Benefits of a Booking System for Your Hair or Nail Salon

Traditionally, salon owners have recorded and scheduled client appointments on paper. However, the paper model can negatively impact the growth of your salon business, making it difficult to manage client schedules and information.

This article will outline some of the benefits of utilizing a booking and membership management system—also known as a salon booking system—rather than manual paper or logbooks for your hair or nail salon. But first, let’s define a salon booking system and learn how it can benefit your business.

The salon booking system is the modern alternative to paper bookings or company logbooks, giving salon owners all the tools they need to schedule new appointments, book returning clients, and manage sales.

What is a Salon Booking System?

A salon booking system is software for managing your day-to-day operations and appointment scheduling. Customers can use your booking page to self-book your salon services at available times without any phone calls or troublesome back and forth.

Business owners have reported booking increases of up to 300% simple by enabling online booking, as well as lots of saved time by streamlining their operations and removing pen and paper from their booking process.

1. Flexible online booking system. Customers can select their preferred stylist using the system at the times they are available.
2. Staff availability. Utilize staff schedules to easily manage and create staff availability. From their own accounts, your staff members can easily modify and amend their schedules. For customers to book, the availability dates will automatically show up in the system.
3. Syncs easily to your preferred calendar. A scheduling system allows you to sync appointments and bookings to your preferred calendar. Additionally, customers can also link their calendars for upcoming appointments.
4. Email, SMS, and WhatsApp notifications. Your stylist and clients will get updates and reminders about their appointments and membership status via email, SMS, or WhatsApp messages. For a more personalized approach, scheduling software allows you to customize your notifications.
5. Integrate with different payment processors. Integrate a payment processor to provide your clients with the choice to pay for your services online. In this manner, you can secure bookings faster, avoiding late fees and cancellation penalties.
6. Promotions and membership discounts. Give customers promotions such as salon packages and membership subscriptions to purchase services at a discounted price to retain them.
7. Custom, branded app. The top-tier salon booking systems include a branded, customized app to make it easier for customers to make bookings on their mobile phones. As a result, clients don’t have to look at your website or social media profiles to inquire about and book services.
8. Stylist rewards. Reward your team for their efforts by paying commissions on the packages and subscriptions sold.
9. Digital point-of-sale system. You can offer memberships and take upfront payments online with a digital point-of-sale rather than having POS hardware installed in each of your salon locations. For each membership sold, a POS can also keep track of commissions.
10. Real-time reports. Your customer, membership, sales, commissions, and employee payroll reports can all be centralized in one location. Real-time reports and insights are just one of the many things that a paper-based or traditional system cannot do.

Now that we better understand the key features of salon booking systems, let’s explore the benefits these systems offer to hair and nail salon owners.

What benefits can a scheduling system provide my salon business?

A scheduling and booking system’s automated reminders and notifications reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations, which is one of the frequent tangible advantages of adopting this type of business software. However, running a salon business requires more than just clever automation; it also requires having software that aids in managing all aspects of your business.

The following are some major benefits of using a salon booking system for your business:

Track and manage appointments

Customers can manage and track their appointments by logging into their accounts (customer dashboards), registered email addresses, or synced calendars. They can easily cancel or reschedule appointments ahead of time without you getting involved.

A great scheduling system should be able to instantly create a new slot for new bookings and walk-in customers when a customer cancels, at the same time notifying you or your stylist of the cancellation.

Membership access for clients

Since customers can check the status of their packages online, repetitive and time-consuming calls from customers inquiring about their subscription or package balance will be significantly reduced. The customer dashboard is where customers may access and view their current balance. Additionally, they will be informed when a package or subscription is ready to expire.

Enhances planning and relationships with customers

A real-time report on the effectiveness of your salon’s services can help with planning and keeping up with the competition in the market. Reports can also aid in customer relationship management and customer retention.

Your salon managers can quickly determine the best and least effective services, customer statistics for business growth, and employee performance with the use of centralized reporting.

Increased client satisfaction

Customers will manage 85% of their relationships with the business without engaging with a human by 2020, as predicted by Gartner Summit, proving that they already know what they want. As a result, a self-service booking system can enhance the client experience while a user-friendly system lessens customer frustration.

In essence, a salon booking system saves you time and effort so you can focus more on growing your business.

How to Find the Best Salon Booking System

Booking software has significantly changed how hair and nail salons and spa centers operate. Salon booking systems reduce human error, help increase profits, improve customer satisfaction, and eliminate duplications. Among hundreds of solutions, carefully assess which of the many scheduling solutions and membership management providers on the market best meets your demands.

Always On Time (AOT.plus) is a booking and membership management SaaS that serves SMEs, freelancers, and professional services. AOT can help solve all your scheduling problems and improve business growth by up to 50%. Try AOT.plus for a test drive (at no cost) for FREE or contact our representative for a DEMO CONSULTATION.