Hair and nails salon owners know that time is of the essence when it comes to managing their business, which is why it is essential to stay on top of the latest resources that could be making your life easier. A large portion of the time spent managing a salon requires booking appointments, managing staff schedules and marketing to attract new clients. In this article, we will explore the latest resources to help you with these endeavours.
Booker
One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a salon owner is managing employee schedules. Booker takes the pressure off this responsibility by eliminating the need to check in with your stylists and have miscommunications about schedules by automating the staff scheduling process.
You can input a weekly schedule for your staff which will remain constant throughout the year, or give them access to the system so they can update their schedule without your involvement. Your stylists can access their schedule from anywhere at anytime, knowing when they have appointments and whey they have time off.
Schedulicity
If you are like the typical salon owner, your customers call you to schedule an appointment, you check the appointment book and/ or ask the individual stylists if they are available and write the appointment in. This system is antiquated and not foolproof; how many times have you written down the wrong contact information or name while you were in a hurry? How many clients forgot about their appointments altogether because you simply didn’t have the time to make reminder calls?
Imagine eliminating this entire process and saving yourself time to concentrate on something else. With Schedulicity, you can take yourself completely out of the equation of scheduling client appointments! Simply plan ahead by creating an online calendar based on your stylists’ availability and allow your customers to schedule their own appointments online!
Clients can utilize this calendar from a computer, smartphone or tablet, and can add their personal information as well as notes for the stylist. Plus, Schedulicity has the ability to send text reminders to your clients prior to their appointments, reducing cancellations.
DemandForce
DemandForce is a solution to attract new clients and keep your loyal customers coming back. It integrates with your current business management system to automate communication with your customers via voice, text, email or on social media.
DemandForce offers several features, such as providing the latest information about your business to local listings, such as Google, Bing, Citysearch, Yellowpages.com, etc. To help your customers find you, you won’t need to update your contact information or hours on each website anymore; all you will need to do is update it on the DemandForce site, sit back and let them do the work.
This tool will send automatic surveys to your customers after their appointments, letting them know you care about their feedback and providing you with a chance to correct a situation before you lose a client or get a bad review online. You have the ability to feature positive reviews on your site or on social media.
While some of these services are free, others have premium features which can streamline your operations and help your business. IOU Financial is committed to helping salon owners grow their business. We can offer a small business loan up to $300,000 in 24-48 hours. Contact us today!
