesses like salons, spas, barbershops, etc. Businesses have shifted their focus to online appointment scheduling from offline mode, which helps them maintain social distancing, contactless check-in, and check-out, contactless payments. These features let businesses:
- adapt to the changing social distancing guidelines
- allow customers to pre-book suitable time slots to avoid long wait-lines at your location
- minimize physical contact with contactless check-ins and online payments to reduce human interaction
- provide a safer experience to your customers and employees
- deliver safe customer experiences
- maintain a safe work environment for employees to ease their concerns with flexible schedules and a safe workplace
In conclusion
Clients are looking for an experience that is easy to understand and allows hassle-free bookings. So it is important for the salon owner/manager to take care of the client’s perspectives and expectations they have from the salon. The best way to do this is by becoming client-centric and putting yourself in your client’s shoes.
