Benefits of Online Appointment Scheduling and How to Choose the Right One for Your Salon Business
Since 61% of consumers nowadays either appreciate or expect appointment booking from the businesses in their locality. The space has now grown more and more competitive in order to accommodate all the varying configurations that users may require in order to connect with their customers. This is the reason why a lot of online scheduling platforms exist. Most especially for the local salon and spa businesses. The question is, how can salon and spa business owners take advantage of an online appointment scheduling system? Salon appointment scheduling benefits are numerous and most small businesses start to see these benefits right away. Below, you will learn some of the many benefits of using an online appointment scheduling tool for your salon or spa business as well as how to choose the right scheduling software for your company.
-
You Get More Appointments
The moment you use an online appointment scheduling system for your salon or spa business, you are also able to add the sense of convenience to your business and this is where something magical enters the picture – you get more appointments. As a matter of fact, this is the ultimate way your clients show you how they appreciate your business for making their lives much easier. This is due to the fact that people are now getting used to doing almost everything online.
In fact, on an average, people spend more than 24 hours a week communicating online through Facebook, twitter, and email. So, if we combine that with the amount of time we spend researching and working online, there are not a lot of hours left for sleep. The bottom line is offering online salon appointment scheduling system is the natural extension of the product or service you offer, and your salon or spa customers will surely take advantage of it.
-
You Can Get Rid of No-Shows
Almost all online appointment scheduling software nowadays provide automated reminders to your customers. It can greatly reduce no-shows by around 80%. In addition to that, adjusting the notification that your salon customers can be able to receive through their personal devices can certainly make a huge difference in getting as well as keeping their attention, most particularly as our technology usage nowadays is becoming more and more common.
In addition to that, automated reminders also allow salon business owners to keep in touch with their customers days, hours, and minutes before an appointment through a simple SMS or email, which gives salon customers the same convenience and mobility that business owners seek for themselves.
- You Can Easily Get Feedback from Customers
If a salon client is asked to leave a review after an appointment, a salon or spa is far more likely to receive a positive review. Or even an honest feedback, which the customer may not have mentioned otherwise. As a matter of fact, this feedback is very important in order to make sure that clients can be able to get the most out of everything. They love to do it in near real time while providing business owners to have the possibility of having extra sales.
Actually, a recent study has shown that 38% of consumers in the US read reviews online and that a positive and honest review leads around 45% of people to visit a website and at least 23% to visit an actual local shop. Having said that, keeping both the business and customers accountable for their scheduled appointments is the main key to improving customer service as well as overall customer satisfaction.
Salon Appointment Scheduling Benefits
Things to Look for in an Online Appointment Scheduling Software
Using an online appointment scheduling software for your salon or spa business is very important in order to get the most out of all online scheduling solution available. The truth is mobile devices has already transformed our technology usage through its accessibility and simplicity. Thus, being able to manage and see a schedule. As well as the ability to take actions and get insights with salon or spa clients in real time. You can be able to help your business grown through improving overall customer satisfaction. Gaining the loyalty of your salon clients with the help of a dependable online appointment scheduling software.
Above all else, the most important thing that you should look for in an online appointment scheduling software is its capabilities. While these can vary from different businesses, these capabilities must be standard in the kind of software you prefer:
Calendar Flexibility
This is the ability to easily and conveniently set multiple bookings per time slot. Set future salon appointments up to one year or even longer. Block off times and days of appointments. As well as determine the accurate status of an appointment, just like canceled, rescheduled, or completed, is very important in an online appointment scheduling software. After all, a free trial will help reveal if these certain abilities exist in a particular software or not.
Automated SMS and Email Reminders
Customers would really appreciate the reminders as it enables them to prepare ahead of time. They also help in greatly reducing the rate of no-shows.
Packages
Some software providers actually offer packages as part of the services they offer. These often include different training and informative solutions.
Point-of-Sale Capability
Organizations and businesses nowadays are not only scheduling appointments by phone. But they also allow their clients and customers to securely pay online.
Robust and Accurate Record keeping
Most organizations and businesses rely on accurate and dependable record keeping of the information of their customers. As well as the details of the client’s scheduled appointment. The way software scheduling programs generate reports often varies. Which is why you should make sure that you are able to test this function first during the free trial of the software in order to see if this function is acceptable to your salon or spa business operations.
Lastly, you must also consider the future services and activities or your salon or spa business too. Just because you do not currently have a need for that specific feature. Does not necessarily mean that you will never need in the future. More salon appointment scheduling benefits usually continue to be noticed the longer an organization is using the software tool.
About Small Business Care:
At Small Business Care we continually work to find tools and solutions for small businesses. We are always looking to profile successful small businesses. The tools the use and general strategies on how to improve your business. On Tuesdays we usually have a post on technology tools for small businesses as part of our “Tech Tuesday”. On Friday’s we focus on financial issues that small business are likely to see for our “Finance Friday”. Saturdays will be “Startup Saturday” where we will either follow a startup on their journey or do a one posting on a new company. We have a range of experts in various fields to help make sure your small business avoids these major missteps.