Simple tricks for dramatically improving your salon’s efficiency.
Sick of client no-shows, ancient cash registers and flipping through textbook-thick appointment books to try and schedule your day? It’s time to get your salon geek on and discover the clever new ways you can speed up your salon by injecting a little new age technology into the mix.
1. Go mobile
Your clients have been mobile for aaages now, so why aren’t you? Instead of spending your valuable time calling clients one by one to ensure they don’t miss appointments, try using a mobile booking reminder system. Mobile booking reminder systems keep track of all your appointments, and send your clients a confirmation via text message before their appointments to ensure they don’t forget. Pretty spiffy, huh?
2. Head for the cloud
Remember when your salon computer totally did its nut and killed all your files? While you can’t prevent your computer from burning out, you can prevent your work from going up in flames with it. Cloud based systems store your information remotely and invisibly back up all your files, so there’s no need for installing extra storage space on your computer, or freaking out if it spontaneously self-combusts. With your information stored in a cloud based system, even if your computer dies during a busy day, you can still grab the information on your mobile, tablet, or any other device.
3. Be social
Chances are, 99 per cent of your clients are on Facebook. So why not harness that to speed up your salon? You can now install online booking systems that let your clients book straight through Facebook, so they don’t even need to leave their online catch-up with friends to make an appointment with you. How neat is that?
4. Get paid already
Handling cash takes a surprising amount of time out of your day when you add it up across all your clients, not to mention dealing with bounced payments. With safe online payment portals like PayPal, you can set up your online booking system to have clients pre-pay for their appointments, or even put down a deposit, which is non-refundable on cancellation, thus also helping to minimise no-shows and taking the time and hassle out of payments.
5. And above all, get online
If your salon isn’t online, it’s time to be. New research shows up to 80 per cent of people go online to decide where to book, be it dinner, or their next bikini wax, so if your competitors are on there and you’re not, you’re risking losing valuable business. And if just thinking of the work involved in getting your salon tech-savvy is hurting your head already, there are salon software businesses like Timely that offer the basics to get your website sorted, plus all of the above services including cloud based storage, mobile reminders and more for as little as $19 a month, taking the pain out of getting your business up to speed.
This is a sponsored post by Timely, helping your business succeed.
