Many new beauty salons appear in the world every year. The volume of the global hairdressing market has already exceeded 150 billion.
Statistics have shown the approximate size of the global haircare market from 2012 to 2025. It is estimated that the global hair care market’s worth has increased to 87.9 billion U.S. dollars since 2018.
After checking the above graph, it is obvious that the dynamics are quite justified!!
The presence of consistently high demand and the continuous development of the salon industry allow the business to remain in demand for many years.
One of the main reasons for the growing number of new beauty studios is the relatively low investment (compared to other types of businesses). In addition, among those who come across this business for the first time,.
But there is a misconception that a beauty salon is an ideal solution for those who seek to open a business that does not require special knowledge.
As the salon owner, you might have many questions in mind, like, how to win this competitive race and firmly gain a foothold in the customer’s head? This is what we are here to reveal today!!
Attracting new customers and retaining regular ones
Among aspiring entrepreneurs in the beauty business, there is an opinion that the first thing to do is to attract new customers. Indeed, it is very important to provide the business with a stable flow of new customers. But the experienced salon owners strive not only to attract new ones but also actively work on strategies to retain existing customers. Always remember: It is the customer retention rate that determines the success and popularity of the salon.
When long-term relationships are built with existing customers, they become brand advocates through word-of-mouth marketing. With this approach, salon owners get several advantages at once:
- A base of regular customers appears who regularly contact the salon, ensuring the profitability of the business.
- The word-of-mouth effect is triggered when a brand advocate recommends a service to friends and acquaintances, which reduces advertising costs.
A secret tool for building loyalty: Salon Software
Salon software, or Customer Relationship Management (CRM), for a beauty salon is an opportunity to automate customer interaction processes and improve service levels. It remains only to choose which system to give preference to; this issue is exactly what we are dealing with in this article. The job of the salon management software is to:
Simplify the work of the administrator and, at the same time, increase the level of salon service. The service is being improved due to clear, streamlined actions—a call exactly on the day when the client has grown nails. And, SMS, when the promotion started in the salon.
The Salon owner can monitor everything: the effectiveness of calls, the number of services provided, reports and analytics, inventory, etc.
For the sucessful salon owner, CRM is a chance to know what is happening in the salon, even when outside.
Additionally, it is essential to look at the basic features that should be present in a CRM system and that will help you when choosing a program for a beauty salon:
- Online booking
- Customer Management
- Point of Sale
- Inventory Management
- Staff Management
- Multi-location Management
- Reports and Analytics
- Marketing Automation
- Loyalty Programs
- Prepaid credit, etc.
Tips on choosing the best Salon Management Software
#1. Find The Goals First
First things first, you have to work on finding your business goals; know why your salon needs salon software. Indeed, every business has different operational needs, and accordingly, the working of the software varies. Considering that, you need to be clear about the “must-have” features you need to have in your salon software.
You can make a checklist that will assist you in getting the software that does everything you want it to do. Many salon owners might be in need of user-friendly, cost-effective, and simple point-of-sale software that assures potential customers to book appointments online.
Also, there are other Salon owners who need comprehensive software that can manage inventory, payroll, reporting, automated marketing, scheduling, reporting, etc. Also, there is a need for software that includes a mobile application and permits you to schedule bookings anytime and from anywhere.
So, it does not matter what your needs are; if you are certain of what your salon business needs are, then you can assuredly get the best Salon scheduling software.
#2. Compare Plans & Prices
Definitely, when it comes to getting the best software provider, price is the most essential factor you should consider. When you monitor the different firms selling spa and salon software, be cautious of the different provider’s structure, prices, plans, etc.
When you start researching, you will find that most of the companies change their plans (monthly or yearly) and the upfront fees. The companies providing the monthly plans generally provide different plans to choose from, with every tier having different features.
You might check that there are basic plans with add-on features accessible at a higher price or exclusive plans that offer the possible features and the plans that fit in between.
#3. Assure Support is Available
Also, while choosing the salon software, you must assure that it has 24×7 customer care support. Also, you can guarantee that the system works perfectly every day, and you have the choice of getting assistance if anything is not working the right way. Of course, you do not want to miss the sales or upset the potential customers as your scheduling software has double-booked the salon’s staff or has a shortage of inventory in the salon’s warehouse.
While comparing the potential software provider, know exactly what support is offered by the software and check if there is an extra charge for the service. Find a company that offers comprehensive customer support whenever you need it. This support must be available with different communication channels, like live chat, email, phone, etc.
#4. Salon Software should be based on a cloud server
Can you work all day to observe the work of your salon staff? Can you carry the laptop every time to have the booking software installed on it? Of course, not!!
In this competitive business environment, salon business owners move from one place to another on a regular basis to handle different salon responsibilities. Therefore, they must select the salon software according to the cloud servers. It permits them to access business information from anywhere. The cloud storage assures that your data is secure and there will be no unauthorized access.
#5. Interactive Features
Several online scheduling softwares have several functionalities and features according to the requirements of particular industries. Even though there are some essential features that the best salon software includes, like:
- Online Booking
This feature permits salon owners to schedule online appointments with customers at any time and offer them the requested service.
- Point of Sale (POS)
With this feature, you can easily and quickly make transactions and also keep a digital record of them. It supports many reliable payment gateways and currencies to allow salons to work in different geographical locations.
- Inventory Management
It enables salon owners to handle stock inventory seamlessly and provide correct results in a shorter time span.
- Reporting & Analytics
The scheduling software allows you to create accurate reports on different measures. With this feature, you can have all-inclusive details on different business activities.
- Automated email and SMS Notifications
This feature allows business organizations to notify customers of important future happenings and events.
#6. Third-Party Software Integration
Nowadays, there is less software that alone can fulfill the needs of modern salons. The medium and large salons generally work at least a dozen multi-user systems, and their rates go from hundreds to thousands.
So, this is the reason that the salon software must be integrated with other software as well. It assists in import/export seamlessly, improves the effectiveness of the Salon, decreases the human factor, etc. The appropriate integration of the third-party software permits you to hold automated control on the major business activities.
#7. Mobile Version
With the advancement in technology and telecommunication, many have started using tablets or smartphones to access most of the functions. It is of much importance if taken into consideration from a business perspective. The best part of these types of applications is that it allows you to stay connected to all and carry out every Salon activity despite place and time. Therefore, choosing the best Salon Software that has the mobile version is assuredly going to give the increased customer volume and more sales. The main characteristics of these applications are:
- Improve Sales
The mobile application enables your business available to customers 24X7 and makes more sales.
- Loyalty programs promotion
With loyalty programs, the Salon owners can assure repeat customers. Of course, the customer cannot move to another Salon if there is a 10 to 15% discount on the products or services. Who wants to have unprofitable offers when there is the best deal easily accessible?
- For attracting new customers
You can attract new customers by fulfilling the needs of the existing customers. It improves the communication level among business and customer organizations.
- Sending automated messages to customers
It is a useful and necessary service that permits you to advertise the information to the target audience by means of short pop-up ads. This feature assists you to improve Salon sales by leaps and bounds.
Concluding Remarks
Every business needs to have an automated tool that can handle their business operations. When it is about Salon, then it becomes evident to have management software. The above mentioned functionalities are in our Salonist software.
As there is much software in the market, it becomes tough to get the one that can fulfill the Salon’s different needs and assures complete customer satisfaction.
So, it is better to be specific about your Salon needs and the type of Best Salon Software as per your Salon requirement. Keep in mind the mentioned points and get the best one!!
Hopefully, you find the suggested information useful. If there will be any query then comment below. Suggestions are always welcome!!
Thanks for reading!!