Beauty industry entrepreneurs recognize the value of keeping their calendars full, whether they own a beauty salon, a med spa, or a barbershop. Traditional emails and phone calls have a place in your day-to-day operations, but they are falling behind online booking platforms and text-based communication in the race to increase your client turnout and engagement.
Learn more about the advantages that appointment scheduling services can give for a variety of independent or small enterprises, such as:
- Beauty salons
- Laser clinics
- Beauty clinics
- Medical practices
- Wellness centers
- Health centers
- Med spas
- Hair and nail salons
- Barbershops
- Tanning salons
Appointment Scheduling Software helps Reduce No-Shows
If you own a small business, an empty tanning bed or salon chair is a depressing reminder of missed appointments or no-shows.
For routine appointment reminders, consider using automatic messaging reminders through your appointment software. Limiting appointments to phones or e-mails means you have a higher risk of no-shows if you aren’t able to reach the customer through the aforementioned channels.
With appointment scheduling software, you can pre-populate reminders, confirmations, and other automated messages. Save time by creating specific messaging templates and creating segmented client lists to save time responding to individual clients. Automatic appointment reminders are usually used by small businesses because they are more effective and make phone calls unnecessary.
While texting cannot guarantee that a client will show up for their hair cut, a scheduled reminder a day before will boost the likelihood of appearance. And if they cancel, you’ll know right away thanks to automatic schedule updates on your end, giving you the opportunity to follow up with the next client, allowing you to fill that spa or barbershop seat.
Each year, text messaging and appointment scheduling for small businesses becomes more efficient and less expensive. Most of the time, you can cover the cost of the software by eliminating a single no-show.
Why Appointible?
Use Text-Based Marketing Campaigns to Boost Engagement
The perfect time to offer a spa or salon discount, freebie, or new promotion would be on your client’s birthday or during a holiday season. If you want to increase client interaction on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or any other holiday, send a promotional message instead of an email.
Thanks to subscriber management, smart sending, and automated marketing, you know your clients will learn of your promotions exactly when you want them to. Text messages are also ideal for creating a sense of urgency during a same-day sale for beauty products or spa packages.
For extended promotions or campaigns, you can use text as a small teaser and send people to your website for more information. It’s almost instantaneous and straightforward on your end—and with analytics in place, you’ll be able to see how they got there.
Event and Party Planning via Business Messaging
Special events are one of the most effective ways to generate buzz or brand awareness for your salon or spa. Text marketing can sometimes produce a perfect storm of sales, new clients, and overall brand impression when combined with other connected small businesses.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are still excellent ways to promote your party or special event, but regular email open rates are declining. Because clients receive too many emails, one promotion can be buried in a sea of other discounted deals and sales. Text message marketing complements your other small business marketing efforts to take your event and party preparation to the next level.
On the day of the event, you could offer additional discounts or prizes to people who send a special code to your dedicated number, allowing you to quickly and easily convert curious observers into new clients and collect more numbers for your marketing list. You can also include a special code in a gift basket or with every purchase to sign up for your marketing list.
Remember that, in addition to sending bulk text messages to promote your unique event, appointment scheduling software enables two-way communication, allowing you to respond to anyone who signs up for your small business giveaway, whether through an automatic text or anything you type from your platform’s dashboard. Consumers will be overjoyed when they receive a personalized text notice from your tanning salon, spa, or barbershop.
Show You Care with Follow-Up Messages and Feedback Surveys
When a customer leaves your salon or barbershop, send them a positive message to reinforce their experience. Developing a lasting relationship with your customers starts with a simple gesture, such as a thank-you text.
You can also send a poll through text for private feedback or, even better, a link to leave a Google review while you’re at it. These online reviews are becoming increasingly vital for the success of small businesses. Not only do reviews appear as prominently as the search result itself, but the vast majority of customers rely on them as the primary motivator of their purchasing or inquiry activity.
Whether the results of the survey are made public or confidential, small businesses could also offer incentives for completing them. For instance, you could offer your customers a small discount in exchange of filling out your survey or leaving a review. Customer feedback is a great source of data for improving your business and maintaining your small business’s competitiveness.
Appointment Scheduling Software Can Revolutionize Your Beauty Business
The use of appointment scheduling software can help businesses reduce no-show appointments, increase client engagement, and create marketing campaigns that are more effective.
There’s a reason why most appointment-based businesses are moving to this technology. If you are interested in upgrading your scheduling capabilities, contact us today to try out our services for free.