Don’t Miss these Hacks to Optimize Salon Scheduling

Double-booking, lost appointments, no-shows, and salon scheduling conflicts all lead to your clients not having the ideal experience, which can be a salon owner’s worst nightmare.

Customer relations are essential to keep your enterprise flourishing, especially in the beauty industry. Customers often remember the details rather than the whole service itself of the experience, and these small details affect their decision to stay with your salon — or not.

Compatible appointment issues may eventually prevent customer relations. So how can salon owners avoid such complications and build the ultimate customer experience?

The organization is vital to your salon’s success and your salon software is at the heart of being organized. As the owner of the salon, you must also consider the various kinds of circumstances that cause disputes with the salon, like:

• Scheduling an appointment for a wrong date or time
• Appointments taking longer than expected
• People showing up late or deciding to skip out completely

These are common salon scheduling risks, and when running a salon, they should be mitigated. Here are some ways of building an effective salon schedule that not only maintains organization but also boosts your business.

Use integrated salon scheduling software

As your salon starts expanding, it will be almost impossible to manage calendars and set appointments manually. In order to keep up with the growth of your business, you need an appointment scheduling software solution to handle large-scale salon appointments and to customize customers’ online demands.

Listing out some of the scheduling features that you should look for in an effective salon scheduling software:

Clients can book online – The customers no longer need to wait for a salon to open up to call and make an appointment as online appointment scheduling software allows them to make an appointment online. How can customers book online appointments? An online client has access to the calendar of your salon and can arrange an appointment at any time using the scheduling system. If customers have to plan multiple salon services, they can easily add to the range of rates they want.

Online appointment scheduling solution like SkizzleOpus, lets your customers book service appointments online.

1. The software configures with your calendar – With online booking software that directly syncs with your calendar, it’s quite easy to show your availability to your clients. This avoids double reservations or mistakes in making a schedule. This also encourages your employees to be flexible and to take additional appointments on their schedule.

2. You’re notified of new appointments – Your salon is informed after a new appointment is booked. You should approve or reject the appointment so that your calendar remains in complete control.

3. Salon scheduling software can be accessed anywhere – A client can access your salon booking software online, and you can run your business on a mobile app, an iPad, a desktop, or any other compatible device.

Review your salon schedule every morning

Whether you are enjoying a cup of tea or coffee at home or driving into work, set aside time to review your salon schedule each morning to better prevent any issues that could arise.

Knowing your schedule together with the kind of appointments you have booked is a wonderful management approach that will help you prepare for what’s coming.

Reduce no-show appointments

No-shows and cancellations at the last minute will pose a great risk to your salon. It not only affects your team’s time schedule and overall sales potential significantly.

It is common for owners to invest in no-show protection policies to avoid or reduce no-show appointments. You can request credit card information from customers before making an appointment with the help of the right salon scheduling software. While this option does not immediately charge a customer’s card, you can choose to charge a fee if someone has missed or cannot cancel an appointment within a designated time — normally 24 or 48 hours before the appointment.

There are a number of other ways to reduce no-shows in your hair salon, beyond the basic protection policies. Promoting pre-booking is an excellent way of creating customer loyalty and consistency. You start making it part of your routine and you are much less likely to cancel if your customers arrive once a month on a particular day. You can do so by offering to rebook while you pay or email customers soon after service.

As a salon owner, it is vital to understand that no-show appointments and cancellations can be an honest mistake, but you can never forget their negative impact on your business. Whether you implement a three-strikes policy or use a prepayment feature, always make a point to follow up with no-show clients and figure out ways to prevent the same issue in the future.

Implement client reminder methods

It is of utmost importance to create a clear communication flow with your clients. This can help to keep your salon on schedule.

Although it may feel tedious, a friendly appointment reminder can significantly decrease missed appointments as well as build rapport with your client. By setting up a text reminder you can confirm their appointment details.

Custom messages or calls are a great way to build relationships and understand your clients better. In fact, many stylists keep notes on each client to refer to during a confirmation call as well as the appointment.

It’s important to reach out to clients several days in advance, so you can better prepare for any changes and optimize your salon schedule.

Keep your client’s information up to date

Keeping accurate, up-to-date records of your clients with salon software serves a few purposes. The best way to do this is to find a robust customer directory system or CRM that allows you to create client profiles with their contact info and notes.

An obvious advantage of having current information is being able to quickly contact clients in case you need to reschedule their appointment or if you have additional questions. And with a customer directory service, you can learn how to add client notes regarding past services, which can help jog your memory when they return.

Depending on the salon software you choose, your customer directory may even be able to store payment information for regular clients. This makes the entire checkout process seamless and efficient.

Become more efficient with your salon services

The time a client is in a seat depends on the service requested and the client’s hair. While you may not be able to control the latter, it is crucial for your employees to move quickly and efficiently.

First, when you decide on the services to offer, be specific and give the client many options in your salon scheduling software. The more specific you can get with hair services, the easier it is to plan out a salon schedule.

For example, give your client three options for a haircut: short, medium, long. Differentiate a partial versus full highlight when giving color options. All of these small variations can help you determine the amount of time one client needs to be in a chair.

It is also important to assess processing times for certain services. You should think about how long a service takes to process, and whether that processing time turns into an opportunity. Some experienced hairstylists can fit a haircut in during another client’s processing time. This, however, should only be implemented with experienced, comfortable stylists.

Continuous training can also help employees improve their skills and ultimately speed up the time clients spend in the chair.

Closing Thoughts

The secret to the success of your salon or spa is happy, loyal clients, so keep them top of mind when creating your schedules. Pushing limits by overbooking leads to tired employees and irritated customers, so learn how to create an optimized salon schedule that works for everyone.

Thankfully, with SkizzleOpus, a cloud-based online appointment scheduling software, this becomes easy. Complete with irresistible features like talent appointment reminders, instant SMS booking confirmation, bulk booking, and booking history, appointment scheduling on SkizzleOpus pack a punch!

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